Right now, 100 years ago.

[steve_earwig]

For want of anything smart to take about, this is my desktop wallpaper just now-

This is Endurance, one of the ships of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton.

The idea of the expedition was for one ship, Endurance, to land a party at the Vahsel Bay who would cross the Antarctic via the South Pole, while another ship, Aurora, would land at McMurdo Sound where parties would set out to lay supply depots on the Ross Sea Shelf to supply the transcontinental party.

The best laid plans and all that, Endurance became trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea in February 1915 and drifted with it until 27th October 1915 when, after the ship was badly mangled by the ice, Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship.

That's what, 5 days from now?

Look it up, it's stirring stuff. Tales of deprivation, acts of heroism, starving on the ice, eating the huskies, culminating in the voyage of the James Caird from Elephant Island to South Georgia (which still remains one of the greatest open boat journeys evarrr), crossing the glaciers and mountains of South Georgia with a blank map and finally rescuing the remainder of the crew from Elephant Island. Hoorah.

Aurora didn't do too well either...

[highlander]

I live not too far away from Dundee, where, moored at a special museum in her honour, is the Royal Research Ship (RRS) Discovery.

RRS Discovery was the last traditional three-masted sailing ship to be built in Britain, way back in 1900. She was commissioned as part of the British National Antarctic Expedition. She launched for Antarctica in August 1901 and got there in January 1902. She spent a month charting the coast, followed by the next two years locked in the ice at McMurdo Sound.

During their two years in the Antarctic, the crew were able to determine that Antarctica was indeed a continent, not just floating ice, and were also able to locate the magnetic south pole. They eventually freed the ship by means of explosives, and arrived back in the UK in September 1904.

The two biggest names associated with RRS Discovery are expedition leader Robert Falcon Scott, who later went on to die during the Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole (yes, he was the man known as "Scott of the Antarctic") and third officer Ernest Shackleton, who later went on to lead the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition that Steve mentioned.

So significant was the voyage in terms of its scientific value, that NASA's space shuttle Discovery was named after the RRS Discovery. The Avro Shackleton WW2 aircraft was named after Ernest Shackleton.

If you're ever in Scotland, the Discovery Point museum in Dundee is well worth a visit. The ship has been restored to 1920s configuration, and you can go aboard and look around, and the exhibitions in the museum really help you get an inkling of what life at sea may have been like. Items on display include original pieces of equipment used by the crew of the expedition, as well as the personal affects of the crew.

[steve_earwig]

Well, today's the day
https://youtu.be/oyQRHHHXntc?t=31m44s

I can't find just the sequence on youtube but that'll do (one of the better documentaries on it too, narrated by Liam Neeson IIRC.

It's amazing that there are pictures and movies from then, thanks to the photographer Frank Hurley who dissuaded Shackleton from destroying the lot (glass plates are heavy!) because otherwise, as he said, all there would be left is words.

[steve_earwig]

[steve_earwig]