The Shackleton Endurance Exhibition 1914-1917 in Dublin

The Shackleton Endurance Exhibition 1914-1917

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that the World famous “Shackleton Exhibition” has now opened to the public in Dún Laoghaire.

Aiming to complete the first sea-to-sea land crossing of Antarctica by foot via the South Pole, in August 1914 Shackleton and his team of 27 scientists and seamen set sail from Plymouth aboard their ship, Endurance, just after the outbreak of World War I. They wouldn’t be heard from for nearly two years.

The Shackleton Endurance Exhibition tells a survival story like no other: Irish-born explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-1917. Today it’s rightly seen as perhaps the most remarkable in exploration history: a tale of extraordinary leadership—of the triumph of the human heart and spirit when faced with the most terrible odds.

At the heart of the exhibition, accompanied by explanatory wall texts and diary excerpts from the journey, are Hurley’s dramatic black-and-white images of the expedition, some made from negatives retrieved by him from the freezing waters inside the Endurance just before she sank. Some of Hurley’s most compelling images are of the ship’s break-up. These are presented along with photographs of the men’s camps and their attempted march over snow and ice to reach open water. Startling original film-footage by Hurley, enhanced by computer animation, shows Endurance as she disappeared into the Weddell Sea.

A replica of the James Caird confronts visitors with the awesome challenge that Shackleton and his men faced in their rescue mission from Elephant Island, sailing an open boat across 800 miles in towering 60-ft waves and gale-force winds, with only a sextant, some charts, an unreliable chronometer and a few sightings of the sun to guide them to South Georgia

After visiting the exhibition, you’ll understand that it truly was a ‘Triumph against all odds’.”