Caird, correspondence

• MS 1537/2/30/22-27;D Letters (6) to Ernest Henry Shackleton [Referring to Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-1916 and to a visit by Ernest Shackleton, includes two press cuttings about Caird, 17 June, 18 July, 28 July, 21 August, 1 September, 15 September 1914] 12 leaves

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, [Weddell Sea Party] 1914-1916 (leader Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton) set out to cross the Antarctic continent. When Endurance was beset this goal was abandoned. The ship drifted for ten months before being crushed in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea and sinking in 1915. The entire company spent five months on the ice before escaping in the three lifeboats to Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands. Two of the life boats were made into a shelter for the company while Shackleton, Thomas Crean, Frank Worsley, Timothy McCarthy, Harold McNish and John Vincent sailed 1450Km to South Georgia in the James Caird. Arriving at South Georgia Shackleton, Crean and Worsley made the first major trek across the island to the whaling station at Stromness. The steam tug Yelcho rescued the men on Elephant island in August 1916.

Chronological.

Copies of the letters are available amongst the Fisher papers held at the institute.

The Institute holds over a forty archival collections containing material relating to this expedition see SPRI collection GB 15 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, [Weddell Sea Party] 1914-1916, or GB 15 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, [Ross Sea Party] 1914-1917 for more information.