ILL-FATED VENTURE

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 31, 5 February 1917, Page 8

ILL-FATED VENTURE

HISTORY OF THE EXPEDITION

The expedition ship Aurora was despatched from Port Chalmers-on an errand of succour to the South Polar regions on 20th December last. Her voyage was a sequel to the ill-luck that dogged the Shackleton expedition practically from the outset, and her mission was to rescue the members of the party marooned in the Boss Sea. Their names are: —

Aeneas A. Mackintosh, R.N.R., commanding party. A, Stevens, M.A., B.Sc, lecturer on geography in the University of Glasgow, geologist and chief of the scientific staff. Rev. A. JR. Spencer Smith, 8.A., chaplain and photographer. J. L. Cope, 8.A., M.8., Cambridge, surgeon. A. Keith Jack, M.Sc, of Brighton, Victoria, physicist and assistant biologist. R. W. Richards, of Ballarat, Victoria, physicist. Irvine 0. Gaze, of Melbourne, commissariat officer.Ernest Joyce, of Sydney, in charge of dogs.

A. H. Ninnis, in charge of motors. H. E. Wild, brother of Frank Wild (who went with the main body), in charge of stores.

V. G. Hay ward, secretary.

Sir Ernest Shackleton stated before he left with the. relief expedition that if his own plans had succeeded, and the Endurance had reached the Weddel Sea coast, he probably would have crossed the Anarctic Continent during the present summer. The duty of the Ross Sea party would have been to lay depots for him south of M'Murdo Sound, and as the members of that party could know nothing of what happened in the meantime they might be away from their base when the Aurora arrived. In that case, he explained, he would probably "take a sledging party inland in order to get in touch with , the men as quickly as possible. If all went well, he. hoped to be back.in New Zealand with his comrades not later than March.