24 Oct 23 - Happy Tenth Birthday

It's ten years ago since I decided to buy a decent digital camera. My mate Pete Moore recommended I bought a Canon 7D & 400 mm lens. Pete also helped me get up to speed on the best settings for this combination. My first trip out was eventful as I was photographing a Kingfisher at Middlebere, when news broke about a Pallid Swift at Christchurch. I ended up getting thrown in at the deep end with trying to photograph a Pallid Swift in flight that afternoon. This was my first Blog Post.

Pallid Swift: This Pallid Swift on my first day out with the camera really pushed my comfort zone (24 Oct 13)

I've written another 885 Blog Posts since that first Blog Post. For this tenth birthday Blog Post, I will pick my favourite Blog Post from each Blog year. This is a particularly hard task as there are so many Blog Posts to choose from.

I'm not sure how I managed to get out Birding in the first year of having the camera, as I managed to create 229 Blog Posts during the first Blog year. I took a year off between contracts to travel to the Andamans & mainland India in Dec 13 to Jan 14, quickly followed by a short nine day trip to Morocco & Western Sahara in Feb 14, a week in Israel in Apr 14 and a three day trip to Croatia in May 14. With so many Blog Posts to chose from it is difficult to work out a favour Blog Post, so I've based it on this photo of four Wild Asses walking across a salt pan at Desert Coursers in Gujarat, India.

Four Wild Asses walking across a salt pan: Desert Coursers in Gujarat, India (17 Jan 14)

I was still taking a break between contracts at the start of the second Blog year, but that was because I was about to head off on the expedition ship, Braveheart, to Pitcairn Island, Henderson Island and remote French Polynesian islands. Pitcairn and Henderson Islands had been high on my list of places that I dreamt of visiting, with Pitcairn Island for its history of the Bounty mutineers and neighbouring Henderson Island for its endemic species. However, I never thought would be possible to visit this remote British dependence, until I saw Wildwings were offering a two week trip on the Braveheart to Pitcairn and Henderson Islands and some nearby French Polynesian islands with a few days on Tahiti. I booked up as soon as I saw that trip advertised. One of the other attractions was the opportunity to land on remote uninhabited islands in French Polynesia which were the home to several more island endemics: the highlight of which was obvious the enigmatic Tuamotu Sandpiper.

Tuamotu Sandpiper: The sweet-toothed Wader, Tenararo, French Polynesia (12 Nov 14)

It is a different subject for my favourite Blog Post of the third Blog year. I had spent a fair bit of this Blog year working on a long contract in Winchester & that limited my travelling. But there was an opportunity for a mini break to Ireland with Dave Gibbs & Paul Chapman that Autumn for a Royal Tern. After getting good views of the Royal Tern, we headed down to The Dingle for the evening where Dave & Paul planned to run a moth trap. There wasn't room in the accommodation for the three of us, so I headed off and found a B&B in the nearby village of Annascaul. By chance this is the village with the famous South Pole Inn which was owned & run by legendary Polar Explorer, Tom Crean. Crean travelled to the Antarctic three times with Scott & Shackleton and he was one of the three men, along with Shackleton & Worsley, to cross the South Georgia mountain range. He is one of the unsung heroes of the Golden Era of Polar Exploration and his story is as inspiration as Shackleton's story in my eyes.

Tom Crean's statue: This great statue sits in a small park to commemorate Tom & it is opposite his pub, the South Pole Inn (28 Aug 16)

The fourth Blog year was a quiet year where I was having to focus on the Winchester contract. There was no opportunity for foreign travel. I will stick to the historical theme of the last Blog Post. I drove past the Fovant Badges in Wiltshire in Apr 17 & this was a good opportunity to see the new Badge that had recently been carved into the down. The lost London Rifle Brigade Badge had been re-carved, one century after the Badges were originally carved. The others were created by the regiments who were training in the area before they were sent to the First World War trenches. Sadly, for many soldiers this area will have been the last part of England that they spent a lot of time in. It's great to see that volunteers are spending the time to not only look after the existing Badges, but to re-carve one of the lost ones.

