The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier. Organisational and financial problems delayed their start until December 1914, which shortened their first depot-laying season.
About Ross Sea party in brief
The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier. The expedition’s main party, under Shackleton, was to land near Vahsel Bay on the opposite coast of Antarctica, and to march across the continent via the South Pole to Ross Sea. As the main party would be unable to carry sufficient fuel and supplies for the whole distance, their survival depended on the Ross sea party setting up depots, which would cover the final quarter of their journey. Organisational and financial problems delayed their start until December 1914, which shortened their first depot-laying season. After their arrival the inexperienced party struggled to master the art of Antarctic travel, in the process losing most of their sled dogs. A greater misfortune occurred at the onset of the southern winter when the Aurora, locked in an ice-floe which broke off from the main shelf, was torn from its moorings. The ocean currents then took the ship further away from the sledding parties marooned on shore, and drifted for over six months before breaking free of the ice. Sadly, the Aurora’s damaged rudder forced her to return to New Zealand rather than returning for the stranded shore party. Despite these setbacks, theRoss Sea party survived inter-personnel disputes, extreme weather, illness, and the deaths of three of its members to carry out its mission in full during its second Antarctic season.
This success proved ultimately without purpose, because Shackleton’s main expedition was unable to land after Endurance was crushed in the Weddell Sea ice. Four Albert Medals were awarded to members of the party, two posthumously. Shackleton later wrote that those who died gave their lives for their country as surely as those who gave up their lives in France or Flanders. He believed that there remained “one great main objective of Antarctic journeyings—the crossing of the South Polar continent from sea to sea. Shackleton estimated that the crossing would cover approximately 1,800 miles, a distance too great for his party to carry all its supplies. In support of the main journey, therefore, a separate Ross Sea Party would land in McMurdo Sound and would lay aseries of supply. depots. It would also carry out scientific investigations. The party’s vessel would be a recently used ship, SY Aurora, used by Douglas Mawson and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. To lead the expedition, Shackleton chose Aeneas Mackintosh, a former Merchant Navy officer who had been on the expedition until his participation in Nimrod. He would later provide the leader of his Ross Sea support party with conflicting instructions on the task; stating on one hand it was of ‘supreme importance’ to the depots but on the other that he would be carrying what he described as ‘sufficient provisions’.
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This page is based on the article Ross Sea party published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
