Nimrod Expedition

The Nimrod Expedition of 1907–1909, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton and his second time to the continent. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to reach the South Pole. This was not attained, but the expedition's southern march reached a Farthest South latitude of 88° 23' S, just 97.5 nautical miles (180.6 km; 112.2 mi) from the pole. This was by far the longest southern polar journey to that date and a record convergence on either Pole. A separate group led by Welsh Australian geology professor Edgeworth David reached the estimated location of the South magnetic pole, and the expedition also achieved the first ascent of Mount Erebus, Antarctica's second highest volcano.

The expedition lacked governmental or institutional support, and relied on private loans and individual contributions. It was beset by financial problems and its preparations were hurried. Its ship, Nimrod, was less than half of the size of Robert Falcon Scott's 1901–1904 expedition ship Discovery, and Shackleton's crew lacked relevant experience. Controversy arose from Shackleton's decision to base the expedition in McMurdo Sound, close to Scott's old headquarters, in contravention of a promise to Scott that he would not do so. Nevertheless, although the expedition's profile was initially much lower than that of Scott's six years earlier, its achievements attracted widespread interest and made Shackleton a national hero. The scientific team, which included the future Australasian Antarctic Expedition leader Douglas Mawson, carried out extensive geological, zoological and meteorological work. Shackleton's transport arrangements, based on Manchurian ponies, motor traction, and sled dogs, were innovations which, despite limited success, were later copied by Scott for his ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition.

On his return, Shackleton overcame the Royal Geographical Society's (RGS) initial scepticism about his achievements and received many public honours, including a knighthood from King Edward VII. He made little financial gain from the expedition and eventually depended on a government grant to cover its liabilities. Within three years his southernmost record had been surpassed, as first Amundsen and then Scott reached the South Pole. In his own moment of triumph, Amundsen nevertheless observed: "Sir Ernest Shackleton's name will always be written in the annals of Antarctic exploration in letters of fire".

Ernest Shackleton had been a junior officer on Robert Falcon Scott's first Antarctic expedition aboard RRS Discovery. He had been sent home on the relief ship Morning in 1903 after a physical collapse during the expedition's main southern journey. Scott's verdict was that he "ought not to risk further hardships in his present state of health". Shackleton felt this physical failure as a personal stigma, and on his return to England he was determined to prove himself, in the words of Discovery's second-in command Albert Armitage, as "a better man than Scott". He nevertheless declined the opportunity of a swift Antarctic return as chief officer of Discovery's second relief ship Terra Nova, after helping to fit her out; he also helped to equip Uruguay, the ship being prepared for the relief of Otto Nordenskjöld's expedition, stranded in the Weddell Sea. During the next few years, while nursing intermittent hopes of resuming his Antarctic career, Shackleton pursued other options. In 1906 he was working for the industrial magnate Sir William Beardmore as a public relations officer.

According to his biographer Roland Huntford, the references to Shackleton's physical breakdown made in Scott's The Voyage of the Discovery, published in 1905, reopened the wounds to Shackleton's pride. It became a personal mission that he should return to the Antarctic and outperform Scott. Shackleton began looking for potential backers for an expedition of his own; his initial plans appear in an unpublished document dated early 1906. These include a cost estimate of £17,000 (updated value £2,270,000) for the entire expedition. He received his first promise of financial backing when early in 1907 his employer, Beardmore, offered a £7,000 loan guarantee (updated value £940,000). With this in hand, Shackleton felt confident enough to announce his intentions to the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) on 12 February 1907. One reason for Shackleton's sense of urgency was the knowledge that the Polish explorer Henryk Arctowski was planning an expedition, which was announced at the RGS on the same day as Shackleton's. In the event, Arctowski's plans were stillborn.

Shackleton's original unpublished plan envisaged basing himself at the old Discovery Expedition headquarters in McMurdo Sound. From there he proposed to launch attempts to reach the geographical South Pole and the South magnetic pole. Other journeys would follow, and there would be a continuous programme of scientific work. This early plan also revealed Shackleton's proposed transport methods, involving a combination of dogs, ponies and a specially designed motor vehicle.

Neither ponies nor motor traction had been used in the Antarctic before, although ponies had been used by Frederick George Jackson during the Jackson–Harmsworth Arctic expedition of 1894–1897. Despite Jackson's confused reports of his ponies' prowess, and contrary to specific advice from Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian polar traveller, Shackleton decided he would take 15 ponies, later scaled down to 10. By the time he announced his plans to the RGS in February 1907 Shackleton had revised his cost estimate to a more realistic £30,000 (updated value £4,010,000). However, the response of the RGS to Shackleton's proposals was muted; Shackleton would learn later that the Society was by this time aware of Scott's wish to lead a new expedition and that the Society wished to reserve its full approval for Scott.

Shackleton intended to arrive in Antarctica in January 1908, which meant leaving England during the 1907 summer. He therefore had six months to secure the financing, acquire and fit out a ship, buy all the equipment and supplies, and recruit the personnel. In April, believing that he had got the backing of Scottish businessman Donald Steuart, Shackleton travelled to Norway intending to buy a 700-ton polar vessel, Bjorn, that would have served ideally as an expedition ship. When Steuart withdrew his support, however, Bjorn was beyond Shackleton's means. Bjorn was eventually acquired by German explorer Wilhelm Filchner and, renamed Deutschland, was used in his 1911–1913 voyage to the Weddell Sea. Shackleton had to settle for the elderly, much smaller Nimrod, a forty-year-old wooden sealer of 334 gross register tons, which he was able to acquire for £5,000 (updated value £668,000).