Looking for a map of Antarctica circa 1914 that Shackleton would have used

[Doug B]

Found a reference to the Admiralty “Sailing Directions” and how Shackleton’s leaders all talked of where to go to on the boats. The “Sailing Directions” speak of depots of food, a cave, a church (the crew needed wood…) so for our experience – we would like to create Shackleton’s map. So we want to add possible stores of provisions, potential rescue locations, where whalers whaled then, shipping routes so they might be noticed… any thoughts?

Some background. We’ve had this passion project for many years. Its an immersive learning experience called Lead the Endurance. The participants join the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition with Shackleton and his crew. They face similar (not) hardships and explore how they lead themselves, their teams and their organizations. We are pretty passionate about this journey as it is one of the greatest stories of leadership ever. We have a bias toward things nautical. We have another experience called Save the Titanic which has won awards. Where leaders take over the Titanic moments after hitting the iceberg.

Doug Bolger

[Frank Scott]

Admiralty Sailing Directions are books of navigational guidance, each volume covering a specific area. Volume 9 covers the Antarctic, and you would need the edition current at the time Shackleton was there. You would also need the relevant Admiralty charts of the time. UK Hydrographic Office has an archive which you can search on-line: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-ukho-archive#research & if you wish research visits can be arranged (all details on the website).
Frank

[Doug B]

Frank, you are amazing. Thank you. You aimed our team right where to look.

Interestly, we travelled to the US for US Thanksgiving (we are Canadian). And a couple we met there both work at Library of Congress. They showed us the search capabilities and put us on to Nat Geo too. Was unaware of all these resources and how many are digitized. I tried to see what the British Library had yet its quite limited. Surely you know of these resources. And I was pleasantly surprized! Thank you for responding and helping us.
Doug

[Anonymous]

A small group of members of the Navlist Celestial Navigation Forum have researched Shackleton’s journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. To quote from a message on the forum:

“A small group of NavList correspondents have recently completed an extensive article about Frank Worsley and his Navigational Log of the Journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island. We have been able to fully resolve the chronometer issue as well as determining the chart that Worsley used! We finally have a cohesive arrangement.

Further, our paper has now been accepted for publication. Very exciting news. Of course there will be a period of editing and peer review by the publisher, so you won’t get to see the paper just yet. Every page from the original source document that comprises the journey will be photographically reproduced in the article, permitting, finally, your examination of Worsley’s actual numbers, as he wrote them. The very updated transcript will be included, including labeled explanations of each day of the navigators work along with the equations explained and used.”

A link to the forum is

Worsley Transcript

A link to the paper can be found at

Worsley Log Paper

The discussion on the subject is extensive and under various headlines so you will need to search the forum for Worsley and Shackleton.

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