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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



if anything, that of the Arctic in interest 

 and mystery. Shackleton's bold and 

 daring project of traversing the great 

 Antarctic land mass was well developed 

 — when the war clond burst. He ten- 

 dered his services to his country, but 

 Britain generously liade him "God- 

 speed" on his scientific quest, and his 

 "Endurance," crossing from London to 

 Buenos Aires, left South Georgia late in 

 the Fall of 1914, for a landing place on 

 Coats Land. Subsequent wireless re- 

 ports were that the conditions were more 

 difficult than had been expected and 

 that the "Endurance" would be unable 

 to make her way out of the pack before 

 the following autumn (1915) and that 

 the transcontinental attempt must be 

 postponed for a year. 



Meantime the " Aurora," Sir Douglas 

 Mawson's staunch steamship, had left 

 Australia for the familiar British Ross 

 Bay base on the opposite side of the 

 continent, there to await Shackleton's 

 advent, sending relief parties inland to 

 lay provision depots for the overland 

 party. More than a year passed in 

 silence, until in March, 1916, New Zea- 

 land picked up a wireless message from 

 the "Aurora." Little by little the 

 tragic tale came out, and weeks later, a 

 tug dispatched to her relief brought the 

 ship into port. Ten months before, the 

 " Aurora," with three landing parties at 

 an unknown distance upon the ice 

 l>arrier, and another of her own on shore, 

 had been torn from the land by storm, 

 and for ten long months had drifted 

 helplessly to and fro. With rudder 

 twisted like a corkscrew and coal ex- 

 hausted, the plight of the ship was pitia- 

 ble, and her ultinuite salvation pro\i- 

 dential. While sutKcient food is sup- 

 posed to have been available to support 

 the Ross Bay parties for one season, 

 their fate cannot be known until the 

 Australian relief expedition, which will 

 be dispatched immediately upon tlie 



opening of the austral summer, returns. 



Remarkable as was the tale of the 

 "Aurora," that of the "Endurance," 

 her consort, and of Shackleton, the 

 leader, is even more extraordinary and 

 possibly tragic. The "Endurance," 

 struggling bravely, finally sank, taking 

 down equipment and nearly all of her 

 stores. A scanty stock, transferred to 

 the ice, enabled the entire party, how- 

 ever, to subsist, until by slow and painful 

 marches they finally reached the limit 

 of the floe, whence in three open boats 

 they committed themselves to the one 

 thousand miles of sea between them and 

 the Falkland Islands. During the peril- 

 ous journey one of the boats was lost, 

 although it is not yet clear whether those 

 on board perished. At last, Elephant 

 Island was made, whence, leaving his 

 party of twenty-two in a make-shift 

 cave in the ice, Shackleton with two 

 comrades pushed overland to the Nor- 

 wegian whaling station on the opposite 

 side of the island. Thence, taken to 

 Port Stanley in the Falklands, he com- 

 municated to the world his tale of work 

 and adventure. 



Little Uruguay promptly responded 

 by the immediate dispatch of a small 

 government Acssel, which, picking up 

 Shackleton at Port Stanley, endeavored 

 to reach the marooned party on Ele- 

 phant Island. Pn June 19, however, 

 Shackleton cabled that impassable ice 

 barriers had baffled him and that only a 

 more powerful and specially equipped 

 steamer could hope to eft'ect the rescue, 

 and that in the meantime the party 

 must shift for itself as best it could up- 

 on n><kiced rations and what penguins 

 and seals it might, perchance, capture, 

 a discouraging not to say desperate out- 

 look; aufl here, for the moment, the cur- 

 tain falls upon what is certain to prove 

 one of the boldest and most fruitless, 

 except in heroism and fortitude, of any 

 of Britain's polar adventures. 



