1 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:11,040 William. 2 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:13,200 William. 3 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:16,320 William. 4 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:18,240 He gets a bit scared sometimes. 5 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:23,600 William, this is William. 6 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:25,240 William is our workshop mascot. 7 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:28,440 He's been living on the pillar drill for the last 15 years, 8 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:30,680 so you can see he's slightly... 9 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:32,240 HE COUGHS 10 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:32,240 ..dusty. 11 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,400 William actually makes sure that we all go home with ten fingers 12 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:38,680 and two eyes. 13 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:43,840 My real title is Object Conservator, 14 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:45,880 something I genuinely like. 15 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:50,520 We all rot, we all change. 16 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,040 We try to manage deterioration. 17 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:56,000 That's really the real essence of it. 18 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,360 Apply that and that actually strengthens timber then, 19 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,320 because at the moment it will just crumble under your chisel. 20 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:04,360 We started in 1999. 21 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:06,480 This was again a mad idea. 22 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,200 Why would you do this at the edge of Europe, as far away 23 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:11,840 from your clients as you can ever be? 24 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:14,720 But we established ourselves as one of the leading workshops 25 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,680 in the country to preserve and conserve Irish heritage. 26 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,920 So we've worked really on anything from Mary's kitchen chair 27 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:26,840 to the gates of Kilmainham Gaol here. 28 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:31,360 The variety is rather large. 29 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:35,160 You never know what's going to happen. 30 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:36,840 That's the great thing. 31 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:40,920 Isn't it? Yeah. He agrees. 32 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,480 We've noticed over the last ten or so years a huge interest 33 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:10,800 in Shackleton and his story. 34 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,400 And on that basis, we've been turning towards creating a dedicated 35 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:16,440 Shackleton museum here in Athy. 36 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,560 We have an opportunity now to acquire a very special artefact. 37 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:22,240 The family over in Norway have sent us across some images they took 38 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:24,760 a number of years ago, and this appears to show 39 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:27,040 what they describe as Shackleton's cabin in the garden 40 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:29,320 of their property. 41 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:31,840 It's actually the cabin in which Shackleton died 42 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:34,760 from Shackleton's last ship called the Quest. 43 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,200 If this is the true cabin in which he died in, 44 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:40,640 it's like the Holy Grail of Antarctic artefacts. 45 00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:41,680 Yes. 46 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:48,120 Now, the reason why Shackleton's so important to us here in Athy 47 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,640 is that he was born only seven miles from this museum in 1874, 48 00:02:51,640 --> 00:02:53,200 in a place called Kilkea. 49 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:55,560 He's often described as a British explorer, but actually 50 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:56,760 he was very much an Irish man. 51 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:59,440 His family were here since the 1720s. 52 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:03,920 If we could have the cabin which he actually breathed 53 00:03:03,920 --> 00:03:06,640 his last breaths, it'd be extraordinary for us. 54 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:09,520 Yeah, I'm speechless. 55 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:16,320 Shackleton on his way out, fag in his hand, waving his hat, 56 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:18,720 big smile on his face. He was 47. 57 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:23,760 The Quest expedition, which was his last and his fourth 58 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:25,520 expedition, is not well known. 59 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,160 So hopefully it will help people to understand 60 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,280 what the men went through. 61 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:35,080 It's actually up in northern Norway, north of the Arctic Circle. 62 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,960 So the logistics of getting it back to Ireland are going 63 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:39,720 to be extraordinarily challenging. 64 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:45,040 What we're after is to find as many details as possible to make 65 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:47,680 absolutely sure that we're dealing with the original cabin. 66 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,400 As with most subject matters, only when you start diving into it, 67 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:56,760 do you actually realise how deep it is. 68 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:04,480 ARCHIVE NEWSREEL: Sir Ernest Shackleton, explorer and poet, 69 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,000 died on an Antarctic voyage 5,000 miles from home. 70 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,520 His ship, the Quest, drove on into the polar ice. 71 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:24,000 On 5th January 1922, Shackleton died in Grytviken, 72 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,440 which is in South Georgia. 73 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:31,080 Eventually, when the boat returned, as usual with all the expeditions, 74 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:32,400 they owed a bit of money. 75 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:34,160 The boat had to be sold. 76 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,080 The boat went back to Norway where it came from, 77 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,880 and on the shipyard they took this cabin off the deck. 78 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:45,760 This is the shipyard where my grand grandfather helped. 79 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:50,600 One of the men working in the shipyard said, "I'll have that," 80 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:53,280 and used it as a garden shed for 90 years. 81 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:57,160 And it was passed down in the family until eventually Ulf Bakke passed 82 00:04:57,160 --> 00:04:58,560 it on to Athy. 83 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:01,640 You're happy that the cabin is going to a good home? 84 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:03,720 Yeah, for sure. For sure. Good. 85 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:05,960 So it's quite a story. 86 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:10,480 Are you going to be sorry to see the cabin go from your garden? 87 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:11,920 Yes, I will be crying. 88 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:14,400 You'll be crying? Yes, crying. Oh, no. 89 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:15,600 OK. 90 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:19,520 NEWSREADER: The cabin in which Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton 91 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:21,880 died has been shipped to Ireland. 92 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:25,560 It'll be restored in Galway before being taken to his birthplace 93 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:27,400 for permanent exhibition. 94 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:46,120 Wow. 95 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:06,280 It's great to have her finally here. 96 00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:08,480 And it all seems very healthy. 