PHOTO: Lindblad Expeditions will commemorate the legendary voyages of Ernst Shackleton on its 2014-2015 trips to Antarctica. (photo by David Cogswell)
Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic will celebrate centennial of the historic 1914 Antarctic voyage of Sir Ernst Shackleton on all of its 2014-2015 departures to Antarctica.
The year 2014 is 100 years since Shackleton's third trip to Antarctica in 1914. Shackleton had previously traveled on Britain's first exploration of Antarctica 1901-1904 under Robert Falcon Scott, but his health suffered and he was sent home early.
He returned in 1907 as leader of the Nimrod Expedition and on that trip he set the record for the furthest march south to date, reaching within 112 miles from the South Pole. When he returned to Britain, his achievement earned him knighthood and the appellation of "Sir".
Shackleton lost his chance to be the first to reach the South Pole when Norwegian Roald Amundsen reached it in 1911. At that point the indomitable Shackleton set his sights on a new record, to be the first to traverse the continent from coast to coast passing through the South Pole. The voyage on the ship Endurance was named the Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
But the vagaries of nature proved more than the group was ready for. The ship was trapped in ice and crushed as the freezing progressed. Yet miraculously the entire crew survived and escaped. Shackleton returned one more time, in 1921. On that trip he died of a heart attack at South Georgia, where he is buried.
Lindblad's 2014 Antarctic voyages on the Lindblad ships National Geographic Explorer and National Geographic Orion will commemorate Shackleton's 1914 journey, the aborted Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
Kim Heacox, the author of Shackleton: The Antarctic Challenge, worked with Lindblad to put together a vivid mult-media presentation for Lindblad voyagers that tells about the Shackleton voyage and the men who signed on with Shackleton to go where few had attempted to go before.
The Lindblad trips will honor not only Shackleton, but also his photographer Frank Hurley, whose photographs artistically captured priceless images of the experience, including much that may have remained unknown without his photographs. The trips will be accompanied by a National Geographic photographer as well as a Lindblad-National Geographic certified photo instructor.
Guests will be able to drink a toast using the same whisky, Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt, that was taken on the 1914 voyage. Two crates of it were discovered in 2007 by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust.
Before departure guests will be given a copy of Alfred Lansing's book "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage."
All 2014-2015 Antarctic voyages will also feature Global Perspectives Guest Speakers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Larson, author of An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackelton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science; Jared Diamond, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, scientist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Kendrick Taylor, chief scientist for a project investigating climate change and the Antarctic ice sheet; Joe McConnell, environmental scientist; Fen Montaigne, journalist and author of Fraser's Penguins: A Journey to the Future in Antarctica; and Peter Hillary, the son of Sir Edmund Hillary, who has climbed the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.
The fourteen-day Journey to Antarctica: The White Continent is priced from $12,350 per person double occupancy with departures late November 2014 through early February 2015. The 24-day Antarctica, South Georgia and The Falklands is priced from $21,360 per person double occupancy with departures from late November 2014 through early February 2015.
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