Ernest Shackleton
Pictures of the Endurance Expedition

Page 1 - The journey to Antarctica and into the the Weddell Sea, the besetting of the Endurance, Winter 1915, the crushing and loss of the ship. pictures page 2

A young Australian photographer Frank Hurley accompanied Shackleton on the Trans-Antarctic Expedition to record events in motion and still pictures. Little was it realised when setting off exactly what an epic tale would be recorded and that amongst the film would be some of the Endurance itself being crushed and sunk by sea-ice. Shackleton had a deal with a London newspaper to sell his story and pictures on his return to England, a legacy of the difficulty in providing funding for the expedition. Hurley for his part planned to sell the photographs and film on his return, so there were pressing financial reasons to return with a good record as well capturing images of history in the making.

As a result almost every stage of the journey is recorded. Some of the photographs are presented here.

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Sir Ernest Shackleton Portrait

l to r - Jock Wordie, geologist - Alfred Cheetham, 3rd Officer - Alexander Macklin, doctor

The ice was in convulsion ahead of the ship, and a splitting crash suddenly caused all hands to rush up on deck to find that a crack had opened from the lead ahead and passed along the starboard side to another crack that had opened aft. October 14th 1915

Endurance in ice passing by a large ice berg

Cheetham preparing signal flags

John Vincent AB reparing a net

Tom Crean with puppy quadruplets born to sled dog Sally during the passage south.

The Endurance in young sea-ice. The Endurance easily cuts through the recently frozen, thin sea ice on its journey south through the Weddell Sea.

Trapped in the Weddell Sea, desperate efforts were made to free the ship, these were of no avail, because the ice froze together as quickly as it could be cut away 14th February 1915

Endurance in the ice attemtping to make progress

Trapped in the ice, rime forming on the rigging

Frank Hurley in the rigging with an early cine camera

December 1914

Leonard Hussey and dog sled team

January 1915, pressure has pushed ice up and over on its self builing an icy boulder field

The surface of a newly frozen lead was covered with delicate crystal rosette formations resembling nothing so much as a field of white carnations. Endurance in the background, 16th February 1915

As time wore on it became more and more evident that the ship was doomed. Endurance among ice pinnacles, February 1915

The Endurance behind rounded ice mounds in the Weddell Sea.

Frank Hurley with camera on ice in front of the bow of the trapped Endurance in the Weddell Sea, 1915.

Endurance at night lit by multiple flashes

"Mid winter glow, Weddell Sea, 1915

Noon on midwinters day 1915

The crew of the Endurance at dinner

Rime forming on the rigging of the Endurance during the winter

Bringing the dogs off the ship to their kennels on the sea ice

The deck of the Endurance after a snow-fall

The long, long night, the Endurance in the Antarctic winter darkness, trapped in the Weddell Sea, 27th August 1915.

When the Endurance became solidly embedded, the dogs were transferred from the decks to the floe and housed in snow kennels called dogloos which the dog-men built with competitive pride

A string of snow and ice cairns connected with rope, to allow the men to find the ship if on the ice in a white-out

Feeding the dogs in their "dogloo" kennels on the ice

Scientific equipment at the stern of the Endurance

Weighing the dogs by the bows of the ship to establish their condition

The crew of the Endurance following some severe haircuts

The Nightwatchman - Returning to the ship in the winter dark with skis

Samson, the largest of the dogs at his kennel / dogloo

The night watch man and some friends keeping warm around the stove

The Endurance leaning to port, 19th October 1915, the ship righted herself again after this.

24th October 1915, The Endurance having sustained damage from the ice that tore out the rudder post and stern post

27th October 1915, The doomed ship, the pressure of many millions of tons of ice pushing the pack made a toy of the helpless vessel.

1st November 1915. The Endurance lies crushed, still above the ice, though shortly to sink. 28 men led by Ernest Shackleton are left in the middle of the Weddell Sea with no hope of rescue.

The men of the Endurance try to salvage what they can from the crushed ship

Frank Wild and Sir Ernest Shackleton survey the ruins of the Endurance

The ship was dead, her proud timbers were rent apart and scattered in savage confusion. Crushed and sunk to the level of the sea but not yet gone

The stern of the ship shortly before it sank beneath the ice and the sea

Frank Wild and the Endurance in the Weddell Sea.

Dump Camp, the morning after the disaster to the ship - the Endurance in the background, this was the first camp on the ice erected hurriedly when the ice started to crush the Endurance.

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Pictures page 2

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