The Fovant Badges: The lost London Rifle Brigade has been re-carved between the Post Office Rifles and the Devonshire Regiment (11 Apr 17)

Finally, the contract came to an end & I was free to travel again in the fifth Blog year. I planned a three month trip away, started in Colombia on a Birdquest tour with my late good mate Brian Field. I then squeezed in a couple of weeks on my own exploring Chile before flying to Ushuaia and boarding the Oceanwide Expeditions ship, Plancius, for a seven week trip from Ushuaia to Holland via South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, Ascension Island and Cape Verde. It is very hard to pick a standout day in such an amazing and varied three months. Ultimately, it would have to be a Blog Post from the time spent on the Plancius during the Atlantic Odyssey or West African Pelagic. On this trip, I saw about forty percent of the World's Seabirds, twenty-six of the ninety one Cetaceans and four of the seven species of Sea Turtles. I also got to visit another couple of remote British dependencies. I think the highlight Blog Post has to be the one where we saw a group of Flying Squid. I wasn't aware that Flying Squid existed, until we saw them & I'm glad to have got a photo of one group.

Flying Squid sp.: At Sea Tristan da Cunha to St Helena (15 Apr 18)

I spent most of the sixth Blog year working on another long term contract back in Winchester. Again, there was no time for foreign travel, so the Blog year was mainly local Birding and other Wildlife. But I couldn't resist the opportunity to spend a weekend on Shetland twitching the Tengmalm's Owl. For me, this was one of those mythical species on the British List which I never thought would occur again, let alone give Birders a chance of seeing it. It was one of the memorable twitches, but it was spoilt a bit by bad behaviour from two unknown twitchers that evening.

Tengmalm's Owl: Bixter with lighting thanks to Pratt-boy who insisted on turning on his torch against the instructions of the locals & houseowners (23 Feb 19)

The main event of the seventh Blog year was the C19 outbreak, especially losing the whole of the Spring to the lockdown. I was restricted to blogging about #BWKM0, Birdwatching at Kilometre zero which was a hashtag that was used a lot for Birders watching from home. However, the standout trip for me was my last carefree pre-C19 twitch to see a long staying Hermit Thrush on St Mary's. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to day trip to St Mary's to see it over a weekend. Eventually, I bit the bullet and took a day's unpaid leave on about the last nice weather day of the year. I saw it just in time as it departed a few days later.

Hermit Thrush: St Mary's (4 Dec 19)

Continuing to work from home was the one positive of the second year of C19. I was doing a lot of local Birding, but it took me some time to get back into the twitching and I ensured that the handful of twitches I went on were conducted in a safe way as far as C19 was concerned. So, masks in garages & shops and no lift sharing. The stand out twitch was to Tenby in Wales to see Wally, my first Walrus. However, I wasn't expecting Wally to be upstaged by a very showy Harbour Porpoise who put on a superb display that evening.

Wally the Walrus: Tenby (16 Apr 21)

Harbour Porpoise: Tenby (16 Apr 21)

The nineth Blog year saw me take early retirement from the IT world and look forward to more Birding opportunities. I managed two enjoyable and C19 safe mini-breaks to Ireland to see the Egyptian Vulture & a Northern Harrier, with the showy Baikal Teal on the Somerset Levels on the first trip & the Least Tern on the second trip. But the best day of the Blog year was another memorable twitch to the Scillies for the Blackburnian Warbler. This was upstaged on the way back by finding a Loggerhead Turtle on the return journey: there less than two hundred & fifty UK records.

Blackburnian Warbler: Bryher (17 Oct 22)

Loggerhead Turtle: At sea St Mary's to Penzance (17 Oct 22)

The tenth Blog year finally saw the return to overseas travel with a spate of C19 delayed foreign trips. It started with seven weeks returning to Indonesia with Bird Tour Asia trips to the Banda Sea & Remote Moluccas. I then had a few days Birding in Sulawesi, Bali & Java looking for Birds I had missed in the sixteen weeks I had spent over three long visits in 1991 & 1992. In Jan, I was travelled again with a week in Argentina before rejoining the Plancius & heading for the Falklands, South Georgia & Antarctica. In the late Winter, I was off again for my third trip to New Zealand looking for & seeing my last three Kiwis before joining what was to be a badly run and very disappointing West Pacific Odyssey from New Zealand to Japan, where the ship failed to put basic rules in place to manage a C19 outbreak onboard. The result is we were not allowed to land at Truk in Micronesia or on the planned Japanese islands. I will provide more detail of how badly Heritage Expeditions mismanaged the trip when I get around to sorting out the photos. For now I will not recommend anybody travels with Heritage Expeditions. Having completed all the C19 delayed trips, I managed to squeeze in a bonus trip to Angola with a couple of good mates, Phil Hansbro & Richard Carden in June. Again it's going to be hard to select a single Blog Post to adequately sum up the year. But in contrast to the disastrous Heritage Expeditions trip, the Oceanwide Expeditions cruise to Antarctica was a delight & another well-run trip with this excellent & professional expedition company. I've not had chance to sort out the photos, but I will leave this as my favourite photo of the trip & one of my favourite photos of the last ten years.

