Who is Ernest Shackleton?

The Endurance22 expedition was able to locate the ship, which was found at a depth of 3,008 metres in the Weddell Sea.

READ MORE: Ernest Shackleton ship HMS Endurance discovered in Antarctica after 107 years

HMS Endurance is intrinsically linked to the explorer Ernest Shackleton, but you may not know a lot of information about him.

The outside of HMS Endurance (Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust/National Geographic/PA)

Who is Ernest Shackleton?

According to Britannica, Ernest Shackleton was born on February 15, 1875 Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland.

He entered the mercantile marine service in 1890 and became a sublieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1901.

After that, he joined Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s British National Antarctic (Discovery) Expedition (1901–04) as the third lieutenant and took part, with Scott and Edward Wilson, in the sledge journey over the Ross Ice Shelf.

His health took a hit on this journey and he was sent home in 1903. It wasn't until five years later that he joined another expedition to Antarctica in January 1908.

As the leader of the expedition, he led a sledging party to within 97 nautical miles (180km) of the South Pole.

In August 1914 the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–16) left England under Shackleton’s leadership.

Shackleton planned to cross Antarctica from a base on the Weddell Sea to McMurdo Sound, via the South Pole, but the expedition ship Endurance was trapped in ice off the Caird coast and drifted for 10 months before being crushed in the pack ice. 

The members of the expedition then drifted on ice floes for another five months and finally escaped in boats to Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands, where they subsisted on seal meat, penguins, and their dogs.

After then sailing 800 miles to South Georgia, Shackleton was able to rescue his crew through four separate relief expeditions, and amazingly none of his crew died in the whole ordeal.

Shackleton served in the British army during World War I. He attempted a fourth Antarctic expedition, called the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition, aboard the Quest in 1921, which had the goal of circumnavigating the continent.

Unfortunately, Shackleton died at Grytviken, South Georgia, at the outset of the journey in 1922.

His exertions in raising funds to finance his expeditions and the immense strain of the expeditions themselves were believed to have worn out his strength.