97 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:10,360 Now we can start the work. 98 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:15,720 So the other half, that half was occupied by Frank Wild, 99 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:19,480 his second in command, and then Shackleton was on this side. 100 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:24,480 Everybody would expect him to die in a crevasse or being eaten 101 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:27,360 by strange animals, or drowning. 102 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:29,400 But he just died in his bed. 103 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:36,720 And pretty much the procedure with objects coming in 104 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:38,040 are very similar. 105 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:42,320 So the first thing we do is to investigate, just by looking. 106 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:46,120 I mean, just go in there and spend many hours in there 107 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:47,840 and to really look at every part. 108 00:06:47,840 --> 00:06:50,320 How is it constructed, make lots of sketches. 109 00:06:57,040 --> 00:07:00,000 A lot of our clients have a very deep and intimate connection 110 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:01,360 with their objects. 111 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:04,840 I don't get personally connected. 112 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,600 Sometimes you might get carried away. 113 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,120 Luckily, I always try to hold myself back and just say, 114 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:14,320 "Listen, it's just a wooden box." 115 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:20,800 Especially on this subject matter, it's heavily romanticised. 116 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:25,080 We spend many, many, many weeks in the research - 117 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:29,920 base everything I see and find on evidence. 118 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:31,720 Two inches there. 119 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:38,280 It's not often that I can actually stand inside an object. 120 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:42,360 I'm really looking forward to this...journey. 121 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:45,320 The quest of the Quest. 122 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:53,760 We were very lucky that we had a very good image of the interior 123 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:57,160 of Shackleton's cabin in the Scott Polar Research 124 00:07:57,160 --> 00:07:59,000 Institute in Cambridge. 125 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,880 This photo was definitely stage set for this purpose. 126 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:07,680 I don't think his bed linen would be that immaculately white. 127 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:10,760 So I think this must have been at the beginning of the journey, 128 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:12,000 or very early on. 129 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:16,720 It's a rectangular space. 130 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:18,240 The bunk on the left. 131 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:20,200 And straight ahead, you have a little cabinet 132 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:23,360 with an elliptical mirror, and on the right-hand wall 133 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:24,760 is a bookcase. 134 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,920 Shackleton was a keen reader and he encouraged all his crew 135 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:29,880 as well to read. 136 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,960 Underneath it is a wash stand and there's another very small 137 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,400 little glass support, I would call it, next to his bed. 138 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:45,160 So I know that the boards, the backboards, are 160mm, 139 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:48,760 so I can transfer those measurements and, in the end, measure everything 140 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:51,960 within the cabin and that will help us then to actually rebuild 141 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:56,520 these pieces to scale and make sure it looks pretty much identical 142 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:58,040 to the image. 143 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,080 So let's make it 32 inches. 144 00:09:03,560 --> 00:09:09,120 Without that photograph, we wouldn't even have a journey, I think. 145 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:13,720 It would be just a garden shed and I would not be involved 146 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:17,440 in inventing something that could have been in there. 147 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:19,880 Now, the depth of it. Erm... 148 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:24,320 Often you find something and that gives you a lead 149 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:25,800 and you just keep on going. 150 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:29,640 It's a bit like a crime scene investigation, you could call it. 151 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:47,000 So as part of the research, we recently found this new source. 152 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:51,080 Just by pure coincidence, I found this amazing blog which followed 153 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:53,320 the Quest expedition. 154 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:55,760 Miraculously, some of these images appeared 155 00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:57,320 that I had never seen before, 156 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:01,280 and cos there's only a very small amount of images available. 157 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:04,120 John Quiller Rowett, the man who actually financed 158 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:07,440 the Quest expedition, visited the boat in Southampton 159 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:10,360 in the shipyard, and his visit was documented 160 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:12,040 with these photographs. 161 00:10:13,920 --> 00:10:16,560 Really interesting and very, very important documents. 162 00:10:16,560 --> 00:10:19,360 And to have them is just fantastic. 163 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:24,440 I was so surprised that I contacted the man behind it. 164 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:30,440 It's actually the grandson of John Quiller Rowett, Jan Chojecki. 165 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:33,880 The fact that after 100 years this has now come to light 166 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:35,240 is very exciting. 167 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:41,200 So your grandfather knew Shackleton from Dulwich College. 168 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:42,720 They weren't in the same year. 169 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:44,080 They were two years different. 170 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,400 So Shackleton was two years senior to my grandfather. 171 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:50,720 So they weren't best buddies, you know, that kind of thing. 172 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:52,440 But they walked the same route to school. 173 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:56,160 Rolling forward to 1920, which is when Shackleton 174 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:58,800 really had the urge to get away again. 175 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:02,760 So he planned an expedition to the Arctic to go 176 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:05,640 in summer of 1921, Northern Hemisphere, 177 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:08,920 Come the beginning of May, he still hadn't 178 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:10,840 got the funding. The funding, yeah. 179 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:12,040 You know? 180 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:15,560 And really getting too late to go north in that summer. 181 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:21,680 He approached my grandfather and said, "Can you help?" 182 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:27,200 My grandfather was, by that time, a wealthy, established businessman 183 00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:28,680 in wine and spirits. 184 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:34,240 June 2nd, there's a dinner at The Savoy, and on this menu card 185 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:36,920 penguins are drawn, 186 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:40,400 which says they're going south. 187 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:43,880 Ah. Because it's too late to go north. 188 00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:45,840 And obviously, he has sufficient funds as well, 189 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:48,240 because it was, I mean, a very large amount of money. 190 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,480 Yeah. The equivalent these days is about five million. 