King Penguin: St Andrews Bay, South Georgia (22 Jan 23)

These are only a few of the 886 Blog Posts that I've written to date. There are many more Bird, Cetacean, Sea Turtle, Butterfly, Dragonfly or other Posts. I hope this has wetted your appetite to explore other Blog Posts which can be searched for on date or using the species lists on the right hand side of the Blog. Finally, thanks for helping to generate the over six hundred thousand Blog hits over the last decade. Hopefully, the next decade will be as varied and enjoyable as the last decade.

21 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - Shackleton's Waterfall, South Georgia

We were stood down at our planned landing as the gale force winds hammering down the glacier were clearly too dangerous to put the zodiacs in the water. We headed off to breakfast in the hope that the wind speed would half from the sixty to seventy mph early morning winds. Sometimes that can happen in an hour or two. However, it was clear by the time that we were finishing breakfast, that this wasn't the case. As often needed in South Georgia, the Expedition Leader Ali had a plan B and we were soon heading onto the nearby bay at Stromness. Fortunately, we were the only Expedition ship in this part of South Georgia at the time and a change of venue could be quickly agreed with the South Georgia authorities. We arrived to find the wind was still strong, but it quickly calmed down enough to land.

The derelict whaling station: It was a much larger whaling station that the one at Prince Olav Harbour

Heading into the beach

Almost there

The view of the whaling station from the beach

The buildings aren't in great shape

Clearly the winds have taken their toll over the decades

It was certainly a large whaling station

There were some large propellers on the beach: Just as we saw at Prince Olav Harbour

We weren't going to be able to get any closer: Quite wise given the lack of maintenance with the whaling stations, as well as, the asbestos etc. But it will also reduce the risk of damage to these historical sites by tourists trying to explore them or maybe even to take items away as souvenirs

There were scattered groups of Antarctic Fur Seals and Southern Elephant Seals along the beach and with part of the beach being out of bounds, it meant individuals in that area weren't disturbed. But all the ones I saw weren't bothered by the visitors. However, earlier in the breeding season the Male Southern Elephant Seals can be more dangerous when they are fighting each other for the Females. There was a leucistic Antarctic Fur Seal pup which proved to be very popular, as it was very photogenic.

Antarctic Fur Seal: I had seen one of these leucistic Antarctic Fur Seal pups in the Prince Olav Harbour from the zodiac, but now we had a photogenic pup on the beach

Antarctic Fur Seal: This leucistic Antarctic Fur Seal pup was very popular as it was very photogenic

Antarctic Fur Seal: They looked very glossy when they had just come out of the water

After photographing the leucistic Antarctic Fur Seal and the whaling station at a distance, we had all the passengers ashore. One of the options was to walk to Shackleton's Waterfall with some of the Expedition staff. I was obviously keen on this idea, which also had the bonus of getting the chance to stretch my legs, even if it was only a three mile round walk. There were Penguins and Seals along the walk along the floodplain.

King Penguin: There were about one hundred and fifty King Penguins at Stromness

Gentoo Penguin: This Gentoo Penguin was just enjoying a kip in the sun

Antarctic Fur Seal: They have some sharp teeth on them. Another reason for keeping a good distance with them. When I went to the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands in 2001, one of the Kiwi Wildlife team was unlucky to be bitten by a Seal on Macquarie Island: it had walked up behind her without her realising. Maybe some Australian foreplay. Fortunately, not a serious bite, but an incident that always made sure I was keeping a reasonable distance from the adults

Southern Elephant Seal: They are beach body ready providing the beach is in the Southern Oceans

Southern Elephant Seal: There were Southern Elephant Seals scattered throughout the floodplain

Personally, I was happy with this change of venue as Stromness is an important site in the Shackleton story. It was the whaling station that Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean finally walked into, after their epic boat crossing of the Drake Passage from Elephant Island. They finally reached South Georgia on the rough South coast at King Haakan Bay. Their small boat was sufficiently damaged in the landing to be unable to put back to sea in it.

