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Heroic Age Expeditions in the Freeze Frame Collection
The expeditions in the Freeze Frame collection which fall within the heroic age are:
British Antarctic Expedition 1898-1900 (leader: C. Borchgrevink)
British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-04 (leader: R.F. Scott)
Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 1902-04 (leader: W.S. Bruce)
British Antarctic Expedition 1907-09 (leader: E.H. Shackleton)
British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13 (leader: R.F. Scott)
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-16 (leader: E.H. Shackleton)
Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition 1920-22 (leader: E.H. Shackleton)
These expeditions achieved a number of ‘firsts’ in the Antarctic region, ranging from the first to over-winter to the first to collect Emperor penguins’ eggs during the harsh Antarctic winter. Borchgrevink and his crew were the first to winter over on the Antarctic mainland. They made magnetic observations and determined the South Magnetic Pole to be much farther north and west than previously assumed. On February 16, 1900 Borchgrevink, Colbeck and one of the Finnish crewmen set out across the ice shelf and reached an estimated 78°50´S which was the farthest south reached to that date. The furthest south record was repeatedly reached and surpassed, until the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, reached the South Pole at 3:00 p.m, on Friday, December 14, 1911, followed by Robert Falcon Scott on January 17, 1912.
Scott and Ernest Shackleton are two of the most famous figures of the heroic age. Scott led two expeditions and Shackleton went on to lead three more. The two met on the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-04), which Scott was leading. The pair, accompanied by Edward Adrian Wilson, had set the furthest south for the time, but in doing so Shackleton had developed scurvy and was sent home on a relief ship. He was to return on Nimrod with unfinished business in 1907, leading the British Antarctic Expedition (1907-09).
Scott at this time was also planning to return to the Antarctic, and asked Shackleton not to use the McMurdo Sound area as a base. This had been used as a base on the 1901-04 expedition and Scott felt that he had a claim over it and that it would be problematic to raise funds for two expeditions going to the same area. Shackleton agreed, but bad weather forced him to set up a base at McMurdo Sound. It is thought that this, along with Shackleton’s early departure from the 1901-04 expedition, soured the relationship between the two. Even today the two are constantly compared and contrasted with one another.
Whilst both Scott and Shackleton were to perish in the Antarctic, they were to meet very different ends. Scott perished with his South Pole party on the ice, having made it to the South Pole but unable to return, Shackleton was to die of a heart attack onboard his ship Quest off the coast of South Georgia. Both of their remains were left in the Antarctic region. Shackleton’s death in many ways marked the conclusion of the heroic age of Exploration; Scott’s on the other hand perhaps marks the height.
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