191 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:53,800 And it was a big commitment. 192 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:57,040 The late decision to cancel the Arctic, 193 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:00,600 go to the Antarctic, but also puts pressure on the timing. 194 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:04,920 Yes. Because you've got to get ready in three months to go south. 195 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:08,360 The Quest, which is by this time being fitted for the north, 196 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:10,800 has got to be refitted to go south. 197 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:15,480 As you said, they were under enormous time pressure 198 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:16,560 to get this all together. 199 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:18,960 And it's quite evident as well in the techniques they used, 200 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:22,080 how they jointed the materials. 201 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:25,960 I don't think it ever got properly ocean tested. 202 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:29,200 I think the excitement, adventure, that's what they signed up for. 203 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:32,400 He was lecturing twice daily on his old exploits 204 00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:35,240 and it was all getting a bit of a bore. 205 00:12:36,680 --> 00:12:39,360 Shackleton was very keen to get away. 206 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:01,080 So this is the lock of Shackleton's cabin. 207 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,400 Pretty much standard door locks. 208 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:06,840 Every time he grabbed this door handle 209 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:10,480 I'm sure he was relieved, having a bit of sleep. 210 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:13,440 The story was told to me when I collected this cabin in Norway. 211 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:16,920 The schoolkids would hear the story about Shackleton and the connection 212 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:21,720 with Amundsen, and they would just go along and paint this. 213 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:24,440 You could say it's not the original paint, but it definitely helped 214 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:27,040 reducing the amount of moisture that would go into the timbers, 215 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,720 so therefore there would be less chance of rot. 216 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:32,560 This is just a very small paint flake, but I'm sure 217 00:13:32,560 --> 00:13:36,400 it's very representative of all the paint that was in this area. 218 00:13:38,680 --> 00:13:42,080 Some people say this is destructive, 219 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,520 but I think on this object it's a responsible thing. 220 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:47,800 Because we only have black and white photographs, 221 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:50,200 it will tell us quite a lot about its pasts. 222 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:57,480 The first layer is kind of a greyish, light greyish layer, 223 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:00,640 with lots of black pigment particles. 224 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:03,400 There's some orange particles in there. 225 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:06,520 Hmm, how did they get in there? 226 00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:09,960 We go up, there's one more layer which is kind of a light grey, 227 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:13,440 and then there's a very thin blue layer. 228 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:15,760 And then the top is the white, which I would say 229 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:17,560 is the modern white 230 00:14:17,560 --> 00:14:20,240 the kids from the school actually applied. 231 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:24,360 So the original colour was just a kind of a lightish grey. 232 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:27,160 Wow. That's interesting. 233 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:29,560 Also the other layer like the light blue, 234 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:30,720 we have to think about that. 235 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:35,160 This cabin was used as a garden shed for another 90 years afterwards. 236 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:37,520 They painted it light blue as well. 237 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:39,960 Those paint layers are kind of an evidence of that. 238 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:44,040 We do that quite a lot on objects to actually help us to understand 239 00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:46,920 what happened to these objects and how they were treated. 240 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:09,400 VOICE ON VINYL SPEAKS IN GERMAN 241 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:24,320 We didn't have many vinyls at home, but it's amazing, that picture, 242 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,880 obviously, I must have looked at it a lot, very strong 243 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:28,400 in my memory. 244 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:32,000 The words are actually etched in my brain. 245 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,640 And even though it's 40 years ago, I think I can remember it. 246 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,720 It's called The Race to the South Pole by Scott and Amundsen. 247 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:51,160 So Scott was the Englishman and Amundsen was the Norwegian. 248 00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:55,040 Scott embraced a more modern way with motorised sleds. 249 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:59,800 Amundsen being a Norwegian totally embraced the Inuit technology. 250 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:02,000 So he had a dog sled, skis, 251 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,000 his outfits were made out of sealskin. 252 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,200 Scott obviously had a lot of technical problems, and when Scott 253 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:11,800 then arrived at the South Pole, he saw the Norwegian flag. 254 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:16,840 Amundsen was there before Scott. I think about four weeks earlier. 255 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:19,520 Amundsen is known as the first man on the South Pole. 256 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:24,360 Scott and his crew never made it back. 257 00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:31,720 So it's actually quite dramatic. 258 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:34,760 I would say for an eight-year-old it would be quite touching, 259 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:35,840 I would say. 260 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:38,640 It's a lot about death and suffering. 261 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:41,480 But again, they all have this goal of getting to a place. 262 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:49,520 One man who achieved his goals in the modern era 263 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:51,200 is Sir Ranulph Fiennes. 264 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:55,840 He's regarded as one of the greatest living explorers. 265 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:59,800 And one of his many accomplishments was that he became the first man 266 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:02,800 to cross the Antarctic continent unsupported. 267 00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:07,680 I brought some images because I have some very specific 268 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:11,040 questions and I would really appreciate your opinion on this. 269 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:12,200 OK. 270 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,360 So this is the cabin which they just put on the deck because the Quest 271 00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:16,600 was relatively small. 272 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:18,480 So Frank Wild was next-door. 273 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,480 So you have the partitioning wall in the middle. 274 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,440 So when I measured, the position of that wall was to the millimetre 275 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:26,520 accurately in the centre of this cabin. 276 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:30,640 It's quite, I thought, significant that everything was built roughly 277 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:33,560 except for the placing of the wall, which was ultra accurate, 278 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:35,520 split in half exactly. Right. 279 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:42,440 He had the most remarkable ability to keep worrying about other people 280 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:44,880 when he himself was suffering dreadfully. 