Ernest Shackleton Trivia

1. 1 August 1914. The expedition ship leaves London bound for the Southern Ocean via Argentina. Shackleton will join the team in Buenos Aires. What is the name of the ship?

From Quiz Shackleton - Against Impossible Odds

Answer: Endurance

'Endurance' was a wooden Norwegian barquentine, 144 feet (43.9 metres) long and weighing 300 tons. She was purpose built for polar work. On 4 August 1914, while the ship was still in British waters, the United Kingdom was placed on a war footing. Shackleton and his crew offered their services to the Government but were authorised by the Admiralty to proceed with their mission. In addition to Shackleton, photographer Frank Hurley joined the expedition in Buenos Aires. An unexpected addition was a stowaway, Perce Blackborow, a Welsh teenager smuggled aboard by a crew member.

From Quiz Shackleton's "Endurance" Expedition

Answer: He wanted to be the first to cross Antarctica overland.

When Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911, Shackleton felt there was only one great goal left for the British to accomplish: to be the first party to cross Antarctica from sea to sea via the South Pole. After years of hard work to get his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition funded, it seemed that Shackleton might not ever leave British waters. The "Endurance" set sail from London, August 1, 1914, and the British government declared war on Germany on August 4. Shackleton, after discussing it with his men, offered the ship, all of their supplies, and themselves, to the war effort, and he received a telegram from the Admiralty: "Proceed." A later, less terse, telegram was sent to Shackleton from Winston Churchill telling him that the government wanted the expedition to continue as planned, and "Endurance" left from Plymouth on August 8, 1914. "Endurance" reached Buenos Aires, South America on October 9, 1914 and sailed from Buenos Aires on her last call, before starting to Antarctica, South Georgia Island. They arrived at South Georgia on November 5, 1914, and set sail towards the Weddell Sea on December 5, 1914.

From Quiz Sir Ernest Shackleton

Answer: County Kildare, Ireland on February 15, 1874

Ernest Henry Shackleton was born on February 15, 1874 in County Kildare, Ireland to a Quaker farmer and landowner, Henry Shackleton and his wife, Henrietta Savan Shackleton.

From Quiz Shackleton's "Endurance" Expedition

Answer: 14,000

Lars Christensen had ordered the ship built to be used for taking polar bear hunting parties to the Arctic. Such excursions had become very popular with the wealthy. His partner, Antarctic Belgian explorer Baron de Gerlache had suggested many helpful ideas in the ship's construction. When the plan ran into financial difficulties, Shackleton purchased the ship "Polaris" from Christensen for £14,000 ($67,000). Shackleton then re-christened the ship "Endurance" from his family motto: Fortitudine vicimus, or "By endurance we conquer". At the time the ship was built by the Framnaes shipyard (a firm famous for its ships used in Arctic and Antarctic waters) it was considered one of strongest wooden ships built in Norway. It was designed for sailing in pack ice, and not to withstand great pressure. The walls were not much thicker than that of other wooden ships.

From Quiz Sir Ernest Shackleton

Answer: He was a farmer turned medical doctor.

Henry Shackleton was a landowner and farmer, but with Ireland's diastrous potato crops, he knew that supporting his large family by farming would not be possible. When Ernest was six years old, Henry Shackleton moved the family to Dublin, Ireland and began his medical studies at Trinity College. He was thirty-three years old at the time. After finishing his medical training, Henry Shackleton moved the family from Dublin to London, England where he began his career as a doctor.

From Quiz Shackleton's "Endurance" Expedition

Answer: He was a stowaway.

Blakewell, a seaman who had joined the crew in Buenos Aires, snuck his friend, nineteen year old Perce Blackborrow, aboard "Endurance". With the help of a couple members of the crew, Blackborrow was kept hidden until it was deemed that they were too far out at sea to turn back. Sir Ernest Shackleton subjected Blackborrow to a furious tirade, finally sticking his face into Blackborrow's and ending with "Finally, if we run out of food and anyone has to be eaten, you will be first. Do you understand?"

From Quiz Sir Ernest Shackleton

Answer: She was a friend of his sister.

It was while Shackleton was on shore leave in the summer of 1897 that he first met Emily Dorman, the woman who later became his wife. Emily, five years his senior, was a friend of Shackleton's sister. The couple began a long courtship and were married at Christ Church in Westminster on April 9, 1904. By this time, Shackleton had already left the sea and been to Antarctica as part of an expedition led by Robert Scott. The couple's first child was born on February 2, 1905.

From Quiz Shackleton - Against Impossible Odds

Answer: None

This was the real achievement of Shackleton and his team. They had endured more than a year on the ice in appalling conditions and survived the hazardous voyages by open boat to Elephant Island and South Georgia without losing a single human life.

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