Talk:Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition/Archive 1

Speedy Deletion
Why on earth is this article a canadite for speedy deletion? Alyeska 23:52, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Perce Blackborrow
I am related to the Blackborrow family and a native of Newport, Wales. I have added an article on Blackborrow which helps to amplify the heroism of the entre crew of Endurance as well as being a story well worth telling in its own right. Blackborrow is known as Perce in family and local records and I have altered the spellings here and elsewhere in Wikipedia but I of course acknowledge that he is referred to in many published books as Percy Blackborrow. I am unaware of sources for the spellings Blackborow or Blackboro. --Belloway 18:52, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Is the ad genuine?
The ad for the expedition is probably not genuine. This web site has a long discussion of the ad, attempting to verify the source. Various people met with no success, and their consensus seems to be that the ad text was invented decades later.

(http://www.antarctic-circle.org/advert.htm)

Since I have not checked the original references I am not in a position to modify the entry, but perhaps a footnote is in order saying that the ad is questioned?


 * I removed the advert. I've never found a source that verifies it. Joyous! | Talk 03:16, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Michael Smith, Nov 16, 2006

The reference to the outbreak of war is wrong. 1st August is the day Germany declared war on Russia. The British Declaration of war on Germany was on 3rd of August.

Clean up
A lot of good work here, but it needs editing for spelling, grammar and phraseology. Tyrenius 06:48, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

units of measure
Contrary to Manual of Style (dates and numbers), only Imperial Units are used. This needs fixing. 155.56.68.220 13:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Haakon Bay
I was under the impression that Shackleton's party crossed South Georgia island in order to reach help at Grytviken. It was described as the first crossing of the mountainous interior of that island and a treacherous one. If true, this part of their journey should be included. Pendragon39 22:09, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Trivia (moved from article)

 * All but four of the men on the expedition received Britain's Polar Medal. Three of those who did not were carpenter Harry McNeish, seaman John Vincent, and fireman William Stevenson. (ref: The Endurance (2000)) The fourth was fireman Ernest Holness.
 * The expedition had its headquarters at 4 New Burlington Street in London, England.
 * Due to Shackleton's fame and the public interest in polar exploration at the time, nearly 5,000 applications were received from those interested in taking part in the expedition. (ref: Shackleton, South)
 * Shackleton later wrote that most of the public schools in England donated money so that dogs could be purchased for the expedition, and that a dog was named after each school that did so. (ref: Shackleton, South)
 * Frank Worsley later wrote that many of the dogs were actually wolves and "we had to be careful how we showed any affection for them, for if one of us patted or took too much notic of any particular dog, his neighbors, in a frenzy of jealous rage, would attack him as soon as we had walked away." (ref: Worsley, Endurance)
 * Three surviving dogs from the Ross Sea Party, Oscar, Gunner, and Towser, were afterwards brought to the Wellington zoo in New Zealand. None of the dogs from the Weddell Sea expedition survived.
 * The Endurance, specially built for polar travel, was moved from the East India Docks on August 1, 1914 towards Plymouth from where it would finally depart England. By an odd quirk of fate, this was the same day that Germany delcared war on Russia, three days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and only a few days before Britain herself would enter the war. Shackleton spent a long time weighing whether it was still appropriate to go under these circumstances. However, after extensive consultations with the expedition members, Shackleton sent a telegrammed note to the Admiralty placing the expedition at the disposal of the government, and only a single word came back in reply: 'proceed'. A later response came directly from Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty. While it seems likely that Shackleton and his crew may have received some criticism for leaving on the eve of the war, Frank Worsley later wrote that the Admiralty's response was consistent with their behavior of backing exploration even during substantial conflicts, and at the time in 1914, many thought that the war would be over quickly, perhaps in as little as six months.
 * Despite his telegram telling Shackleton to "proceed", privately Churchill reacted negatively to Shackleton's idea: "Enough life and money has been spent on this sterile quest. The pole has already been discovered. What is the use in another expedition?" (ref: The Endurance (2000))

Advanced Time
According to Shackleton's book "South" they advanced their time by one hour on 1915-09-26, thereby becoming the first Europeans to do so. That seems to me to deserve a mention.

82.163.24.100 12:21, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Units
Much of the adventure was captured on film, as 28 men endured 22 months in the Antarctic with temperatures of −35 °C (−37 °F) This equivalency is incorrect. -35 C is -31 F, while -37 F is -38 C. So, which is correct? Hmm ... actually, -35 F is -37 C, so perhaps the labels were reversed? I don't know which is correct, so I'm not changing this myself Nik42 18:11, 10 April 2007 (UTC)