281 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:54,920 Even if he was called the boss, there was a lot of equality 282 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:56,240 there and respect. 283 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:05,200 So the Endurance was his third expedition, 284 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:06,640 the one before the Quest. 285 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:14,800 By that time the South Pole was reached. 286 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:17,840 So the next big step would have been to cross 287 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,120 the entire Antarctic continent. 288 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:24,760 Which was a massive undertaking. 289 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:30,520 The Endurance got caught in the pack ice, 290 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:33,200 which was particularly bad that year. 291 00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:42,600 And they were then sitting on an ice floe for over ten months. 292 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,400 I mean, you can't even imagine what life would be. 293 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:51,480 Shackleton was an amazingly strong character. 294 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:59,200 In terms of leading men under miserable conditions, brilliant. 295 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,600 What they would give him was an almost automatic reaction 296 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,720 to what you would give the man back that would totally 297 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:09,560 believe in you. Yeah, the boss. 298 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:13,720 And that developed slowly. 299 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:16,440 It wasn't just because one person called him the boss. 300 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:21,520 They all began, after the sinking of the ship, to realise that his real 301 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:23,200 test he was succeeding in. 302 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:30,600 Eventually the ice floe did break up and they managed with lifeboats 303 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:33,200 to just about get to Elephant Island, which is a tiny 304 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:34,760 little heap of rocks. 305 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:38,800 He selected five people, among them Tom Crean, 306 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:41,360 that would come with him with one boat with James Caird 307 00:19:41,360 --> 00:19:42,760 to try to get help. 308 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:47,560 The only option was to sail to South Georgia. 309 00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:49,920 It's about 800 nautical miles. 310 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:52,440 One of the roughest oceans in the world. 311 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:57,520 The real torture that he went through, 312 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:01,640 even a few hours in that small boat, 313 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,360 in those conditions trying to survive. 314 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:12,000 The journey took 17 days and they made it... 315 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:16,080 ..but they landed on the wrong side of the island. 316 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:19,000 Then they had to climb three glaciers. 317 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,480 I mean, if you think about that, no equipment or very little - 318 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,040 just a rope and a couple of nails in their shoes. 319 00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,400 And then the mad dash, made it across and made it 320 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:33,880 to the whaling station in Grytviken. 321 00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:39,240 By then, the whole world thought already they were all dead and lost. 322 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:43,640 Eventually, after a long ordeal, 323 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,040 managed to save the rest of the crew. 324 00:20:48,120 --> 00:20:51,160 The story goes that they never, ever doubted that Shackleton 325 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:53,440 actually would come back to save them. 326 00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:06,240 You could see when he came back to the country 327 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,320 that the people loved him as a hero. 328 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,920 Generally, I think everybody agrees that his achievements, 329 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:17,360 being the first or having done something that is unique 330 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:19,040 were not that great. 331 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:23,720 But on any of his four expeditions, none of his men died. 332 00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:28,480 His polar contemporary, Sir Raymond Priestley, commented, 333 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:32,040 "For scientific leadership, give me Scott; 334 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:36,000 "for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen; 335 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,640 "but when you are in a hopeless situation, 336 00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:42,320 "when there seems to be no way out, 337 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:45,680 "get on your knees and pray for Shackleton." 338 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:05,160 I'm taking this tar paper off because that was put on 339 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:06,680 somewhere in the '80s. 340 00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:10,320 And that will also give us a good idea of how healthy the roof is, 341 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:13,440 because this is really the only unknown part of the cabin, 342 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:15,520 which we haven't investigated yet. 343 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,720 Oh, wow. That's very interesting. 344 00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:23,320 The planking is actually corked, 345 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:26,400 so it's a raw cotton they hammer into that groove. 346 00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:29,160 And they do that with a lot of force, and sometimes they do that 347 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,400 two or three times and put these layers on top 348 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,280 of it and compress them really hard. 349 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:36,760 And that way you make the seam waterproof 350 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,640 and it looks like the original caulking, 351 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:42,120 that same rope would have been on the crest. 352 00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:43,440 Most likely. 353 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,680 This is still the exact same timber as the rest of the cabinets. 354 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,480 Just ordinary pine, bog-standard structural timbers 355 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,480 they would have had in the shipyard. 356 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,240 Delighted, because I was afraid that there might be some rot there, 357 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,760 but it's pretty much perfect. 358 00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:02,680 So I'm trying to make the ellipse mirror for the cabinet. 359 00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:09,040 I mean, you can do this on a computer as well, but in objects 360 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,920 conservation, I think it's good to go through the techniques 361 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:13,960 of how it was done originally. 362 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:19,120 I would say Aristotle did this 2,000 years ago. 363 00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:33,280 These are leftover shelves from an historic library 364 00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,600 that was built in 1903. 365 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,240 So I think it's a perfect material to recycle. 366 00:23:39,360 --> 00:23:42,640 Authentication. Well, it's closer to the real one. 367 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:48,840 I have this keen interest in materials, 368 00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,560 and wood is one of those fascinating materials. 369 00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:57,400 This is the door for the small cabinet 370 00:23:57,400 --> 00:23:59,320 that's made out of recycled material. 371 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,640 The idea behind it is not to fake it, but to have something 372 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:05,480 that is close to the original. 373 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:09,360 This was an Edwardian wardrobe, but it was all solid mahogany. 374 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:13,760 Whenever I see a skip anywhere in the country, 375 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:16,840 I generally stop and go for it. 376 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:20,600 I don't know what people throw away, 377 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,880 but maybe they just don't realise what it is. 378 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:25,960 But if you know your materials and your art history a bit, 379 00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:28,400 I think you can recognise things quite well. 380 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,640 So there was always something visible on the ceiling, 381 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:46,120 some kind of pattern, and it looks like an embossed wallpaper, 382 00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:47,960 which is really interesting. 383 00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,480 So I'm just trying to find out more because that pattern 384 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:52,440 seems very, very strange. 385 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,800 The cabin was built really quickly, they had that very little time, 386 00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:00,800 so why would you spend your time putting a wallpaper on the ceiling? 387 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:03,360 Maybe it was on purpose, maybe it was just random. 388 00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:06,520 Maybe it was Shackleton's favourite wallpaper. I don't know. 389 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:17,000 Having read a lot about Shackleton, 390 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,600 there's a lot of speculation of who he is, 391 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:23,480 what kind of man he was, and I have the great opportunity 392 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,680 to actually meet Alexandra Shackleton, 393 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,520 Ernest Shackleton's granddaughter. 394 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,760 Hopefully, be able to understand a bit more about, who was he? 395 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:34,680 Yeah, exactly - that's... that's really the big question. 396 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:41,040 This is one of my favourite photographs of my grandfather. 397 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:45,000 I think you can tell from his photograph he wrote poetry. 398 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,000 At one stage, he set out the qualities regarded 399 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,800 for polar explorer - he put optimism first. Yeah. 400 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,760 Optimism, patience, idealism, 401 00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:54,560 and, finally, he put courage. 402 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,120 He thought everyone had courage. Yeah. 403 00:25:57,120 --> 00:25:59,200 He entered the merchant Navy as a 16-year-old, 404 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,080 in the days of sailing ships. 405 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:05,560 And when do you think his interest for the polar regions started? 406 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,400 My grandfather realised that though he loved the merchant marine, 407 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,720 it wasn't really going to be enough for him. 408 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:13,880 He'd heard about Scott's expedition, Discovery Expedition. 409 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:18,840 Another reason, the oldest reason in the world, he met my grandmother 410 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:20,960 and want to make his name so that her father 411 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,160 would think he's a suitable son-in-law. 412 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:28,520 So he applied and got the post, he was Third Officer on Discovery. 413 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,040 So Discovery was followed by the Nimrod Expedition, 414 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:37,440 which was the second expedition in 1907, 415 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:39,880 which was led by Shackleton himself. 416 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,480 Yes, but he did not get what he most wanted - 417 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:44,640 he did not get to the Pole. 418 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,840 ARCHIVE RECORDING: We reached the point within 97 geographical miles 419 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:50,960 of the South Pole. 420 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:55,400 The only thing that stopped us from reaching the actual point 421 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,120 was the lack of 50 lb of food. 422 00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,840 Possibly could have got there, but they'd all have died there. 423 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,320 And his decision to turn back is regarded as one of 424 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:08,480 the great decisions of polar history. 425 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:10,840 We're all defined by our priorities. 426 00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,560 It's quite clear from then, his priority was his men. 427 00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:17,880 He tried to settle down - he got married, 428 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,800 became Secretary of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. 429 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,520 It was quite a stultified institution in those days. 430 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,360 I don't think it would have suited him. 431 00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:29,760 The early Shackleton once said to his little sister, 432 00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:31,960 "You cannot think what it is like to tread where no-one 433 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:33,920 "has trodden before." 434 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,560 I mean, Shackleton had several amazing women around him, 435 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,240 including his wife, Emily. 436 00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:42,120 She pretty much kept the home ship afloat. 437 00:27:42,120 --> 00:27:46,840 I think she really loved the fact that he was doing successful things 438 00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:48,920 that he really liked doing. 439 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,240 She must have enjoyed the reflected glory from that. 440 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:58,320 But, when he was living in the home and then in his office in London 441 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:02,800 trying to get an expedition going, and when things weren't going well, 442 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,200 he took to the bottle... Yeah. 443 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:07,760 ..and became quite unpleasant in domestic life. 444 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,080 I do not think he was a saint or a hero, 445 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:13,280 which some people tend to think their relatives are. 446 00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,360 But I do think he was a very great man. 447 00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:18,000 He definitely... 448 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,840 ..couldn't take inactivity for long, 449 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,520 because he had what she called the wonder fire, 450 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,680 the wanderlust, the call of the wild. 451 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,800 "My love, I'll be back soon. 452 00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:37,600 "As soon as it's finished, my love, that will be the last one." 453 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:39,880 Yes. "No more." 454 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,640 Some people would say, you shouldn't go on when you've got a family. 455 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:50,960 Yes. It's selfish. 456 00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:02,920 In September 1921, he left from St Katharine Docks 457 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,040 and the records say that the shores of the Thames 458 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,800 were thronged with people waving him goodbye. 459 00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,400 Of course, nobody knew that was the last goodbye. 460 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:20,160 After each of his expeditions, 461 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:22,000 he told my grandmother he wouldn't go again. 462 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,320 But eventually she realised that was not so. 463 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,400 And I believe she wrote in her diary once, 464 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:29,520 "I realise you cannot cage an eagle in a barnyard." 