2-693-845 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Facsimile of Page of Shackleton's Diary', 4 January 1909. Page of Shackleton's diary on the way to establishing the Farthest South record: '...we are weakening rapidly, short food and a blizzard wind from the South with driving drift...' Anglo-Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) made three expeditions to the Antarctic. During the second expedition, 1907-1909, he and three companions established a new record, Farthest South latitude at 88°S, only 97 geographical miles (112 statute miles, or 180 km) from the South Pole, the largest advance to the pole in exploration history. Shackleton was treated as a hero on his return to England, but his record was to stand for less than three years, being passed by Amundsen on 7 December 1911. Illustration from The Heart of the Antarctic, Vol. I, by E. H. Shackleton, C.V.O. [William Heinemann, London, 1909]