FIRST DAY COVERS For artwork detail click here
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition, 1907-09
The First Day Cover shows Nimrod awaiting the ice in McMurdo sound to break out. The Centenary of the Shackleton’s furthest south will be on January 9th 2009 and is marked by a drawing of the polar party at their furthest south exactly 100 years ago on 9.01.1909. It shows Shackleton, (nearest the flag), then Wild and Adams. The photo on which the drawing is based was taken by Marshall.
Sir Ernest Shackleton: The Nimrod Expedition was a privately funded Antarctic Expedition with several notable achievements and discoveries:- First ascent of Antarctic’s highest volcano Mt Erebus, discovery of the South Magnetic pole, discovery of the Beardmore Glacier. Achieved furthest south at 87° 23’S, 97 nautical miles from the geographic South Pole. Expeditions: British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-04 in Discovery. British Antarctic Expedition 1907-09 in Nimrod. Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-17 in Endurance. Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition 1921-22 in Quest.
Nimrod, Length 136 feet, beam 30 feet, 334grt. Built 1865 at Dundee, Scotland as the 3-masted sealing schooner Nimrod with 60hp engine, single screw. Refitted and re-rigged as a barquentine 1907. Polar Voyages: British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-09. Used by Shackleton as a museum 1909-10 and then sold to defray expedition costs. Used in the North Sea coaling trade. Foundered on Barber Sands, Norfolk, 30.01.19.