The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition was Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last Antarctic project, and the final episode in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The venture, financed by John Quiller Rowett, is sometimes referred to as the Quest Expedition after its ship Quest, a converted Norwegian sealer. Quest, smaller than any recent Antarctic exploration vessel, soon proved inadequate for its task, and progress south was delayed by its poor sailing performance and by frequent engine problems. Shackleton died on board the ship, just after its arrival at the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia.
About Shackleton–Rowett Expedition in brief
The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition was Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last Antarctic project, and the final episode in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The venture, financed by John Quiller Rowett, is sometimes referred to as the Quest Expedition after its ship Quest, a converted Norwegian sealer. Quest, smaller than any recent Antarctic exploration vessel, soon proved inadequate for its task, and progress south was delayed by its poor sailing performance and by frequent engine problems. Before the expedition’s work could properly begin, Shackleton died on board the ship, just after its arrival at the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. The Quest voyage is not greatly regarded in the histories of polar exploration, due to the event that defines it in public memory, overshadowing its other activities: Shackleton’s untimely death. The major part of the subsequent attenuated expedition was a three-month cruise to the eastern Antarctic, under the leadership of the party’s second-in-command, Frank Wild. The ship was unable to proceed further than longitude 20°E, well short of its easterly target, and its engine’s low power coupled with its unsuitable bows was insufficient for it to penetrate southward through the pack ice. Following several fruitless attempts, Wild returned the ship to South Georgia, on the way visiting Elephant Island where he and 21 others had been stranded after the sinking of the ship Endurance, six years earlier. Shackleton returned to Britain from the Endurance expedition in late May 1917, while World War I was under way.
He returned to England in February 1919 and began plans to set up a company that would, with the cooperation of the North Russian Government, develop the natural resources of the region. In March 1920, his plans received the general approval of the Royal Geographical Society and were supported by the Canadian government. He decided to turn away from the Antarctic, go northwards and, as he put it, “fill in this great blank now called the Beaufort Sea’”. This area of the Arctic Ocean, to the north of Alaska and west of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, was largely unexplored; Shackleton believed it contained large undiscovered land masses that would be of the greatest scientific interest to the world, apart from the possible economic value. A varied programme of exploration, including coastal mapping, coastal mapping and mineral prospecting, began in 1921. In May 1921, the government of Canada changed its policy towards Arctic expeditions and changed the policy of the government towards the Arctic. Even before Shackleton had been considering a possible alternative to the Southern Sea, Arthur Meighen, prime minister of Canada, withdrew support from Shackleton and decided to sail for the Antarctic instead. The expedition ended in June 1922, and Shackleton received a message from Rowett ordering the ship home to England, so the expedition ended quietly. In the winter of 1919–20 he lectured twice a day, six days a week, for five months. He hoped to reach the northern pole of inaccessibility, the most remote point in the Arctic regions.
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