Shackleton’s death marked

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 12

Shackleton’s death marked

(By

KENNETH ANTHONY)

After Amundsen and Scott, the most famous name in Antarctic exploration is probably that of Sir Ernest Shackleton. He sailed with Scott in the Discovery in 1901, and commanded expeditions to the frozen south in 1907-09 and again in 1914-16. In 1921 he set off again, his intention being to explore the coasts of the Antarctic continent, and on the way his ship, the Quest,

called at Tristan da Cunha. In those days Tristan was even more isolated than today, and so the visit was a big occasion for the islanders. The Quest delivered a new flag, presented to the Tristan scout troop by the Chief Scout. As the Quest sailed away from Tristan, no-one realised that the expedition was to end so soon and so tragically. Soon afterwards. Shackleton became ill and died on board. The voyage of exploration

was abandoned and the Quest returned home to England. Now, Tristan has marked the fiftieth anniversary of Shackleton’s last voyage with a set of special stamps. One of these shows a portrait of the explorer with a typical Tristan longboat; another illustrates the presentation of the scout flag; yet another shows the Quest off Tristan. But to stamp collectors, perhaps the most interesting stamp is the 7Jp value, illustrated here. It is a reminder that the Quest had her own post office on board, equipped with special postmarks for each of the places which it was intended to visit. Half a century ago Tristan had no stamps of its own; the island’s first issue did not in fact appear until 1952. And so the Quest’s Tristan postmark was applied to British stamps which the crew brought with them. The new stamp effectively illustrates this curious piece of postal history—by depicting two contemporary stamps cancelled with the Shackleton postmark. Another of the special postmarks carried in the Quest was for Enderby Land in Antarctica—an area which the expedition was destined never to reach.

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