History of Antarctic explorers (original) (raw)

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.

We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more. For God’s sake look after our people.

24 April 1916 Six men including Shackleton leave on the James Caird in search of rescue, planning to sail 800 miles to the whaling stations of South Georgia. The rest of the group remain on Elephant Island, using the upturned boats as shelter.

Shackleton and the rescue party finally reach South Georgia 17 days later, but are forced to land on the uninhabited side of the island. The party treks without sleep across the unmapped island, finally reaching the Norwegian whaling station at Stromness on 20 May. It would take until 30 August before Shackleton could reach the rest of his men left on Elephant Island. All 28 men survived.

1914-17 While Shackleton and his men struggled to survive the loss of Endurance, the second half of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition faced their own challenges. The Ross Sea Party had been tasked with laying supply depots along the Antarctic route from the opposite side of the continent, which Shackleton planned to use during the final part of his expedition. However, their ship broke free and the men left behind were not rescued until January 1917. While the depots were never used, the group managed to cover 1,356 miles across the ice laying supplies. Three men died during the expedition.

5 January 1922 Ernest Shackleton dies of a heart attack during an expedition to the Antarctic on board the Quest.

29 November 1929 Expedition leader Richard Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, co-pilot Harold June and radio operator Ashley McKinley become the first people to fly over the South Pole.

20 February 1935 Danish Norwegian explorer Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot on Antarctica.

14 December 1943 Britain launches the secret wartime mission Operation Tabarin, establishing permanent bases in the Antarctic for the first time. The resulting bases were later given over to scientific research, and became the foundation for the British Antarctic Survey in 1962.

2 March 1958 The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Vivian Fuchs becomes the first to successfully cross the continent, travelling 2,158 miles in 99 days. Mount Everest climber Edmund Hillary leads part of the mission, laying supplies for the crossing party as far as the South Pole. In the process he leads just the third group to reach the South Pole, and the first to do so in vehicles.