Preserving a sub-Antarctic Paradise

One of the most exciting projects currently relates to the most famous of Shackleton stories – the journey to South Georgia after Endurance was lost in the Weddell Sea.

On 20 May 1916, three men arrived unexpectedly at the Manager’s Villa in Stromness Whaling Station, South Georgia.  So surprised at seeing three dishevelled and emaciated strangers, the Station Manager was said to have asked: “Who the hell are you?”

The three strangers were Frank Worsley, Tom Crean, and Sir Ernest Shackleton. Their journey to reach that small building on the island’s north coast was nothing short of extraordinary. Incredibly, the Manager’s Villa at Stromness still stands, but is in imminent danger of collapse.

Endurance had set sail 17 months earlier from Plymouth, bound for Antarctica via Argentina and South Georgia. The purpose of the ill-fated expedition was to complete the first crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole. But en-route, in the Weddell Sea the ship became trapped in the ice. The crew survived on Endurance for ten months until finally, it broke apart and they were forced to abandon ship and set up camp on the frozen sea around them.

Shackleton later returned to South Georgia in 1922 aboard the ship Quest en-route to Antarctica for what became his final expedition. Moored near Grytviken (where SGHT now manages the South Georgia Museum), he suffered a heart attack and died aged 47. He is buried at the cemetery in Grytviken, and almost all of the 10,000 visitors to South Georgia every year make the pilgrimage to his grave to pay their respects. The Trust’s Museum team help to maintain Shackleton’s grave, which is regularly visited by fur seals and elephant seals as well as humans paying tribute!

SGHT has worked on many projects related to Sir Ernest Shackleton over the years, but none more exciting than the one the charity is focusing on now, the plan to save the Stromness Manager’s Villa, where Shackleton, Worsley, and Crean reached on 20 May 1916 to raise alarm for rescue of the rest of the Endurance crew. It’s arguably the most important and famous Shackleton-related object worldwide after Endurance itself. The Trust has already raised £3million to undertake works to save the villa and is launching a public campaign to raise the final £500K needed. If you are interested in becoming a supporter and part of this project to save the villa, and to learn more about the opportunities associated which include a one-of-a-kind cruise to the island to mark saving the villa, please contact the trust directly by emailing Luke Smith, Director of Development luke.smith@sght.org.

The Trust continues to support priority conservation and research projects at South Georgia delivered by partners such as British Antarctic Survey, RSPB, and Birdlife International. We also continue to undertake conservation of the island’s rich cultural heritage, especially at the South Georgia Museum – the world’s most remote museum – which SGHT has managed on behalf of the Government of South Georgia & The South Sandwich Islands for nearly twenty years.

In addition to Saving Shackleton Heritage, the Trust is working to install a whale memorial at Grytviken which will become the world’s most remote permanent artwork, and it’s establishing a digital catalogue to record the human stories from the South Georgia whaling years called the Whalers’ Memory Bank which has already secured substantial funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.