Amundsen led a team of five men to the Pole. The ship and most of the crew stayed at the shore. Scott reached Antarctica in early January 1912. When his expedition was ready to leave Norway, he heard that an American explorer had just been the first to reach the North Pole, so he quickly changed his plans.Īmundsen reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911, and returned to Europe with mild weather (by polar standards). Scott set out to be the first to reach the South Pole, but Amundsen originally planned to go to the North Pole.

The Polar Race between Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and British explorer Robert Scott was actually never a race at all. After 1912, Ernest Shackleton believed the only remarkable journey left was to cross the entire continent on foot, rather than stopping halfway at the South Pole, and he believed the British empire had to accomplish it. In 1912, a Norwegian explorer was the first to reach the South Pole, beating British explorer Robert Scott, who died racing against the Norwegian. The British had conducted several expeditions to Antarctica but had few noteworthy accomplishments. Although Lansing doesn’t use the term, he cites events during that time that inspired Shackleton to pursue his expedition. The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration refers to the period between 18. Famed explorer Robert Scott led the expedition and Shackleton participated as the third lieutenant.) The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (Shortform note: Before the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the most important British achievement in the exploration of the Antarctic was the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04, which didn’t reach the South Pole but got farther south than any exploration before it. Shackleton’s Endurance expedition was intended to be the first to cross the entire Antarctic continent by foot, and it was an opportunity for the British Empire to leave a lasting legacy in the exploration of Antarctica. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was Shackleton’s third journey to the South Pole. Background of Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition Read below for a background of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition. But before getting into the details of the shipwreck, he gives a brief overview of other Antarctic expeditions that inspired Shackleton to conduct his own expedition. In Endurance, Alfred Lansing recounts the unsuccessful Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. What do you need to know before learning about the Endurance shipwreck? Was Ernest Shackleton qualified to lead an Antarctic expedition? Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading. This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to 'Endurance' by Alfred Lansing.

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