Perched on the edge of Ross Island, where the harsh winds of the Ross Sea meet the imposing presence of Mount Erebus, stands a humble wooden structure that tells a grand story of human perseverance and exploration.
This is Nimrod hut at Cape Royds, the base for Ernest Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-1909. For over a century, it has stood as a silent witness to one of the most ambitious polar expeditions of the heroic-era of Antarctic exploration.
Conservation at a glance
Three-year major carpentry conservation programme completed (2004 – 2007).
Six-year major artefact conservation programme completed (2006 – 2011).
6,100+ artefacts conserved. Building repaired and weather tight.
Ongoing monitoring and maintenance programme in place.
Pioneering Achievements
Shackleton’s expedition was the third British expedition to the Ross Sea region within 10 years and achieved a number of significant firsts.
In March 1908, a party led by Professor Edgeworth David was the first to climb Mt Erebus. On 16 January 1909, after an epic 1,600km trek, three expedition members – Douglas Mawson, Alistair Mackay, and Professor David – were the first to reach the South Magnetic Pole.
The expedition was the first to test a motor car in Antarctica. Although the Arrol-Johnston was ineffective in snow, it helped transport loads from Nimrod across the sea ice and for trips as far south as the Erebus Glacier Tongue. Additionally, the first book produced and published in Antarctica, Aurora Australis, was printed by Wild and Joyce in the winter of 1908.
As for their main objective – the quest for the Geographic South Pole – sledging commenced in October 1908, the polar team being Shackleton, Jameson Adams, Frank Wild and Eric Marshall. Although the Nimrod expedition had started with ten ponies, only four had survived to depart for the Pole. By early December 1908, all four ponies had died, forcing the team to man-haul a 1,000 lb sledge.
The Farthest South: A Brave Decision
On 9 January 1909, after nearly two-and-a-half-months of trudging, they reached a point 156 km from the Pole. In his diary entry for that day Shackleton recorded: ‘We have shot our bolt, and the tale is latitude 88º 23 South . . . Homeward bound at last. Whatever regrets may be, we have done out best’.
The decision to turn around with the Pole almost in sight was the hardest of Shackleton’s life and has subsequently been called the finest decision ever made in Antarctic exploration. Although it was likely that the team could have made the Pole, Shackleton knew they would probably not make it back and opted to ensure the survival of his men. He later told his wife Emily: ‘I thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion’. It was the sort of decision which prompted the Polar explorer, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, to say of ‘the Boss’: ‘If I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time’.
Although they didn’t reach the Pole, they surpassed Scott’s furthest south point by 589 km, discovered 800 km of new mountain range, and found coal and fossils at Mount Buckley. More importantly, they demonstrated a possible route for future expeditions to the Pole.
Recognising the site’s profound historical and cultural significance, the Antarctic Heritage Trust initiated a comprehensive conservation effort as part of its Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project (RSHRP), with a Conservation Plan published in March 2003.
The Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project
From 2004 to 2011, following two years of intensive planning, the major implementation phase of the Nimrod hut carpentry and artefact conservation programmes for the RSHRP were successfully completed. This monumental task involved not just securing and weatherproofing the structure itself, but also conserving the entire collection of artefacts left behind by Shackleton and his men. An astounding 6,100+ Cape Royds artefacts had been conserved by the end of the six-year artefact conservation programme.
In the summer season of 2004-05, as the polar sun circled endlessly overhead, conservators tackled critical repairs to the hut’s exterior. They mended the roof, repaired exterior cladding, and fixed the stove flue – all vital tasks to protect the hut and its contents from the relentless Antarctic elements.
The following season brought new challenges. The carpentry team faced the daunting task of removing accumulated ice from beneath and around the hut – a delicate operation crucial to preventing further damage. They also undertook major roofing repairs, installing new canvas and battens to weatherproof the structure. In a moment echoing the original expedition, the stove flue was re-erected and secured with guy-lines, just as Shackleton’s men would have done. And in a testament to the site’s historical richness, 45 new artefacts were discovered during this season’s work.
The 2006-07 season saw a flurry of activity both inside and outside the hut. The artefact conservation programme commenced, with over 700 artefacts, painstakingly conserved at Scott Base during the 2006 winter, returned to their rightful place within the hut. The carpentry team replaced the north wall window and the main door, repaired shelves, and installed interference dams to divert meltwater away from the hut’s foundations, completing the three-year carpentry conservation programme.
The following years of the RSHRP at Cape Royds, 2007-11, focused on completing the artefact conservation programme. Over 6,100 artefacts were conserved and returned to the hut by the end of the programme. Historic clothing, expedition and scientific equipment, stores, documents, and more – each one an important piece of the puzzle that helps tell the expedition’s story. The artefact team also undertook the delicate work of conserving large and fragile items on-site, artefacts too precious, delicate or large to move to the conservation lab at Scott Base.
Throughout the project, the conservators worked in challenging Antarctic challenges. They battled extreme cold, howling winds, and relative isolation from family and friends. Their commitment to the project echoed that of the heroic explorers whose legacy they work so hard to protect.
Discoveries and Ongoing Conservation
Since the completion of the major carpentry and artefact conservation programmes, Trust conservators have undertaken an annual programme of monitoring and conservation interventions at the hut, where they’ve also made some world-famous discoveries.
In January 2010, conservators from the Trust made an extraordinary discovery beneath Shackleton’s 1908 Antarctic base: five crates encased in ice, containing whisky and brandy. This discovery resulted in widespread media attention, including a book and National Geographic documentary both recording the whisky’s journey from obscurity to world-wide recognition. Sales of an exact replica of the century-old whisky, Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky, have resulted in a substantial donation to the Trust’s conservation work in Antarctica.
In 2019, the Trust returned a carefully reconstructed beer barrel to Shackleton’s hut, which was originally donated to the expedition, full of beer, by New Zealand brewery Speight’s in 1907. The Trust rescued parts of the barrel from Pony Lake at Cape Royds, and others were excavated from the ice near the hut. The Trust then connected with Speight’s Dunedin and one of New Zealand’s only practising coopers, Jurgen Voigtlander, who worked with the Trust to re-build the Speight’s barrel after bringing parts back to NZ in 2016.
