Blog Mirror: The Wreck of Shackleton’s “Last Ship” Quest Discovered

 

The Wreck of Shackleton’s “Last Ship” Quest Discovered

Wednesday, November 14, 1923. In from the cold.

German Gen. Hans von Seeckt ordered that Berlin cafés, halls and cabarets must admit the city's poor and cold in order to warm themselves, least the Government seize them to be used for that purpose.

Von Seeckt's tomb.

Von Seeckt had been an important figure in the Imperial German Army before going on to be a major figure in the Reichswehr.  He was in the German parliament from 1930 to 32 as a member of a center right party, but turned towards the hard right thereafter.  He was assigned to the German military mission in China in 1933, where he restored the failing relationship with the Nationalist Chinese.  His advice lead to the 1934 Nationalist campaign that resulted in the Communist Long March.

Germany suspended payments on its reparations.

New Zealand's laws were extended to Antarctica as Governor General John Jellicoe applied its jurisdiction to the Ross Dependency.

Monday, July 30, 1923. Harding in grave condition.

President Harding was reported to e in "grave" condition, which indeed he was.

Summer life, of course, went on for many, which included camps for some.

And protests for others.

And Reserve training, as in these men from D.C.'s Naval Reserve were doing.

The British Empire claimed the Ross Dependency in Antarctica and expressed a desire that, save for some territory belonging to Chile, Argentina and France, the Empire should come to own the entire continent.

The Dependency today is claimed by New Zealand, a claim recognized only by other countries claiming Antarctic lands.

POLAR PREET Army Officer, Physiotherapist, Nordic Skier, Ultra-marathon Runner, Endurance Athlete

 POLAR PREET

Army Officer, Physiotherapist, Nordic Skier, Ultra-marathon Runner, Endurance Athlete

Yikes, now I feel like such slacker.

Thursday January 5, 1922. Interruptions.

On this day in 1922, A.B. Kent of the London Times was kidnapped by the Irish Republican Army, which was upset about an article he had written regarding public opinion in Cork on the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

He was having lunch at a pub at the time.

They released him later that evening.

The Washington Naval Conference adopted a declaration outlawing submarine warfare against merchant ships.

The French, including the French Armenian Legion, withdrew from the Turkish city of Adana which they had held in Turkish Armenia for three years.

Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer, age 47, died of a heart attack.  He almost certainly had an earlier one in Brazil on his way to the Antarctic but had refused medical treatment.  His ship was docked at South Georgia at the time, where he was buried.

South Georgia.

Wednesday, January 4, 1922

In the darkening twilight I saw a lone star hover gem-like above the bay

Ernest Shackleton’s last diary entry, written aboard the Quest, at South Georgia Island, January 4, 1922

Street in Seattle Washington, January 4, 1922.

February 24, 1941. Faraway Places.

USS Bear in 1944.

On this day in 1941 two ships arrived in the Antarctic to evacuate personnel from Admiral Byrd's 1939-40 expedition, an event I would have been completely unaware of but for this item:

Today in World War II History—February 24, 1941

Two ships were involved, the USS Bear and the USCGC North Star.

USS Bear in 1939.

The Bear was a combination steam powered and sail powered vessel, something that was very common in the late days of sail.  She was acquired by the Coast Guard as she was a cold weather ship and the forerunner of ice breakers. Given her service in the Arctic and Antarctic, she's regarded as the most famous ship to serve in the Coast Guard.   Built as a sealer in 1874, she was sold to the United States in 1884 and served under a variety of names, although normally they retained the name "Bear" in some fashion.  She was resold to a Canadian owner, again for sealing, but never put back into that use, in 1948.  In 1962 she was sold to a restauranteur who intended to make her into a floating restaurant but she sank while undertow, a sad end for the long serving ship.

USCGC North Star.

The North Star was a cutter that had originally entered service with the Department of the Interior in 1932 for events such as this and then became a Coast Guard Cutter in 1941.  She provided escort service with the Coast Guard starting in July 1941, prior to the U.S. entry into World War Two. She was decommissioned in 1945.

On the same day, the RAF bombed the French city of Brest.

Other events occurring on this day:

Day 544 February 25, 1941

Monday, October 26, 1914. Wars within wars.

Wars within wars, a feature of World War One and World War Two, commenced with a battle between the Austro Hungarian backed Polish Legion and the Imperial Russian Army.  The Russians prevaled in the action at at the villages of Laski and Anielin.

Both the Austro Hungarians and the Russians would back different bands of Polish nationalists.

British and French colonial troops captured Edéa in German Cameroon.

The Norwegian schooner Endurance, carrying members of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition arrived at the South Georgia Islands.

In another expedition, this one much further north, Captain Robert Bartlett and eight survivors of Karluk arrived in Victoria, British Columbia on USS Bear.

HMS Liverpool and HMS Fury with RMS Olympic, try to take the sinking HMS Audacious in tow. October 26, 1914.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 25, 1914. Change of command.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, German Army, World War One

Saturday, August 8, 1914. Leaving for the Antarctic.

The UK passed the first Defence of the Realm Act authorizing wartime censorship.

French forces took Muhouse in Alsace, although they'd be pushed back out two days later.

German colonial authorities executed Cameroonian resistance leaders Martin-Paul Samba and Rudolf Duala Manga Bell for treason.

The Shackleton Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition left the UK for Antarctica, seemingly out of context and now out of their own times.

Last edition:

Friday, August 7, 1914. The BEF arrives in France.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Alaska, Alsace-Lorraine, Battle of the Frontiers, British Army, British Empire, French Army, Ghana, Spain, World War One

Monday, June 14, 1909 Shackleton returns. The Age of Exploration. The Age of Assassination.

Ernest Shackleton returned to London and received a hero's welcome.  King Edward VII knighted the Antarctic explorer.

After World War One Shackleton, his health no doubt strained due to the rigors of his trials in exploration, died in the Falklands at age 47.  As a practical matter, the Great War effectively ended the final age of exploration.

Japanese Prince Itō Hirobumi was forced to resign as Japan's Resident-General of Korea.  Three months later, he would be assassinated, which would lead Japan to annex what had been a protectorate.

Four Caribbean monk seals (Monachus tropicalis) were brought to the New York Aquarium.  They were the only ones ever held in captivity.

The last known monk seal died in 1952 and NOAA declared them extinct in 2008.

Burl Ives was born.  The charming folk singer and actor was a popular folk figure for many years, in spite of a 1930s association with far left wing politics.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, June 10, 1909. The Lincoln penny introduced.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1950s, 1958, Art, Currency

Saturday, January 16, 1909. The Magnetic South Pole.

Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson and Alistair Mackay became the first people to reach the South Magnetic Pole, after calculating where it would be in 24 hours and allowing it to drift to them.