The "Great Southern Journey",as Frank Wild called it,
began on 19 October 1908. On 9 January 1909 Ernest Shackleton and three
companions (Wild, Eric Marshall
and Jameson Adams)
reached a new Farthest
South latitude of 88° 23′ S, a point only 112 miles
(180 km) from the Pole. En route the South Pole party discovered the Beardmore Glacier, (named
after Shackleton's patron), and became the first persons to see and travel on
the South Polar Plateau. Their return journey to McMurdo Sound was a race
against starvation, on half-rations for much of the way. At one point
Shackleton gave his one biscuit allotted for the day to the ailing Frank Wild,
who wrote in his diary: "All the money that was ever minted would not have
bought that biscuit and the remembrance of that sacrifice will never leave
me". They arrived at Hut Point just in time to catch the ship.
The expedition's other main accomplishments included the
first ascent of Mount Erebus,
and the discovery of the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole,
reached on 16 January 1909 by Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson, and Alistair Mackay.
Shackleton returned to the United Kingdom as a hero, and soon afterwards
published his expedition account, Heart of the
Antarctic. Emily Shackleton later recorded: "The only comment
he made to me about not reaching the Pole was "a live donkey is better
than a dead lion, isn't it?" and I said "Yes darling, as far as I am
concerned".
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