Ernest Shackleton Author

Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) was probably the greatest of all the Antarctic explorers. He was born in County Kildare, joined the Merchant Navy and was a junior officer in Captain Scott's 1901-4 expedition. He led the British Antarctic Expedition (1907-09), the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17) and died on the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition (1920-21). South is his record of the second of his expeditions, which culminated in Shackleton's extraordinary rescue of his men through successfully navigating a 20ft lifeboat 720 nautical miles from the edge of the Antarctic to South Georgia.