Generalitat of Catalonia

Trapped in the Ice. Shackelton’s Legendary Expedition to Antarctica

The Maritime Museum offers this exhibition, which is an adaptation of the exhibition organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1999. It relates the story of the expedition by the British explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men who, in August 1914, set off for Antarctica with the aim of carrying out the first crossing of the continent. After opening a route through the frozen Weddell Sea, only 160 kilometres from their destination, his ship Endurance became trapped in the ice and sank due to the pressure of the ice. The members of the expedition were trapped for 20 months. The adventure is related through 167 black and white photographs taken by Frank Hurley, the expedition photographer. As well as giving us an understanding of the harsh conditions that the expedition had to deal with, the exhibition contains interactive modules to explain the characteristics of the Antarctic continent, the difficult living conditions experienced by the expedition and also other elements which explain the rotation and translation movements of the Earth with respect to the Sun.