Shackleton's Argonauts
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 First edition | |
| Author | Frank Hurley |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's non-fiction |
| Publisher | Angus and Robertson |
Publication date | 1948 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 140pp |
| Preceded by | Pearls and Savages : Adventures in the Air, on Land and Sea - in New Guinea |
| Followed by | The Diaries of Frank Hurley 1912-1941 |
Shackleton's Argonauts: A Saga of the Antarctic Ice-Pack (1948) is a children's information book by Australian photographer and explorer Frank Hurley. Hurley also illustrated the book and won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1948.[1]
Frank Hurley was the official photographer attached to Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the Antarctic. Known as the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Shackleton aimed to ship his party to the head of the Weddell Sea and then cross the continent to the Ross Sea with a small party by dog sledge. But things went wrong from the start when their ship, the Endurance, was caught and crushed in ice-packs. After months of surviving on the ice, the expedition finally reached Elephant Island. From there Shackleton undertook an open-boat journey to South Georgia to organise a rescue, which, after some months and several attempts, was finally successful.
Hurley saved some negatives from the expedition and used a number to illustrate the book.