He was then appointed to the post of secretary of the Scottish Geographical Society in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1906 he took time out to run for a seat in Parliament. Although Shackleton lost the election, he took advantage of his position at the Scottish Geographical Society by lobbying wealthy patrons to support his own expedition to Antarctica. By 1907 he had received enough private contributions to finance a trip to both the South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole.
Shackleton planned to reach Antarctica by using dogs, ponies, and an automobile that had been modified to pull sledges. He also intended to record the entire expedition with a movie camera. The Shackleton expedition, which included the Australian explorer and geologist Douglas Mawson, sailed from England on the Nimrod on August 7, 1907.
After a brief stop in New Zealand, the party proceeded to Antarctica. Before Shackleton left England, he had received a letter from Scott saying Scott intended to make another assault on the South Pole and asking Shackleton not to use the previous Scott expedition base on Ross Island at McMurdo Sound. At the time, Shackleton had agreed to Scott’s request, but when he reached the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, he found the only place his ship could land was at the western end of Ross Island, near Scott’s old base.
This is a free page. This page contains 192 words. This
article contains 1,643 words (approx. 5 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Ernest Shackleton Access Pass.
