The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

MILLS, Hugh Robert.

Item Number: 143821

London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1924.

Second edition of Mill’s appreciation of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth, illustrated with numerous plates and 4 maps in the text. Provenance: from the Arctic and Antarctic collection of Gerald F. Fitzgerald with his library plate to the pastedown. Presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, “From B.M.F. 24.11.25.” In near fine condition with light rubbing to the extremities.

Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Shackleton's first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition of 1901–1904, from which he was sent home early on health grounds, after he and his companions Scott and Edward Adrian Wilson set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S. During the Nimrod expedition of 1907–1909, he and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude at 88°S, only 97 geographical miles (112 statute miles or 180 kilometres) from the South Pole, the largest advance to the pole in exploration history. Also, members of his team climbed Mount Erebus, the most active Antarctic volcano. For these achievements, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home. After the race to the South Pole ended in December 1911, with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to the crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole. To this end, he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917. Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed. The crew escaped by camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated, then by launching the lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately South Georgia Island, a stormy ocean voyage of 720 nautical miles (1,330 km; 830 mi) and Shackleton's most famous exploit. In 1921, he returned to the Antarctic with the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition, but died of a heart attack while his ship was moored in South Georgia. At his wife's request, he was buried there. The wreck of Endurance was discovered just over a century later.