Google Earth Community: Shackleton's expedition, Endurance, Antarctica

"For scientific leadership, give me Scott, for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton. Incomparable in adversity, he was the miracle worker who would save your life against all the odds and long after your number was up. The greatest leader that ever came on God's earth, bar none."

Sir Raymond Priestley
Member of the Nimrod expedition 1907-1909

"Sir Ernest Shackleton was one of the last great heroes of the Golden Age of Polar Exploration, ranking with contemporaries such as Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott and Fridtjof Nansen and, in many respects, surpassing them.

Following the heroic failure and death of Scott on the Ross Ice Shelf, and the discovery of the South Pole by Amundsen, Shackleton’s star seemed to be eclipsed. The last great adventure left in the South was the crossing of the continent of Antarctica. Shackleton formed the Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914, and his ship, Endurance, left Britain just as the Great War broke out in Europe.

Unusually heavy pack ice prevented them gaining a foothold on Antarctica and they were forced to endure the Southern winter trapped in the pack-ice. At last, after 10 months, the ship was crushed by the relentless pressure of the ice, and Shackleton and his crew were forced to abandon her and to make their escape from the ice on foot, ice-floe and open boat to the nearest attainable land and the possibility of rescue.

Piero’s post tells the story of their entrapment and eventual escape – a tale of courage, determination, sacrifice, and Endurance. I hope it will inspire you to find out more about the life and achievements of this remarkable man."

Frank McVey, Rutland, 16th Oct 2005

Some informations about the post

Due to the large number of objects (61 folders with 486 placemarks, 12 paths, 17 overlays, 43 labels) the initial setting of this post disables some folders to avoid a confused view.

Trans-Antarctica Expedition 1914-1917
Informations about Shackleton, crew, expedition, Antarctica, ebooks, recommended books, dvd's and so on.

Boats (enabled)
Endurance, James Caird, Dudley Docker, Stancomb Wills, Yelcho.
Informations and placemarks on shipyards.

Shackleton planned route (disabled)
Some placemarks and a path based on a 1916 newspaper.

Shackleton route (enabled)
The complete journey based on "South" map and informations. Text and images from Shackleton's book in placemarks.

Worsley's log (disabled)
The open boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia, placemarks on Worsley observed positions.

Rescue journeys (disabled)
Five subfolders, one for every relief attempt. Enable them one at time.

David Roberts images (disabled)
A collections of photographs of South Georgia and Elephant Island.

Expedition named landmarks (disabled)
Three subfolders, placemarks on landmarks named after Shackleton, crew, Endurance and sponsors.

Island Placemarks (disabled)
Four subfolders: South Georgia, South Sandwich, Elephant Island group, South Orkney Islands.

Shackleton map (enabled)
Features from "South" map. Placemarks of previous expeditions, soundings, map annotation text.

Overlays (2 overlays disabled out of 12)
See "Read me first" in "Overlays" folder if you need informations about transparency setting. You may disable all overlays and enable them one at time to better see their position and draw order.
Three subfolders, South Georgia, Elephant Island, Elephant Island Group.

Ross Sea Party (disabled)
Six main subfolders: The Aurora, Laying the depots, Relief expedition, Placemarks, Overlays, Antarctic stations.

Acknowledgments are due to...

Frank McVey for the generous assistance on improving this post with placemarks informations and useful suggestions. It's a pleasure working with him.
Luciano Napolitano for the precious informations about Elephant Island and the nice images taken during his recent trip in 'South' area.
David Roberts for his wonderful images and the support given, a very significant contribution to this post.
NASA for the satellite images posted as overlays of South Georgia and Elephant Island.
The 'Royal Geographical Society' for the permission to post the overlay of the excellent Elephant Island map.
Purr 'n' Fur for their help and to Chris Elliott for the image of his Mrs. Chippy sculpture on Henry McNish's grave.
The U.S. Geological Survey for Antarctica GNIS data and map overlays of Ross Island, Minna Bluff and Mount Hope.
This post is among the Top 10 Google Earth Blog Stories for 2005. Many thanks to Frank Taylor.

I welcome all of your comments, suggestions and report of broken links.

Post Extras