Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

For reasons of both proximity and economics, much of the earliest European polar exploration looked to the north rather than the south. As countries like Britain and the Netherlands started expanding their colonial reach in the 16th and 17th centuries, interest in finding a “Northwest” or “Northeast” passage—i.e., a maritime route to the riches of Asia that did not require making the long trip around Africa or South America—surged, resulting in many voyages to the Arctic. 

Such voyages would continue for the next few centuries, even as a variety of factors began to drive other expeditions farther and farther south; these ranged from the profits to be made in seal hunting, to national pride, to scientific interest in magnetism and a long-theorized “missing” continent in the Southern Hemisphere. British naval captain James Cook affirmed the possibility of such a continent during his second voyage (1772-1775), and the landmass itself was likely first spotted by Europeans in 1820—though whether by an American, British, or Russian expedition remains a point of contention, as all three had ships in the region. Over the coming decades, expeditions led by explorers including the British James Clark Ross (1800-1862) and the French Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d’Urville (1790-1842) would begin charting the contours of the continent.

Technological advances in the latter half of the 19th century made polar voyages somewhat more practicable; for example, steam power and metal hulls allowed for the creation of modern-style icebreakers, pioneered by Russia in 1870 (“Early Icebreakers: 20th Century.” Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project). Such technologies paved the way for the so-called “heroic age” of Antarctic exploration, roughly spanning 1900-1920. This era coincided with the intense nationalism of World War I, which spurred many expeditions as countries strove to prove themselves on the international stage.

Shackleton was a key player in this competition even before his 1914 expedition. He was, for example, part of Sir Robert Falcon Scott's 1901-1904 expedition, which traveled closer to the South Pole than any other had yet managed, and in a 1907-1909 expedition, Shackleton experimented with using motor-powered vehicles to cross Antarctic terrain.

Even experience and technology did not neutralize the risks of polar exploration, however. In 1912, Scott and his entire team died on their way back from the South Pole—a “race” they had narrowly lost to the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Though Shackleton and all his crew would survive their own expedition two years later, Shackleton would ultimately die on yet another journey to Antarctica, this one in 1922. Though his proximate cause of death was a heart attack, he was only 47 years old at the time, making it likely that the strain of previous expeditions, including the nutritional deficiencies he likely experienced, played a role in his declining health (Gershon, Livia. “What Mysterious Illness Plagued Polar Explorer Ernest Shackleton?” Smithsonian Magazine, 19 May 2021).