Antarctica East 2026

Jan 19: Cape Royds

The  Nimrod Expedition was Shackleton’s first major expedition (but overshadowed by his Endurance expedition). He sailed from NZ on the ship Nimrod, a 40 year old converted Norwegian sealer on Jan 1, 1908. Shackleton assured Scott that he didn’t intend to enter McMurdo Sound, but thick sea ice forced Shackleton to settle on a site at McMurdo Sound named Cape Royds.

They constructed a hut at Cape Royds  and this is what we visited today.

Mawson was part of  this expedition. The plan was to survive one winter in the hut they built in 1908. The expedition was significant for a number of reasons: it was the first ascent of Mt Erebus, the world’s most active volcano and here is a picture of the beautiful Mt Erebus and the location of Shackleton’s hut near the base of the mountain. 

This expedition to ascend Mt Erebus was difficult and the team members returned to the  hut nearly dead. One of them had bad frostbite and they made a cage  to protect his legs from being stuck to the blanket when he slept, shown in picture below.

This hut felt much friendlier and less hierarchical than Scott’s hut as all slept in same area, and no differentiation was made between senior and less senior members. Pictures show their food supplies, including hocks of ham, their laboratory, and their boots.

The other reasons why it was significant was that they took a printing press with them and published the first book (Aurora Australis)to be printed in Antarctica,  which contained poems and stories written by the expedition members. 70 copies are known to exist.  And they also pioneered the use of a motor car on Antarctica and the wheel of the Arrol-Johnston is still at the hut. Outside the hut you can see where the ponies and dogs lived.

Another major reason for the significance of this expedition is that in Oct 1908 Shackleton, Wild and two others set out to reach the South Pole. They became the first men to see the polar plateau. By late Dec 1908, they were running out of food. On Jan 9 1909 they made a last dash to get as far south as possible and reached  88.22”S about 90 miles from pole itself, but then turned back 

In the summer of 2010 (more than 100 years later), 3 crates of Mackinlay’s whisky were excavated (Shackleton was a great whisky drinker and when you visit his grave on South Georgia island, you are offered a glass of whisky …..). The owner of the brand (Whyte & Mackay) transported 3 bottles of the excavated whisky back to Scotland where it has undergone scientific analysis. In April 2011, Whyte & Mackay’s master blender successfully recreated an exact replica of the 100 year old whisky ( unsurprisingly called Shackleton’s whisky)

The bottles and crates have been returned to the hut at Cape Royds.

Near the hut there was an Adélie penguin colony.

The day finished with a concert on the helipad at the back of the ship in the most magical setting. As the sun shone brightly (at 10 pm), we sailed through large pieces of ice and past huge and beautiful icebergs, and orca whales, listening to our cruise directors sing some uplifting songs to match the landscape.

Another magical day