Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, Ernest Shackleton, died from a heart attack, on January 5, 1922, with the ship at South Georgia. He was just 47.
Shackleton was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Shackleton published details of his new expedition, grandly titled the “Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition”, early in 1914.
There is a legend that says Shackleton’s newspaper article was written a certain way so that he could better narrow down and select candidates for his expedition.
Two ships would be employed; Endurance would carry the main party into the Weddell Sea, aiming for Vahsel Bay from where a team of six, led by Shackleton, would begin the crossing of the continent.
Meanwhile, a second ship, the Aurora, would take a supporting party under Captain Aeneas Mackintosh to McMurdo Sound on the opposite side of the continent.
This party would then lay supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier as far as the Beardmore Glacier; these depots would hold the food and fuel that would enable Shackleton’s party to complete their journey of 1,800 miles (2,900 km) across the continent.
