The Shackleton Festival we held with Dundee Heritage Trust last week was a wonderful way to end the year, bringing more than a thousand visitors together in Caird Hall, Dundee.  A rapt audience heard an ambitious programme of 14 speakers telling the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s life from 1901 to the modern day, over two and a half hours, using a mixture of filmed interviews and live presentations for what proved to be a very popular and entertaining night.  Visitors were left buzzing with excitement and we’ve had some really lovely feedback. 

As one visitor summed up : “It was an extraordinary night at a fantastic venue, with an array of world-renowned Polar guest speakers… It's a testament to your drive and the hard work undertaken by your team at RSGS and Emma's at Dundee Heritage Trust, that the evening was so well run, well attended and thoroughly enjoyable.”

Expert Speakers included the Endurance22 team, led by John Shears, who found the wreck of Endurance in 2022.  We also hosted the Chief Executive of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, John Geiger, and two of the key figures in the new Shackleton Museum due to open next year in Athy, County Kildare in Ireland, along with experts from the Dundee Heritage Trust and the RSGS.  And the whole evening was introduced by Lorraine Kelly.

Sir Ernest Shackleton remains one of the most inspiring leadership figures and best-loved polar explorers of all time. His expeditions : Discovery, Endurance, Nimrod, and Quest, are widely known, but details of his life and the many networks and connections that he made in between these adventures is much less well understood.

Rightly billed as a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of experts exploring the breadth of Shackleton’s life and adventures, the event included some of the lesser-known stories of Shackleton’s life, and delved into his many connections to Dundee, a key city in the golden age of polar exploration, and to Scotland more widely.

RSGS Chief Executive Mike Robinson helped outline the fundamental role of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, his job with RSGS and the crucial connections Shackleton made through RSGS in Scotland, and the role they played in advancing his aspirations and future endeavours.

On the 150th anniversary of Shackleton’s birth, it was especially poignant to host the event in Dundee, the City of Discovery, home to the Discovery ship (housed and maintained by DHT at Discovery Point), the vessel used for Robert Falcon Scott’s 1901-1904 British National Antarctic Expedition, in which Shackleton served as third officer. It was also extremely fitting to host the event at Caird Hall, paid for and named after Sir James Caird of Dundee, who was such a significant funder of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition, and whose name has become synonymous with the most famous lifeboat in history.

Outside Caird Hall on the day of the event

John Shears, recounted the journey to locate Shackleton’s lost ship Endurance, found 10,000 feet beneath the sea ice in the Weddell Sea and revealed some of the incredible images, captured by Subsea Manager Nico Vincent, showing an incredibly intact ship, as though it had been suspended in time for the past century and only just hit the seabed.

John Geiger, gave an insight into the recent expedition which discovered Shackleton’s final ship, Quest, in the Labrador Sea earlier this year.

Objects conservator Sven Habermann shared insights into the restoration of Shackleton’s cabin from Quest, including the fascinating story of how it was discovered being used as a garden shed in Norway. And Kevin Kenny, Trustee of the Shackleton Museum, provided details about the museum, set to open next year, and how Shackleton’s restored cabin is planned to be a central exhibit.

Left to right: Mike Robinson, Dr John Shears, Hon Alexandra Shackleton, John Geiger, Sven Habermann, Jo Woolf, Kevin Kenny.

It was fascinating to learn about the efforts required to locate both of these lost ships (found in different hemispheres of the world), and how Shackleton’s cabin from Quest made the journey from ship, to shed, to restoration. One particularly memorable moment came from Sven Habermann, who spoke about recreating the wallpaper on the ceiling of Shackleton’s cabin from Quest. “Why would he have chosen wallpaper for his ceiling? Was it for moisture control or some other reason?” he questioned, only to reveal through photos, a striking resemblance to the wallpaper found in Shackleton’s cabin aboard the Discovery.  Then to the obvious delight of the audience, Sven & Kevin presented a section of the recreated wall-paper to Mike for the RSGS collection.

 

Wallpaper (Anaglypta 619) presented to Mike Robinson.

Other contributors included TV presenter and DHT Patron, Lorraine Kelly, who introduced the event; Dr Emma Puranen from DHT, who recounted Shackleton’s role in the Discovery expedition; RSGS Writer-in-Residence Jo Woolf, who introduced RSGS and spoke about Shackleton’s time as Secretary of RSGS along with a brief resume of the Endurance expedition; Scottish Labour MSP Michael Marra, who explained Shackleton’s political career in Dundee; Shackleton Storyteller Lindsey Gibb, who recounted the story of the Nimrod expedition; and Donald Lamont, former Chair of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (FMHT), who spoke about FMHT’s role in supporting the Endurance22 expedition.

Event programme

Our Chief Executive, Mike Robinson commented, “It was quite an ambitious event to pull together, fourteen different speakers trying to tell a cohesive narrative about most of Shackleton’s life, make the connections to Dundee, RSGS and Scotland, and also highlight the on-going legacy of his life plus the work to find the wrecks and celebrate that inspiration. It was a huge relief that it all came together so well and we are very grateful to everybody who made it possible.”

Following the event, we have been overwhelmed with the positive feedback we have received so it has been a lovely way for us to round off 2024. We would like to thank to our co-hosts Dundee Heritage Trust, and everyone who joined us, including our VIP guests, and guests from NHS Tayside and Broughty Ferry’s RNLI lifeboat station.  

Special thanks also to Sarah Barnard Art who created the brilliant artwork used in all of our promotional materials, and to the Bookhouse from Broughty Ferry for selling copies of John Shears and Nico Vincent’s book ENDURANCE on the night.

If you are interested in attending more of our events, we have a lot to look forward to in 2025 as the second half of our Inspiring People talks programme kicks off. With speakers including ultra runner Jasmin Paris, climber Anna Wells, adventurer Andy Torbet, and presenter Paul Murton, plus many others! Also be on the lookout for other special events we host throughout the year.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy Hogmanay!