Heading across the floodplain towards Shackleton's Waterfall

Shackleton took his two strongest companions and despite not having proper climbing equipment, they made the first crossing of South Georgia's mountains. Finally, after twenty-eight hours of walking, they heard the hooter at Stromness to call the whalers to work. But it was another eight hours of descending and walking before they finally walked into the Stromness whaling station. I wrote a Blog Post after my first visit about Shackleton, Wild, Worsley & Crean.

It was good to be able to stretch our legs on this walk

This was their first contact with the outside world since they left South Georgia, eighteen months earlier. A boat rescued Shackleton's three companions from King Haakan Bay the following day. It was to take three attempts over the next three months from South America, before Shackleton finally managed to rescue the rest of his stranded crew on Elephant Island. More of that in a future Blog Post.

Looking back towards the whaling station and the Plancius

There is still a way to go till we got to the waterfall

It was stunning scenery

Finally, we reached Shackleton's Waterfall.

Shackleton's Waterfall: This would have looked more impressive in Shackleton's day given the colder weather. Also, Shackleton arrived at Stromness in mid-May, so it would have been well into the Winter for him

Back on the beach, I spent some time photographing some of the Wilson's Storm-petrels that were feeding just off the water's edge.

Wilson's Storm-petrel

Wilson's Storm-petrel

Wilson's Storm-petrel

Brown Skua: This Brown Skua flew past close to the beach

Gentoo Penguin

Gentoo Penguin: This Gentoo Penguin was confident at walking through the Antarctic Fur Seal pups

We still had a bit of time left & I wasn't in a hurry to get back into a zodiac

The Expedition Leader Ali: Ali did an excellent job of running the expedition

Doc Marieke was a Dutch GP: The ship's doctor usually had a great time, when things were going well. But it can be a very tough role, if there is a major injury onboard and the doc has to tell the Captain to turn the ship around to head to the nearest proper hospital. Fortunately, I've not been on a ship where that has occurred, but I'm aware of a few instances where its happened

Boots cleaning is vital on every landing: We cleaned our boots on the ship before we landed. They were cleaned before reboarding the zodiac & cleaned again once we were back on the ship. This is designed to minimise transfer of plant seeds and bugs from one colony to another. It's will be even more important now that Bird Flu has reached the Southern Oceans

this was an easy departure from the beach: Sometimes the water can be quite rough and it's essential to get back onto the zodiac as quickly as possible, to help the expedition team who are trying to hold the zodiac at the water's edge

It had been a great morning and we were heading for Grytviken for the afternoon. If the weather held that would be fantastic to see Grytviken in the sunshine.

3 Apr 18 - Atlantic Odyssey - Day Six: South Georgia - Homage To The Boss, Tom Crean & Frank Wild

One of the benefits of St Andrews Bay from the previous Post, is the site is around a two hours journey to our next location of Grytviken.

Grytviken: Grytviken is the Western end of the bay labelled King Edward Point in red. St Andrews Bay is in the bottom right corner of the map

St Andrews Bay: We left in good sunshine. It was good to have this number of zodiacs on the Plancius. Having travelled on a ship with just three then having more was also good news

Arriving into Grytviken: Two hours later, the weather was clearly on the change as we arrived at Grytviken with low cloud & the likelihood of rain. This quickly changed into steady cold rain & poor light for the rest of the day. The weather in South Georgia can turn very rapidly from nice conditions to a combination of rain, sleet, snow & strong winds. Fortunately, we missed the snow, but got to experience the 50 mph winds before we left the island

Grytviken is one of the regular landing sites for expedition ships to South Georgia due to the it being the last resting place of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton is one of the legendary names of Antarctic exploration, as well as, being equally well known for one of the most amazing survival stories. I first heard the story about 30 years ago & for many years have wanted to visit South Georgia & visit Shackleton's grave. Finally, it was going to happen today. I was looking forward to the afternoon: the rain & cold weather were not going to ruin the day. Somehow, black & white photos seem more appropriate for this Post. I don't think it is possible to not travel to South Georgia & not appreciate the history of South Georgia & Antarctica, however, given some of the odd non-wildlife punters on the Plancius, perhaps that's still wishful thinking on my behalf.

