Jonathan Shackleton has done 40 trips to Antarctica, one stands out
Antarctic historian Jonathan Shackleton seeks out his family history and legacy at the South Pole and beyond, even playing tour guide to Hollywood A-listers.
Jonathan Shackleton has visited Antarctica more than 40 times, including 14 trips to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia.
His cousin, Sir Ernest Shackleton, crossed South Georgia on foot after becoming shipwrecked and sailing on a small boat from Antarctica in 1916.
“When studying at the Institute of Polar Studies in Ohio, the scientists asked me to give a talk about my cousin Ernest Shackleton. I realised how famous he was as a polar explorer and I wanted to find out more,” Jonathan says.
Now an Antarctic historian and guide for cruise line Ponant, he will join an expedition from Ushuaia to Hobart in January.
Here, he shares some of his most memorable travel moments.
Hut high
The hut at Cape Royds on Antarctica’s Ross Island was the base for Ernest Shackleton’s 1907-1909 Nimrod expedition. He and three companions reached within 97 nautical miles of the South Pole – closer than anyone else at that time – and turned back. When we reached the hut, the expedition leader handed me the key and asked me to go inside on my own for a few minutes. It was a moment I will never forget.
The crossing
South Georgia is a beautiful place, packed with wildlife and history. With a small group, I retraced the last part of the crossing of the island made in 1916 by Shackleton, Crean and Worsley. We hiked from Fortuna Bay to Stromness Whaling Station, where they found other humans. I had the chance to stand at Ernest’s grave at Grytviken with Adelie and Toni Hurley, daughters of Frank Hurley, Shackleton’s legendary Australian photographer. Without his photographs taken on the Endurance expedition, what they all went through would hardly have been believed.
Tricky terrain
Point Wild on Elephant Island is a notoriously difficult place to land. My most memorable landing there was with my daughter Hannah. It is a very bleak and cramped location, and for the 22 men who waited there for over four winter months for Shackleton to return and rescue them, it was a miracle they all survived.
Bare back
St Kilda is a remote island off the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. When I visited for the first time, the boat’s skipper took me to a tall, very forbidding sea stack, which an Irish cousin climbed in the 1890s. The locals would not allow him to climb it in his alpine boots and ropes – he had to do it in his bare feet using horse-hair ropes. I marvelled at all the gannets flying around us and celebrated by drinking Shackleton whisky.
Jonathan Shackleton’s travel highs and lows
Celeb status
On a trip to the Antarctic Peninsula on a small ship as a guide and lecturer, I had just eight passengers who had flown to King George Island from Punta Arenas. Among them were Tom Hanks, Michael Palin and Jools Holland. They couldn’t have been more relaxed, interesting and easy to travel with.
Late to departure
At Ushuaia, I once visited friends on another ship and came back to mine late. I saw my ship casting off, all the passengers looking at me waving and the expedition leader unamused. The ship returned to pick up a very embarrassed me.
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Originally published as Jonathan Shackleton has done 40 trips to Antarctica, one stands out
