Wordie, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition [Weddell Sea Party]

• MS 1605/9/1;D Geology Notes about Antarctic fossils, 12 leaves, holograph
• MS 1605/9/2;D Geology notes about Antarctic fossils, 14 leaves, transcript
• MS 1605/9/3;D Geology Notes about plate tectonics, 5 leaves, holograph
• MS 1605/10/1;D Final list of Noon positions of Endurance, 20 leaves, photostat copy
• MS 1605/13/1;MSM Bathymetry chart, drift of Endurance
• MS 1605/13/2;MSM Bathymetry chart to show the drift in the ice of Endurance [Compared to James Weddell's voyage and Wilhelm Filchner's voyage]
• MS 1605/13/3;MSM&4;D Cartography chart of MS 1605/13/2;MSM and accompanying letter from Stamfords Cartographers, London, 1 leaf, 1 chart

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, [Weddell Sea Party] 1914-1916 (leader Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton) set out to cross the Antarctic continent. When Endurance was beset this goal was abandoned. The ship drifted for ten months before being crushed in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea and sinking in 1915. The entire company spent five months on the ice before escaping in the three lifeboats to Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands. Two of the life boats were made into a shelter for the company while Shackleton, Thomas Crean, Frank Worsley, Timothy McCarthy, Harold McNish and John Vincent sailed 1450Km to South Georgia in the James Caird. Arriving at South Georgia Shackleton, Crean and Worsley made the first major trek across the island to the whaling station at Stromness. The steam tug Yelcho rescued the men on Elephant island in August 1916.

Chronological.

The Scott Polar Research Institute holds a number of photographs, film and other illustrative material in the Picture Library, some of which covers this expedition. The catalogue can be searched on line by going to the Picture Library Database and selecting the Enter Polar Pictures link.

The Institute holds over thirty archival collections containing material relating to this expedition see SPRI collection GB 015 Imperial trans-Antarctic Expedition, [Weddell Sea Party] 1914-1916, for more information.