The cemetery at Grytviken: The cemetery is set on the hillside to the left of the whaling station

We were ferried across to a landing site close to the cemetery: Unfortunately, by this time it was pelting down with rain. A few Antarctic Fur Seals were unfazed by the rain

Shackleton's grave

Shackleton's grave: On the reverse of the tombstone the words of poet Robert Browning have been added: ' I hold that a man should strive to the uttermost  for his life's set prize'

Phil Hansbro paying a tribute to Shackleton: It a tradition to have a tot of whiskey, toast Shackleton & then to pour the last bit on his grave. His men generally referred to his as 'The Boss'

Tribute plaque: 1923 El Yacht Club Argentino Enero 1923 (The Argentinian Yacht Club Jan 1923)

Tribute plaque: Guardia Nacional Sir Ernest Shackleton Febrero 1923 (The Argentinian National Guard Feb 1923) & a more recent bottle of Red Label

At the graveside: A place I've wanted to visit for many years

For those not familiar with Shackleton's story, here is a brief resume. Ernest Henry Shackleton was born on 15 Feb 1874 to Anglo-Irish parents in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland. He was raised in London after his parents moved when he was a young boy. He joined the merchant navy at the age of 16 & had become a master mariner by the age of 24. In 1901, he joined Robert Scott as third officer on the 1901-03 Discovery Expedition. On this expedition, Scott, Shackleton & Edward Wilson reached closer to the South Pole than anybody had previous achieved by reaching 82 degrees South. Shackleton was seriously ill towards the end of the trip & was sent home to recover. As often the case with these expeditions, it seems that a clash of personalities between Shackleton & Scott was also involved in the decision to send him home.

Shackleton's bust: This & the other pictures of the Expedition were taken in the excellent museum at Grytviken

Shackleton hadn't given up with his polar plans & in 1907 he started planning to return to the Pole. He eventually raised the finances from wealthy sponsors, but he wasn't getting a lot of support as he wasn't the establishment figure (that was Scott). However, in Feb 1907 he presented the plans to the Royal Geographical Society to reach both the Geographic & Magnetic South Poles: the Geographic South Pole being the big goal. In Jan 1908, he sailed on the Nimrod from Lyttelton Harbour in New Zealand for the ice pack. Originally, the plan was to find a new base away from Scott's base in McMurdo Sound, but eventually, the expedition ended up setting up a base 24 miles from Scott's base, as they had been unable to find another safe anchorage. In Jan 1909, he led the party South to reach the Geographic South Pole. Bad weather resulted in him having to turn back at 88 degrees South, only 97 nautical miles short of the Pole. On of their achievements was being the first people to travel on the South Polar plateau. They turned back at this point as Shackleton was very aware that they had insufficient food & just enough time to make it back to the base camp safely before the Nimrod was planned to depart. Had they carried on they might have made it to the South Pole, but would surely have died on the return journey (as happened with Scott on his subsequent 1911 Expedition). The Nimrod Expedition undertook a number of other scientific & polar projects, including being the first to climb Mount Erebus, the most active of the Antarctic volcanos, while other members of his party, Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson & Alistair Mackay, reached the Magnetic South Pole.

Shackleton's photo in the Grytviken museum

In 1911, Roald Amundsen & then Robert Scott both succeeded in reaching the South Pole. Unfortunately, Scott's party failed to make it back to their base camp & their bodies remain in Antarctica. One of Scott's party who ultimately didn't get included in the final journey to the Pole was Tom Crean, although he was one of the eight men on the ice doing all the preparatory work of laying food dumps & accompanied Scott & party to within 150 miles of the Pole. At that point, Crean along with two others, Bill Lashly & Lt Tom Evans, were told to return to the base camp 750 miles away. They were within 100 miles of the base camp, when Evans finally was unable to walk due to the impacts of scurvy. Lashly & Crean continued to drag the sledge now carrying Evans as well to within 35 miles, when they agreed that they were unable to drag the sledge any further. Crean volunteered to walk the final 35 miles with no more than a few biscuits to base camp. He only just made it as a blizzard arrived. There were only two men at the base camp, but that included the doctor. After ensuring Crean was going to be OK & waiting for the blizzard to lighten, the doc took a dog sledge party back for Lashly & Evans. Without the amazing effort from Crean, they would have quickly died. The following summer, Crean was part of the party who travelled back along the route & discovered Scott's final camp.

