http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk FEBRUARY 2016 37ENDURANCE EXPEDITION STAMPSof the island, meaning a final 36-hour
non-stop trek across glaciers and
mountains before they reached the
nearest human outpost.
It had taken the men almost a year
to reach this whaling station, and
with the safety of this portion of the
crew now assured, Shackleton then
organised expeditions to rescue the
remainder of his crew. The final stamp
(£1.52) shows the last crew members
boarding the rescue boat after almost
two years away from home.
Some of the men, undeterred by their
icy trials, duly signed up for Shackleton’s
next expedition in 1921, which was
to prove his final adventure as he died
whilst en route to the Antarctic.Associated products
Polar expedition author Michael Smith
has written both the presentation pack
and the filler card, which detail some ofFor your chance to win one of ten Endurance
Expedition presentation packs, courtesy of Royal Mail,
simply answer the question below:In which country was the Endurance built?Enter online at: http://www.stampandcoinmart.co.uk
Closing date: 11 February, 2016. Postal entries also accepted, please quote
code SCM2085. Winner picked at random from correct entries.
Editor’s decision is final.the challenges endured by the 28-man
expedition crew, both on their journey
to Antarctica and during their struggle
to return home.
The filler card carries a poignant
photo of the crew at the start of their
journey, whilst the presentation pack
is complemented by a number of
dramatic photos by Frank Hurley and
ephemera from the journey.
The eight special stamps are
reproduced at postcard size in the stamp
card set, and there are three postmarks to
accompany the issue – a Tallents House
postmark featuring the Shackleton
family motto Fortiudine Vincimus (By
endurance we conquer); an alternative
postmark from Plymouth, the port from
which the Endurance set sail – which
features a map of Antarctica showing the
location where the Endurance became
trapped in ice; and a non-pictorial
postmark, also marked Plymouth.(shown on the £1 value) and Shackleton
made the difficult decision to abandon
ship, although several return trips were
made to rescue provisions and three
lifeboats before the Endurance was finally
crushed by the ice in November 1915.A frozen prison
Without their ship, the crew were now
totally stranded, and drifted helplessly
on the ice for another six months. The
£1.33 Patience Camp stamp shows
Shackleton and Frank Hurley waiting
for three months for a rescue which
would never come. At this point, the
crew were in the frustrating position
of being able to see land without the
chance of reaching it over the slowly
melting, and thus perilous, ice.
At their icy camp, the men were
kept busy maintaining the boats (as
seen in the background of the Patience
Camp stamp) and when the ice started
to break up as the weather became
warmer, Shackleton ordered the boats
to set sail to find the uninhabited
Elephant Island, which they eventually
reached in April 1916 (£1.33 value).
With no hope of rescue, Shackleton
decided that further action was needed if
the men were ever to make it home. He
modified one of the boats taken from the
Endurance with an improvised mast and
sail and selected five of his crew, then he
and these men navigated 800 miles of the
notoriously treacherous Southern Ocean
to find South Georgia, the most remote
outpost of the British Empire. The
seventh stamp shows the chosen men
setting out in a flimsy-looking boat into
an icy sea in the hope of finding help.
Despite the appalling cold, the
men eventually landed on South
Georgia, after one of the most
celebrated navigation feats of all time.
Unfortunately, however, they had
landed on the uninhabited south sideThe stamp set’s
presentation pack
and the fi ller card for
the fi rst day cover
are written by Polar
expedition author
Michael SmithEnter online at: http://www.stampandcoinmart.co.ukWIN
THE
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