Monthly Archives: July 2014

Taking off in his Blériot XI-2 plane, from Cruden Bay, Scotland, [Tryggve] Gran landed 4 hours 10 minutes later at Kleppe, near Stavanger, Norway, after a flight of 465 kilometres (289 mi). “It is the longest oversea flight without sight … Continue reading →

Tsar Nicholas II and King George V Kaiser Wilhelm II “Wilhelm’s left arm was damaged during birth; throughout his life he could not dress or cut his food without help. He was jocular but cold and arrogant and prone to … Continue reading →

Robert Clark, biologist “Both [Clark and Wordie] were ‘dour Aberdonians.’” — Roland Huntford, Shackleton “He was never quite so excited as when he had found a new or novel specimen for his biological collections. […] Clark was known for his … Continue reading →

Sir James Wordie, known as “Jock,” geologist and head of the expedition’s scientific staff. “Wordie was recommended to Shackleton for the expedition by Raymond Priestley (later knighted) who had been the geologist on the Nimrod expedition. He was expedition geologist … Continue reading →

“Mrs. Chippy” perched on Perce Blackborow “Henry McNish was one of the oldest members of the expedition, a Scot of whom Shackleton wrote was “the only man I’m not dead certain of”. This somewhat curmudgeonly figure was the ship’s carpenter … Continue reading →

“[McNeish was] neither sweet-tempered nor tolerant and his Scots voice could rasp like frayed wire cable. He had no use whatever for a gangling first-tripper who spoke, as he expressed it, “like a pimp at a whore’s tea-party”… I loved … Continue reading →

“Like men longing for a thunderstorm to relieve them of the summer’s sultriness, so the generation of 1914 believed in the relief that war might bring.” — a Hapsburg official, quoted in Thunder at Twilight, by Frederic Morton

Ernest Shackleton (second from left), Queen Alexandra (third from left), Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, Emily Shackleton (in white), Edward Shackleton (child). “Shackleton received Queen Alexandra when, at her own desire, she inspected Endurance at the London docks, and … Continue reading →

“Cheetham the veteran of the Antarctic had been more often south than any other man.” — Ernest Shackleton, on Alfred Cheetham, third officer aboard the Endurance “Alfred Cheetham was born in 1867 in Liverpool. He was a small, lean man … Continue reading →