Produced by Tim Lindell, Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) Transcriber’s Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. On page 291, “Groote Schur” should possibly be “Groote Schuur”. SHACKLETON’S LAST VOYAGE [Illustration: THE CAIRN _Photo: Wilkins_] SHACKLETON’S LAST VOYAGE. The Story of the _Quest_. By Commander FRANK WILD, C.B.E. From the Official Journal and Private Diary kept by Dr. A. H. MACKLIN _With Frontispiece in Colour, numerous Maps and over 100 Illustrations from Photographs_ CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1923 First Published _May 1923_. Second Edition _June 1923_. _Reprinted November 1923_ Printed in Great Britain To THE BOSS “_Yonder the far horizon lies, And there by night and day The old ships draw to port again, The young ships sail away. And go I must and come I may, And if men ask you why, You may lay the blame on the stars and the sun And the white road and the sky._” GERALD GOULD PREFACE Sir Ernest Shackleton died suddenly; so suddenly that he said no word at all with regard to the future of the expedition. But I know that had he foreseen his death and been able to communicate to me his wishes, they would have been summed up in the two words, “Carry on!” Perhaps the most difficult part of my task has been the recording of the work of the expedition. It has been to me a very sad duty, and one which I would gladly have avoided had it been possible. The demand, however, for the complete story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last expedition has been so widespread and insistent that I could no longer withhold it. In the subsequent pages of this book the reader will find recorded the story of the voyage of the _Quest_, the tight little ship that carried us through over twenty thousand miles of stormy ocean and brought us safely back. I make no claim to literary style, but have endeavoured to set forth a plain and simple narrative. The writings of explorers vary, but in my opinion they have all one common fault, which is, that they have attempted to combine in one volume the scientific results with the more popular story of the expedition. This book is for the public. I have sought to eliminate the mass of scientific details with which my journal is filled, to avoid technical terms, and to retain only that which can be easily understood by all.