Tom Crean: With the four Huskie puppies that were born on the ice & which he adopted. All the expedition dogs were eventually killed for food once it was clear that the original crossing of Antarctica was going to be possible (taken in the Grytviken museum)

Back to Shackleton. Following the conquest of the Pole, Shackleton raised the funds for another expedition, the 1914-17 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, to the South Pole, with the aim of being the first team to cross Antarctica. They departed at the start of Aug 1914 with Shackleton commanding the Endurance & Aeneas Mackintosh commanding the second ship, the Aurora, that was to establish the base camp to welcome them on the Ross Sea side of Antarctica. They stopped at South Georgia where they heard that the ice was particularly bad that season from the whalers. Undeterred Shackleton carried onto & arrived at the ice pack on 5 Dec 1914 in the Weddell Sea. On 19 Jan 1915, the Endurance became trapped in the ice & in late Feb, Shackleton gave the order to set up a winter base on the ice.

The Endurance trapped in the ice at night: Carefully positioned flares were used to light the Endurance. The quality of the images in amazing considering they were taken using heavy glass plates & very primitive knowledge of photography compared to modern standards. There was a special exhibition of some of the expedition photos & the negatives in the post office building. Unfortunately, the lighting in the museum doesn't do the photo justice

The negative of the same photo

The Endurance trapped in the ice at night: This is actually a negative of the Endurance with 20 flashes set off to light the ship for the photo

The Endurance trapped at night: My poorly angled photograph of the original image. Another reason the expedition is so well known is Shackleton took Australian photographer Frank Hurley along to photograph the ship. The subsequent sale of the photos of the expedition to the media was planned to help fund the expedition. Before the Endurance sank, Hurley had moved his photos onto the ice. In preparation for taking to the lifeboats, Hurley was told to select 150 of the glass plates with his best photos to take with them. Shackleton still knew the importance of these photos, should they survive. The photos have remained to this day as a stunning memorial to the expedition & to the photographic expertise of  Hurley. Another example of where Shackleton was very ahead of his time: today we expect photographic diaries of any trip

The Endurance trapped in the ice: Another negative of the endurance trapped in the ice

Negative of the Endurance trapped in the ice

The corresponding printed photo 

The ship remained trapped through the Antarctic winter & on 24 Oct 1915, they discovered water was pouring into the Endurance. Additional food & supplies were moved onto the ice & on 21 Nov 1915, the Endurance finally sank below the ice. The next two months were spent on a large ice floe hoping it would drift 250 miles towards Paulet Island (where they knew there was a food & stores cache). When that didn't happen, Shackleton ordered the men to move their three lifeboats across the ice. But their progress was very limited. This attempt to drag the lifeboats was abandoned & they set up another camp on another ice floe, with the hope of drifting towards Paulet Island again. This floe reached within 60 miles, but impassable ice stopped them getting closer. On 9 Apr 1916, their ice floe broke in half & they took to the lifeboats. After five days at sea, the exhausted men managed to safely land the lifeboats on Elephant Island which was the first solid ground they had stood on since leaving South Georgia.

An artist's impression of life within one of the two remaining lifeboats on Elephant Island. Despite the presence of Seals & Penguins for food, the daily life must have been incredibly hard, especially without the knowledge of whether Shackleton boat had made it to South Georgia or they had perished in the attempt

Elephant Island was a very inhospitable island & well away from any shipping or whaling routes. Shackleton ordered the strongest of the three lifeboats, the 6 metre long James Caird, to be strengthened & converted to attempt a crossing of the 720 nautical miles back to South Georgia.

The museum houses a replica of the James Caird: This provides a real example of how tough the voyage across the open seas must have been, having crossed some of them in relatively good conditions in a modern, comfortable 90 metre Expedition ship. Josh Beck provides useful a size comparison

The James Caird: Although most of the boat's top was wood & canvas covered, it still had a partial open top. On one morning in the voyage, the crew awoke to find six inches of ice from sea spray on the boat which threatened to capsize her. On another occasion, a giant wave appeared which threatened to sink her & it took the men over an hour of bailing to get the water out afterwards. This water polluted the only drinking water on the boat, thus making life even more difficult

