After the Americans had claimed the North Pole in 1909 and the Norwegian Roald Amundsen had pipped Britain's Sir Robert Falcon Scott in the race to the South Pole in 1911, Shackleton, already knighted for his unsuccessful attempt on the latter in 1907-09, felt impelled to match them with a venture many thought reckless.
In the end, the officially titled Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition did, indeed, finish in failure. Yet, with not a single life lost in the 28-man party, it became an epic story of the icefields, given new resonance by the evocative discovery last week of the sunken Endurance in the Weddell Sea after a painstaking search (Another country, March 2).
Among the crew was the brave and resourceful Australian photographer and filmmaker Frank Hurley. The short-funded Shackleton knew that selling picture rights would be a key income source and Hurley had already impressed with the images he'd taken on Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic expedition of 1911. Hurley's film of Shackleton's expedition, South, sponsored by the Daily Chronicle and first shown in London in 1919, is now considered the world's first documentary feature film, according to the British Film Institute (BFI).
Denne historien er fra March 16, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 16, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds