Shackleton and the Quest 1920-1921
Having gone ahead of the Quest, Wilkins spent a few weeks in late 1921 on South Georgia Island, at the bottom tip of South America, collecting specimens and filming and taking pictures of its inhabitants. This film is narrated by Frank Worsley, the captain of both The Endurance and the Quest, with the narration added ten years after the original film - 'The Endurance - the Story of a Terrible Failure' - came out and once 'talkies' became possible.
Shackleton pulled of a marketing stunt of genius when a newspaper promoted a competition to take a boy scout–to be chosen by none other than Lord Baden Powell himself–on the voyage. This young lad, James Marr, was one of two eventually chosen and who later went on to become a significant Polar explorer in his own right.
Having struggled to get support in London after his Endurance fiasco and with the Great War in full swing, Shackleton’s fortunes changed with the support of an old school mate, John Rowett.
Shackleton and the ship’s surgeon, Alexander Macklin, discuss matters before departure from England. The collection of his images and those given to him by Wilkins were donated by the Macklin family to the State Library of New South Wales.
Wilkins got the gig as a photographer and botanist, not that he had any qualifications to be the latter. For him, it was a great honour to serve Sir Ernest Shackleton who he regarded as a great leader of men and was generally known as ‘the Boss.
Living quarters on the Quest.
The voyage on the Quest never really got going once they left London, with Wilkins going ahead to collect specimens etc at South Georgia Island when the Quest pulled into Rio de Janeiro for repairs after bad weather down South America.
The bow of the Quest hits heavy going in the Polar ice.
Soon after the Quest got to him, Shackleton died of a heart attack and though the crew fought on with the expedition, interest waned when bad weather and being caught in the ice threatened them.
The Quest struggling hard against the ice pack.
More images
All images courtesy of State Library of New South Wales