465 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:38,280 It was always this perpetual move towards the next big project, 466 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:41,240 going somewhere else where he was the happiest. 467 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,840 So I don't think he ever wanted a civilian life. 468 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:07,160 The amount of objects left from the Quest Expedition 469 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:08,720 are very, very limited. 470 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:10,200 One of them, of course, is the cabin. 471 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:12,920 Another really significant one is the Crow's Nest. 472 00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:17,920 This barrel still exists in the All Hallows Church in London. 473 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:21,360 Jayne Pierce is the Curator at the South Georgia Museum 474 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,800 and will hopefully help me to understand a bit 475 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,560 more about the boss himself. 476 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,000 So here it is. 477 00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:30,520 Oh, wow! 478 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:33,400 The barrel. 479 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:34,920 Isn't it fab? 480 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:36,560 Fantastic. 481 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:43,480 Do you think that this barrel is as special for being used 482 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:45,840 as a crow's nest on a ship, or is it just a barrel? 483 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:47,960 I think it's just a bog-standard... Just a barrel? 484 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,200 ..barrel, because you can see there's a plug there. 485 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,200 The plug was here to fill it. Holding liquid? 486 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:54,920 Yes, exactly. OK. 487 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,240 And also, you can see the grooves here that would have had 488 00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,200 the lid set in. Right. 489 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:01,640 So it definitely had a lid, and, of course, it would have been 490 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:03,840 quite difficult to use as a crow's nest. Interesting. 491 00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:06,360 So it's just a barrel that would have been adapted, OK. 492 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,240 It would have been very unpleasant to sit in this, I would say. 493 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,440 At that height, I mean, just the movement, 494 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:14,680 imagine this is 25 metres up in the air. 495 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,080 Yes. On a very unstable boat. 496 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:18,520 Swaying. 497 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,200 It's incredible. Ooh. 498 00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:23,840 Yeah. Seriously strong stomach. 499 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,360 On the journey south, 500 00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:36,200 the Quest was hit by many really bad storms. 501 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,880 Late decision - cancel the Arctic, go to the Antarctic. 502 00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:42,440 As soon as it got out into rough water, which, you know, 503 00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:44,960 wasn't what an Arctic sealer was designed to do. 504 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:46,520 It was - that's a coast hugger. 505 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:48,520 The weight of the propeller shifting around 506 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:50,640 threw the crankshaft out of alignment. 507 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,280 If the whole thing's not working, that's what started happening 508 00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:55,160 pretty quickly in the Bay of Biscay. 509 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,520 And that led to all the problems and that led to the stress 510 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,600 that Shackleton piled on himself. 511 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:08,160 And they eventually travelled to Rio de Janeiro to do some repairs, 512 00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:10,480 and they ended up being there for about four weeks. 513 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,080 And so their whole schedule was knocked off course. 514 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:19,560 When they got to Rio to fix the boat for the third time, 515 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:23,720 George Hubert Wilkins, who was the naturalist on the boat, 516 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,560 he was sent to ahead to South Georgia to start doing 517 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:28,680 some specimen collecting and research. 518 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:33,960 Wilkins, I know, was disappointed with the lack of interest 519 00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:37,400 that he felt the expedition had in the science. 520 00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:40,240 You think it might have not been well communicated, or you think...? 521 00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,600 I don't think the leadership's heart was in it. 522 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,960 And there was a little bit of tension about that. OK. 523 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:46,840 By the time they got to Rio, I think Shackleton 524 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,680 had got the sniff of the Antarctic and wanted to beeline it 525 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:51,600 and so sent the scientists on ahead. 526 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:53,480 They didn't really want to go to South Georgia 527 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:55,640 because South Georgia had been surveyed quite a lot. 528 00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:59,120 In fact, in Wilkins' diary, he says, "it's been done". 529 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:01,200 Shackleton really wanted to get to South Georgia. 530 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:02,800 If he got a couple of people down there, 531 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,360 they're going to have to follow them. 532 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:10,040 The Quest Expedition never got really a huge amount of exposure. 533 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,560 His work schedule was nothing compared with the bravado 534 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,280 of what he had planned previously. 535 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:18,680 It wasn't going to be that adventurous. No. 536 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:20,800 They were going to sail the southern seas, 537 00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:23,320 but it's not going to the pole. 538 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:27,720 Even after the Endurance, where they were on the verge of death, 539 00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:30,160 a lot of them actually signed up again. 540 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:35,040 Among them, of course, was Frank Wild, his second in command, 541 00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:37,760 who actually was his next door neighbour in the cabin. 542 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,720 Hussey, the famous man with his banjo. 543 00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:47,800 Then went Macklin, his doctor. 544 00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:54,080 By this point, he wasn't very well. 545 00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:57,680 He was a heavy drinker, heavy smoker. 546 00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:00,000 It was well known that he was suffering. 547 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,560 He was drinking more and smoking pretty well nonstop. 548 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:07,720 So I don't think it was a great preparation for, you know, 549 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:09,640 an Antarctic excursion. 550 00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,480 And he was desperate to get south. 551 00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:16,040 It was almost as if he was holding on. 552 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:38,160 So my research on the wallpaper, I contacted Lincrusta. 553 00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:40,760 They're in business for over 100 years, and they're doing 554 00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:43,240 very luxurious wall coverings. 555 00:34:46,240 --> 00:34:47,760 Ooh... 556 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:50,720 Very nice. 557 00:34:50,720 --> 00:34:54,600 Michael from Lancaster found this wall with the wallpaper 558 00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:58,240 somewhere in London, and he made this rubber mould. 