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

• MS 1619/12;D Neptune's Certificate, 15 September 1914 [Equatorial Atlantic] 2 leaves, typescript copy
• MS 1619/14;D Journal, 26 October to 29 November 1914 [Buenos Aires to South Georgia] 51 leaves (two pages missing), carbon copy
• MS 1619/15;D Biology Log Book, compiled c.1919 but referring to 5 December 1914 to 16 April 1916 [Records dredging results, wildlife seen or captured, contents of stomachs, a few non scientific events noted, occasional entries for 1919] 1 volume, holograph
• MS 1619/13;D A collection of autograph notes and typescripts of seven lectures and articles on Antarctic subjects, 1919 to 1936 [Titles include South Atlantic whales and whaling, Life in the Polar waste, Exploration of the Southern Polar seas, Life in Antarctica and The Value of Antarctic Exploration] 43 leaves
• MS 1619/16;D Biological and positional notes and dates of events [Some transcribed from Worsley's log] 20 leaves, holograph

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.