The Sage of Discovery

The Discovery in Antarctica via Wikipedia

In November, I put up a post about famous Antarctic explorer Earnest Shackleton…or rather, about two cases of scotch whiskey left behind from his 1908 expedition and chilled for over a hundred years in antarctic ice!

I mentioned then that the Antarctic Heritage Trust of New Zealand was hatching plans to travel to Shackleton’s Ross Island camp to extract the whiskey. Well, according to a report from Associated Press,  the group is now doing just that, using special equipment to drill through the summer ice.

Happily, in addition to the two crates of liquor previously found frozen beneath the compound, the expedition has uncovered three more. In addition to whiskey, there are two crates of brandy: one from Mackinlay & Co, and one from Australia’s Hunter Valley Distillery. The Heritage Trust is hoping to extract some well-preserved specimens, but many of the bottles will have to remain below the ice for historic purposes, according to the to conservation guidelines set  by the 12 Antarctic Treaty nations.

Whyte and Mackay, the distillers who now distribute McKinlay and Co. products, are eager for samples of Shackleton’s scotch, in order to conduct a series of tests that will determine whether they can recreate the lost blend…or whether it’s worth it.

[via The Star]

On January 1st, 1908 Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Nimrod, departed from New Zealand’s Lyttleton Harbor. It’s destination? Antarctica. After being towed 1,650 miles by steamboat, Nimrod reached Antarctic ice, and Shackleton’s team began their push to be the first humans to reach the South Pole.

They never made it. Grappling with poor weather conditions and supply shortages, Shackleton and his men missed their mark by roughly a hundred miles. However, aside from gathering valuable information about conditions in Antarctica, the Nimrod expedition produced one notable success; on January 16, 1909, a group of Shackleton’s explorers discovered the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole.

But lately, Shackleton’s expedition has produced a fruitful discovery of a different nature. During his 1908 expedition, Shackleton’s group set up camp on Ross Island — a camp he and his crew abandoned hastily in the March of ‘09. Although Shackleton’s 1908 mission produced no human casualties, it did include the loss of two cases of McKinlay and Co. whiskey (and some other supplies), left behind at the camp. In 2006, this whiskey was found buried beneath Shackleton’s Ross Island hut.

Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island from Wikipedia

Now the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust plan to launch an expedition of their own to cut the crates of century-old whiskey from the ice. This could be a boon for Whyte and Mackay, the distillers who own McKinlay and Co. The company sees the extraction as a potential means to sample or recreate the now extinct blend of scotch.

Cheers to that.

[story from BBC NEWS via npr]

For more information see An Antarctic Time Line and “Ernest Shackleton” on Wikipedia