Shackleton's Argonauts

Frank Hurley was invited to join Shackleton's Antarctic expedition after his success as photographer on Mawson's expedition. Financiers recognised the potential to make big money from excellent film and photographs of the expedition. It was the financiers who insisted that Shackleton secure Frank Hurley on this trip.

Armed with a cinematograph machine and a plate camera, as well a several small hand held cameras, Hurley set about cataloguing the departure from Buenos Aires, where he was to meet the expedition, and the journey to South Georgia and the time they spent in the Whaling stations there.
It was a time when whaling was a poplar enterprise, and Hurley' description of the sea and shore around the stations was disgusting, and even then there was talk that the numbers of whales in the area were low and the whalers were travelling further and further to find whales. There was no negative connotations around the practice however, as the world hadn't yet recognised the impact on whale numbers.

And so, off they set for Antarctica on Endurance a, story well known. When the ship becomes trapped in ice they had not achieved the dropping of the shore party - something that probably helped their survival, as they had the manpower to achieve the salvage of boats, stores and materials; they had all the dog teams and sleds etc.

Anyone having previously read the excellent book by Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, will already have a very good understanding of how the story plays out. What Hurley's book offers here is more of a look at the experiences on Elephant Island while Shackleton and the sailors set off for South Georgia, 750 miles away, in the James Caird to secure a rescue. While the men initially had hopes of a rescue within 4-5 weeks of Shackleton's departure, it soon became apparent that they would need to winter over, once again. Hurley, with Frank Wild was one of the leaders on Elephant Island.

Of course, Hurley had to abandon most of this photographs. Of the 400 glass plates he had before the Endurance was trapped in ice, Hurley and Shackleton selected 120 to keep. These along with the hand held film camera made up the sole photographs of the expedition. Some of the best are shared in this book - the most well known of which is a study of the Endurance by flashlight, sitting high above an ice crest, hull and rigging encrusted with rime-crystals. Such a ghostly image, with the ship white on a black background. Another poignant photo is taken by Hurley, standing back with the Elephant Island men in the foreground, facing the distant boat, waving their arms in joy as the log awaited rescue is made.

An excellent book, which deserved more reading than is evident on this site.
5 stars