Shackleton chose five of his crew to accompany him on this journey: Frank Worsley, the Endurance's captain, Tom Cream (who was on his third polar trip), two strong sailors John Vincent & Timothy McCarthy, as well as, Harry McNish, the ship's carpenter. They left on 24 Apr 1916 & after 15 days of a horrendous time at sea, they sighted the South coast of South Georgia. At this point, hurricane force winds stopped any attempt at landing, but they did manage to get ashore the following day, but on the unoccupied South coast. The men were too weak to be able to relaunch the lifeboat in an attempt to sail around to one of the whaling stations on the North coast. Shackleton decided that the best option was to attempt to cross the mountains & locate one of the whaling stations. They had no suitable climbing equipment as that had been abandoned on the Endurance. After making makeshift snow boots & taking a single carpenter's adze & a short rope, Shackleton, Worsley & Crean set on on 18 May 1916. After 36 hours of constant climbing, walking & false descents (before having to climb up again), the three exhausted men finally reached the whaling station at Stromness on 20 May 1916. This was a journey of 32 miles & the first known crossing of South Georgia. After being fed & washed, they were all put to bed to rest, while a boat was sent to collect Vincent, McCarthy & McNish.

The route across South Georgia

Shackleton then started plans to rescue his men on Elephant Island. He had left 21 men on the island under the command of Frank Wild, his second-in-command for the Expedition. After three failed attempts due to sea ice, he finally succeeded in reaching them on the Chilean government's tug, the Yelcho on 30 Aug 1916. After 4.5 months stranded on Elephant Island, all the men were successfully rescued.

Shackleton then travelled onto New Zealand as his other ship, the Aurora had been blown out from its anchorage in McMurdo Sound & had been unable to pick up the Ross Sea party who remained stranded at their land base. Eventually, he led the Aurora back South to rescue the stranded men. They rescued all but three, including Mackintosh, who had died.

It is this amazing story of survival against the elements of Antarctica & the Southern Oceans & safe rescue of all the Endurance's crew that Shackleton will remain known for many centuries to come. However, his expeditions did help to expand the scientific knowledge of the barely known Antarctica in these early days of exploration. But although Shackleton is the most well known of this generation of polar explorers, the more I read of the others early explorers, the more I realise the amazing people who accompanies Shackleton & Scott on these early expeditions.

Tom Crean monument: This stands is a small park in Annascaul to commemorate Tom Crean who was another great name of early South Polar Exploration

By chance I stayed in the small Irish village of Annascaul in Aug 16 following the Irish Royal Tern twitch. This was the village where Tom Crean was born & where he ended up running a pub, the South Pole Inn, after his three polar expeditions. Further information on Tom Crean's equally amazing life can be found on my Blog Post on Tom Crean.

The South Pole Inn: The pub run for many years by Tom Crean after his three Antarctic expeditions: Scott's 1901-03 & 1911-13 Expeditions & Shackleton's 1914-17 Endurance Expedition

In Sep 1921 Shackleton set off on his final Expedition to the South Pole in which he planned to circumnavigate Antarctica on a ship called the Quest. On 5 Jan 1922 he suffered a fatal heart attack the day after arriving in South Georgia. He died at the young age of 47. His body was returned to Montevideo, Uruguay. After contacting his wife Emile Shackleton, she asked for his body to be buried in South Georgia as he through more of the South Atlantic than he ever did of Britain. He was buried on 5 Mar 1922 in Gryfviken cemetery.

Frank Wild: He was one of only two men to be on five of these early Polar expeditions: the other was Ernest Joyce

Frank Wild's story is also very impressive. He travelled on five expeditions to the South Pole in total: Scott's 1901-03 Expedition, Shackleton's 1907-09 Nimrod Expedition, Mawson's 1911 Aurora Expedition where he was in charge of the land base on the ice, Shackleton's 1914-17 Endurance Expedition (as second-in-command) & finally he was second-in-command on Shackleton's final 1921-22 Expedition. After the final expedition, he moved in South Africa where he had a run of jobs before working on a gold mine. He died on 19 Aug 1939 at the age of 66. After his ashes were traced to a cemetery near Johannesburg, they were exhumed & reburied to the right hand side of Shackleton's grave on 27 Nov 11 to signify that he was Shackleton's right hand man on Shackleton's expeditions.

Frank Wild's memorial: The gravestone says ' Frank Wild 18 April 1873 19 August 1939 Shackleton's Right Hand Man'. It is just visible in the photos of Shackleton's grave in the photos at the start of this Post