559 00:34:58,240 --> 00:35:01,120 So he took a kind of an imprint of it. 560 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:03,520 To have a mould to make wallpaper, of course, 561 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:05,320 is something very, very special. 562 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,840 And until this project, I had never heard of it, that that even exists. 563 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:18,400 To even find the wallpaper was pure luck. 564 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,000 This whole project, I think, is one of those magic projects 565 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:26,160 where everything comes together. 566 00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:31,480 All the decision making on objects needs to be based on 567 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:35,240 rock solid foundations of ethical consideration. 568 00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:40,840 I could change it in a way that this object 569 00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:42,800 becomes something different. 570 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,040 And that's something I think is quite serious because that way, 571 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:51,440 you actually change history and the integrity of the object. 572 00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,720 Is that off the book case? 573 00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:56,480 Well, to the photograph, this was just nailed together. 574 00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,160 So we're going to do the same thing. So nothing fancy. 575 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:03,880 Got everything positioned so very soon we can place them all 576 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:06,400 to the millimetre accurate where they used to be. 577 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:10,080 So now it's just a matter of getting the furniture all finished. 578 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:13,080 Because we're dealing with objects that represent us and our culture, 579 00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,160 they're really worthy of every consideration. 580 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:18,960 Then next to the bunk, they would have had the little side table 581 00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:21,320 with the three holes in it, with the water carafe 582 00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:23,320 and the funny seed inside. 583 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,840 Some people say it's a spud because of his Irish background, 584 00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:28,480 but I think that's very thick 585 00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,920 to actually come up with that kind of idea. 586 00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:35,600 The first sheet of anaglypta. 587 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:37,760 Wow. Turned out perfect. 588 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,600 And it's nice and flexible as well. 589 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,800 We're going to make about ten of those, which should be sufficient 590 00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,600 to cover the entire ceiling in the cabin. 591 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,680 In perspective, this would be up on the wall and you would be looking 592 00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:55,920 into the cabin, and that looks pretty much like the bookcase. 593 00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:04,520 I have an oil lamp here. 594 00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,360 They had electricity on the ship. 595 00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:10,680 This was, I assume, a backup. 596 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:15,120 And this is roughly the same age 597 00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:17,240 but of course, it was not the original one. 598 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:22,960 And it's sitting on a gimbal. 599 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:28,560 It's very, very likely that 600 00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:31,880 this was the light he used to write in his diary, 601 00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:34,000 including his last entry. 602 00:37:47,720 --> 00:37:51,080 The Scott Polar Research Institute is an absolutely amazing collection 603 00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:54,120 of very significant and important documents and objects. 604 00:37:56,040 --> 00:38:00,520 And I'm here to meet Naomi Bonham, the institute's archivist. 605 00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:08,840 So, having read through his diaries, 606 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:11,400 what kind of character do you think he was? 607 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:15,720 His diaries are all very different, so you get different sides to him 608 00:38:15,720 --> 00:38:17,920 depending on which diary you would be reading. 609 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:22,960 The Quest Diary is, his final diary, is much more of a personal diary. 610 00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,520 Just looking at it, you can tell it's not the sort of sledging diary 611 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,480 that he would carry around with him in his pocket. 612 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,200 This is one to be written in a cabin. Yes. 613 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,920 Possibly at the end of each day. Yes. 614 00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:38,120 So you think it's more reflective on the quest? Definitely. OK. 615 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:44,880 All explorers used pencil because the inks can run. 616 00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:48,920 And there is, of course, only four days for this diary. Yes. 617 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:54,960 On the 1st of January, we've got, "Rest and calm after the storm." 618 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:59,080 The last days of 1920 had not been good weather-wise for them. 619 00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:03,120 And it mentions Christmas Day in the raging gale seemed out of place. 620 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:09,840 1st of January 1922. 621 00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,320 The year has begun kindly for us. 622 00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:16,240 I dared not venture to hope that today would be as it was. 623 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:18,600 Anxiety has been probing deeply into me 624 00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,640 for until the end of the year, things have gone awry. 625 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,440 At 1pm, we passed our first berg. 626 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,800 The old familiar sight aroused in me 627 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:35,120 memories that the strenuous years had deadened. 628 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:41,200 Ah, me. The years that have gone since in the pride of young manhood 629 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,320 I first went forth to the fight. 630 00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:47,640 I grow old and tired, but must always lead on. 631 00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:54,400 He might have known that he wasn't healthy, 632 00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:56,760 that this might be his last journey. 633 00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:59,320 Out of almost despair he kind of runs off 634 00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:01,720 after maybe reflecting on his life, 635 00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:06,520 "I haven't really achieved any major things" like his colleagues did. 636 00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:09,840 Certainly not in the best of health, 637 00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:14,240 he would have known that, but still wanting to carry on. 638 00:40:14,240 --> 00:40:18,440 Going back to the Antarctic in a way is perhaps like going home, 639 00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:20,520 which in a way becomes more poignant 640 00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:23,440 considering it's literally his last few days. 641 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,640 3rd of January, 1922. 642 00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:29,360 Another beautiful day. 643 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:33,960 Fortune seems to attend us this new year. 644 00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:38,200 There are two points in the adventure of the diver - 645 00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:42,320 one, when a beggar he prepares to plunge, 646 00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:45,760 one, when a prince, he rises with his pearl. 