"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.

Well, PM77, you beat me to it! Nice job as well - love the placemarks.

I was inspired by NormB's post on the Scott/Amundsen expeditions to do the same for Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition, and have been working on it for the last week or so.

I've done a fair bit of coding in the placemarks, (most of which duplicate yours, and probably for the same reason - the book gives a good lat/long at these locations ) so that when you click on a placemark it gives an appropriate blockquote from "South", an image or two in the balloon, and a link to the same eBook to which you refer.

Your overlay of Elephant Island is better than mine - I saw that same satellite image, but rejected it in favour of a rather scruffy map. However, I think my overlay of S Georgia may be better in some respects, since it also shows the difficult overland route from Peggotty Camp to Stromeness, Shackleton's last great obstacle. It isn't so nicely "tailored" as yours, though.

Another respect in which your post scores is in the nice red line joining the placemarks. I've been researching that aspect. Did you use EarthPaint or something similar?

Rather than see my work going to waste, I'd be happy to email you the coding that I've used in the placemarks, if you'd like to have it. All the images I've used are remote images, so it would be a simple cut-and-paste into each placemark. I think it would help make an excellent post into an outstanding "multimedia" one, if that doesn't sound too conceited

Again, thanks for a great post, and certainly worth five stars. Best I go and find a new project! But first, a couple of consolation beers...

Best Regards

Frank

It's an absolutely excellent post! I've been collecting the best and brightest examples on the BBS, and making sure that they get loaded into my kids' PC's on their copies of GE.

Frank, here's your consolation prize. I'm having a very cold one right this very minute, and am dedicating it to your misery. (Yes, I'm a heathen and am not drinking it warm)

Hallo Frank,

first of all i'm sorry for this situation. Thanks for your offer to improve this post with your code, i accept it, you will receive my email in a private message.
About the red line, i simply used Plus version of Google Earth. It worth its price, you can see a Google Earth comparison chart here.

With Plus version you can draw and edit lines and polygons. Extruding polygons you can create 3D buildings. I tried this feature in this post about a wonderful town that i visited some year ago:

Shibam, Wadi Hadramaut, Yemen, overlay and 3D

Again thanks, and arrivederci.

Refer to this Post.... http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?...true#Post144689

Just on our local TV.....

Sir Edmond Hillary is in the UK now trying to raise funds and Government support to repair the huts of Robert Falcon Scott & Ernest Shackleton in Antactica. Sir Ed was in Antarctica in November last year and was dismayed at the state of both huts.. So hopfully he can gain enough support to restore them to a respectable condition.

Hi, Piero.

Thank you for your gracious acceptance of my offer. Sir Ernest is one of my personal heroes and it would mean a lot to me to be a part of your wonderful post.

Your post has quite a few more placemarks than mine did, so, with your permission, I have coded up these additional placemarks as well. I think that it's a good thing, because it gives us a chance to show some more of the superb pioneering photography of Frank Hurley.

I'll be in touch tomorrow.

Best regards

Frank

An updated version of this post is now available.

All placemarks on Shackleton route embed text from 'South', and most of them also one or two images taken by Frank Hurley, the expedition photographer. New placemarks were added, mostly from Elephant Island to the end of the adventure in Stromness. South Georgia overlay was changed, links to Quick time 360� panoramas, Thomas Orde-Lees diary, and other resources added....

Piero, what an outstanding post this really is. At every step of the journey, you give us the situation, the images, the references and, most importantly, the feeling of what these brave men endured for so long.

It has been a real pleasure for me to work with you, even in a small way, on this post. Sir Ernest Shackleton is my Hero - I was lucky enough to travel to South Georgia during my tour in the Falkland Islands - and I think your post has paid a great deal of respect to a man whose achievements are largely forgotten.

Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole, said of Shackleton: "Sir Ernest Shackleton's name will for evermore be engraved with letters of fire in the history of Antarctic exploration." And it is for sure that Shackleton showed him the way to the Pole.

However, the later voyage of the Endurance, told in your post, tells an even greater tale of the courage and spirit of Man in adversity. It is easy to be a winner when everything goes your way; but to be a winner when everything has conspired against you, must surely be an inspiration to all of us.

Thank you, most sincerely.

Frank

KMZ Version 1.1 - Updated 27 october 2005


NEW!

- Worsley'log placemarks for open boat journey (black "W" over British flag) and path (yellow)
- Cape Wild overlay (Elephant Island)
- Placemarks: Cape Demidov (South Georgia), Cape Belsham, Point Lookout, Endurance Glacier (Elephant Island), Cornwallis Island (east of Elephant)
- Links: Alfred Lansing "ENDURANCE, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" (ebook), Scott Polar Research Institute - Virtual Shackleton

UPDATED

- Shackleton approach path to South Georgia (red) with new placemark (9 may)
- Elephant Island overlay placement and placemarks position
- South Shethand and Cape Valentine overlay placement

Piero,

Thanks for the additions. This is probably one of the most comprehensive and informative posts I have seen in GE. I look forward to the tale of the Rescue.

Best Regards

Frank