When did Shackleton start his expedition? What happened on Shackleton’s expedition?

Ernest Shackleton was 33 years old when he led his first expedition to Antarctica, determined to be the first to reach the Geographic South Pole. His ship, Nimrod, departed England in August 1907, sailing via New Zealand before anchoring at Cape Royds in early 1908.

The expedition recorded many firsts, including climbing the world’s southernmost volcano, Mt Erebus. Since being invalided home with scurvy in 1903 from Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery expedition, on which he was the third officer, Shackleton was fixated on getting back to the ice.

For over a year he drew up cost-cutting schemes and engineered introductions to rich businessmen, and by late 1906 was close to giving up. Finally, his steelworks employer William Beardmore, and several other businessmen, agreed to guarantee a bank loan for £20,000, and Shackleton announced his plans on 11 February 1907.

He would lead an expedition to Antarctica, with the primary goal of reaching the South Pole. Although funds were tight, Shackleton recruited 14 men who would make up the shore party of the expedition and purchased the 200 ton Nimrod.

Nimrod sailed from Lyttelton, New Zealand, on New Year’s Day 1908. The ship was waved off by a crowd of thousands. The ship was dangerously overloaded with 255 tons of coal, equipment, and food, and had just one meter of freeboard.

Shackleton headed for an inlet on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf where he intended to establish his base, but since his last visit, many kilometers of the ice shelf had caved into the sea.

Faced by impenetrable pack ice he was forced to head for McMurdo Sound, despite his promise to Scott to avoid it.

Again he was frustrated by pack ice and unable to reach Hut Point near the site of the present-day United States McMurdo Station. Finally, he selected a site to winter over at, 32km further north at Cape Royds, named by Captain Scott’s Discovery expedition after its meteorologist, Lieutenant Charles Royds, RN.