The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Shackleton set his sights on another expedition, this one with higher sights than any expedition before him. The others had set out to reach the South Pole; he planned to cross the whole continent. It took him a while, but he managed to get together enough money for his adventure. Many people donated money, and he received money other ways, too, like selling movie rights to studios, and turning the Nimrod into a museum with charged admission. Shackleton bought a ship from Norway, named Polaris, but she had never sailed before. He renamed her Endurance, based on his family motto, “Fortiduine Vincimus” or, “By Endurance We Conquer”. In fact, he needed two vessels to complete his journey. While he would be making his trip overland from the Weddell Sea, he would have a different set of people depositing caches of food and supplies along the route he planned to take starting from the other side. He purchased the Aurora, a sealer that had belonged to his friend, Douglas Mawson. He hired some of his crew in Britain, hiring the rest in Buenos Aires. While the Endurance Expedition had been of quite keen interest to the British, the launch was overshadowed by the breakout of World War I, and Shackleton volunteered his ship to the war efforts. The Admiralty, however, sent him a telegram telling him to go ahead with the expedition.