647 00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:53,720 And then January the 5th, an empty page here. 648 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:23,560 Alexandra Shackleton will be coming 649 00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:26,320 and she has never seen the cabin like this. 650 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,720 So quite exciting to see what she thinks about it. 651 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,680 By the time they got to the Grytviken, the whaling station, 652 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:45,480 it was the 4th of January. 653 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:47,320 Everyone was super happy. 654 00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:51,640 Shackleton came out of this dark cloud and was joyous. 655 00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,160 In the middle of the night Shackleton was restless, 656 00:41:56,160 --> 00:42:00,080 he couldn't sleep and he called in Macklin, the surgeon, 657 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,960 about 2, 2:30am. 658 00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:08,880 And then he suffered a huge heart attack and died 659 00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:10,720 in his cabin on the Quest. 660 00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:15,120 There we are. 661 00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:21,240 So this one is the ship's log for the Quest. 662 00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:23,040 Wow. 663 00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:27,320 "3am. Sir Ernest Shackleton died suddenly of heart failure. 664 00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:31,000 "Drs Macklin and McElroy in attendance." 665 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:35,600 Flags at half mast. Yes. 666 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:38,200 Hmm. 667 00:42:43,720 --> 00:42:46,240 So they took his body off the ship. 668 00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:52,160 They then left and went on to Antarctica to try and carry out 669 00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:54,840 what was remaining of the expedition. 670 00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:57,560 And then the idea was that 671 00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:00,120 the body was then going to be taken back to Britain. 672 00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:06,080 Meanwhile, news had finally travelled back to the UK, 673 00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:08,400 back to his wife in London. 674 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:10,680 Emily decided he ought to lie in South Georgia, 675 00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:12,400 the scene of his greatest triumphs 676 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:14,480 and the place that mattered so much to him. 677 00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,600 So they had a lovely small service in the church at Grytviken 678 00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:26,800 with lots of whalers present. 679 00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:37,320 His grave is very different from the norm. 680 00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:43,440 He is pointing south towards Antarctica, to where it's thought 681 00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,480 his soul and his heart truly wanted to be. 682 00:43:55,800 --> 00:44:00,200 I think it's always important as well to have both feet on the ground 683 00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,160 and just say, listen, it's just a wooden box. 684 00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:05,640 That's what it will always be. 685 00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:09,600 But in the last 20 years, this was definitely, I think, 686 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:13,480 physically, mentally, the most intense project. 687 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:17,120 Normally, as I said, I never get personally attached to objects, 688 00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,320 but with the cabin, I definitely had that. 689 00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:24,080 I think it's something that touches me emotionally. 690 00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:30,920 So that cabin, I think, is quite a bit more than just a garden shed. 691 00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:46,440 To give John Quiller Rowett a lot more credit is, I think, 692 00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:50,080 quite important, because without him... It wouldn't have happened. 693 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:53,160 He would be very disappointed with the way that it wrapped up 694 00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:56,720 the way it did, because it didn't execute. It didn't finish. 695 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:01,600 They didn't manage to do much. 696 00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:06,200 They did some geological work, some meteorological work. 697 00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:08,640 They were hit by bad storms again. 698 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:13,960 And so they made the decision 699 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:16,520 to just head back to South Georgia. 700 00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:23,920 And they of course didn't know that he was by then buried. 701 00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:27,760 But I'm sure the crew was, I would say, maybe quite happy? 702 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:30,680 Say their goodbyes... Yes. ..at his grave. Yeah. 703 00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:54,160 They decided to then make a cairn as a memorial to Shackleton. 704 00:45:54,160 --> 00:45:56,160 And it still stands today on South Georgia 705 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:57,680 on a place called Hope Point. 706 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:12,560 Ernest Shackleton's death has been described as marking the end 707 00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,640 of what's called the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. 708 00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:24,600 Back at that time, the polar era was over. 709 00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:33,480 Shackleton was definitely the last accepted hero. 710 00:47:01,240 --> 00:47:03,520 Wow. Gosh. 711 00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:05,240 And the bunk. 712 00:47:05,240 --> 00:47:08,480 Just to help you, there's the famous image which was taken 713 00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:13,280 from exactly the position you're in now. Amazing. It looks wonderful. 714 00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:18,040 Oh, this is so beautifully done, Sven. 715 00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:25,160 I think he would have been astonished and amused 716 00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:29,360 at the enormous amount of interest there is 100 years later. 717 00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:31,120 Yeah. 718 00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:34,760 I'm sure you're aware what actually happened on the night. 719 00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:38,680 Hussey had his banjo with him, so Hussey actually, on the evening 720 00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,520 of his death, sat actually there 721 00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:46,120 and played a lullaby. I didn't know that. 722 00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:48,400 But what I always wondered is 723 00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:52,200 when Shackleton was lying in this cabin and looking up, 724 00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:56,040 at the moment when he passed... 725 00:47:57,320 --> 00:47:59,520 ..what his last thoughts would have been. 726 00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:06,120 It's absolutely evocative of how it was 727 00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:10,200 just a little over a century since my grandfather died in it. 728 00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:13,680 BANJO STRUMS A LULLABY 729 00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:17,400 The night Shackleton died, as I came off watch, passing his cabin, 730 00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,240 he called out to me. He said, "Huss, I can't sleep. 731 00:48:20,240 --> 00:48:23,520 "Play me some of the old tunes, will you? They always help me to sleep." 732 00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:25,400 So I played him a lullaby. 733 00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:38,840 How lovely. 734 00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:46,640 Yes. 735 00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:54,880 You know what his last words were? Last entry in his diary? 736 00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:04,360 4th of January, 1922. 737 00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:10,360 At last, after 16 days of turmoil and anxiety, 738 00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:12,680 on a peaceful sun shining day, 739 00:49:12,680 --> 00:49:15,000 we came to anchor in Grytviken. 740 00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,040 A wonderful evening. 741 00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:20,720 In the darkening twilight. I saw a lone star hover, 742 00:49:20,720 --> 00:49:23,040 gemlike, above the bay.