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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Ernest Shackleton
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(1874–1922, kt 1909) Explorer who made four expeditions to the Antarctic. The first was with Captain *Scott in 1901–4. He led the attempt of 1907–9 in the Nimrod, during which members of his party reached the summit of Mt Erebus and located the south magnetic pole. The third (1914–16 in the Endurance) was an extraordinary and heroic saga; the ship was crushed in pack ice; the party drifted on ice floes for five months before reaching the South Shetland islands; Shackleton and five others then made a further journey of 1300km/800m in a 7m/22ft open boat to South Georgia, where they crossed the mountainous interior to reach a Norwegian whaling station; after three failed attempts Shackleton rescued his men from the South Shetlands. He was again in South Georgia when he died, in 1922, at the start of a fourth expedition.
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