Brave the ice and snow to hear about
the intrepid Shackleton expedition to Antartica
By Charles Cassady
happenings
Published Jan 19, 2005

HELP WANTED "Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small Wages, Bitter Cold. Long Months of Complete Darkness. Constant Danger. Safe Return Doubtful. Honour and Recognition in Case of Success."

Would you have answered that famous classified ad? Even in this economy? No, it's not from the back pages of West Life, but from the personals of London newspapers in 1914, when British adventurer Ernest Shackleton was putting together what would turn out to be one of the most illustrious expeditions of the age.

On Friday evening, John Gardner of Painesville will bring his presentation "In the Footsteps of Shackleton -- A Voyage to Antarctica" to the Rocky River Nature Center in North Olmsted. Why should Ohioans trek through a bitter January night to hear about human sufferings at even lower temperatures?

"It sort of fits with the Antarctic theme," said Gardner. "Getting out in the cold night would certainly give you an appreciation for what the Shackleton expedition endured."

Ernest Shackleton

In fact, "Endurance" was the name of Shackleton's ship, and it became an apt slogan for the voyage. "They were suppposed to be the first ones to completely cross the Antarctic continent." The original plan was for Shackleton to sail the Endurance to the south Atlantic coast of Antarctica, then traverse the South Pole to the Pacific side, where supply depots had already been left for him.

But Shackleton never reached them, because even though he timed his visit for the Antarctic summer, January 1915, the Endurance unexpectedly became lodged hopelessly in ice. Instead of a quick return home, the 27-man crew, sled dogs and a pet cat named Chippy dug in for more than a year amidst the ice floes, killer whales and subzero winds. The mission became sheer survival instead -- and just a few years after an Antarctic expedition by Shackleton's associate Robert Falcon Scott ended with the participants freezing to death in a blizzard.

That Shackleton was able to bring all his men home alive (not necessarily the dogs or Chippy the cat) thanks to sheer fortitude and some good luck made his expedition the topic of numerous books (Gardner will have a display of them at his presentation). It helped that the expedition had the luxury of a hardworking photographer and movie cameraman Frank Hurley, along on the trip as well; striking still images and motion-picture footage formed the basis for three major Shackleton documentaries -- the first in 1919; the most recent in IMAX/OMNIMAX film format, which is still showing at the Great Lakes Science Center.

Gardner will illustrate his talk with slide photos -- not Frank Hurley's, but his own. For this retired director of the Painesville Public Library visited Antarctica himself in 1999, following Shackleton's routes on Elephant Island and South Georgia and seeing the supply-huts of Shackleton and Scott still standing. Gardner said he has made a hobby of traveling to the remote and legendary places he could formerly only tour in books, such as Antarctica, Easter Island and the Falklands.

He described coming across Shackleton's rescue ship on display, still preserved, at the explorer's school at Dulwich College in England. "After 30 years of enthusiasm for Shackleton...I just got goosebumps."

Said Gardner, "This might have been the last time an expedition was cut off and without communication. That's what strikes me about the age of polar exploration -- that these men would go off and not be heard from for years." Radio transmissions would not become routine until after World War I, and the American naval flier Admiral Robert Byrd would not make his famous airborne scoutings of Antarctica until the 1930s.

In short order, technology would make the world much smaller. Gardner compared the Shackleton expedition of 1915 to his final voyage of 1922, when the explorer succumbed to a heart attack at 48 on South Georgia Island. "They wired back to England about his death, and his wife wired back instructions that he be buried there."

Gardner has been to Shackleton's final resting place down near the bottom of the world. "It's a tradition that one always have a drink of brandy or whiskey and pour the rest out on the grave -- because he liked his brandy or whiskey."