Today is Ernest Shackleton’s birthday. The famed polar explorer (from what Wikipedia calls The Incredibly Manly Age of Exploration The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration) would have been 137 years old today. Not bad going for a chap who, and let’s put this mildly, had a bit of a hard time of it.
Everyone’s aware of his incredible exploits rescuing his crew from the ice-bound Endurance, but did you know the following:
- He has a crater named after him on the South Pole of the Moon.
- During the ‘Great Southern Journey’ in 1908-09, the return trip was a race against starvation. With everyone on half rations, one day Shackleton gave his ration of biscuits to an ailing ship-mate – which would have today earned him the Best Boss to Work For award.
- His Antarctic expedition in 1907 left behind several crates of whisky, which were discovered in 2010 – the ultimate in ‘Scotch on the rocks’. The now-lost recipes from this whisky are being analysed to see if they can be recreated.
It’s now siginificantly easier to take a trip to the South Pole - Buyagift will sort it out for you for the frankly bargain-tastic price of £25,999. No month long treks across blasted wildernesses and fights for survival against all the odds necessary.
We hope.