Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 150th birthday has extended into the new year, with an event planned by the Explorers’ Club and the Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton Appreciation Society.
“Shackleton 150” in New York next month will focus on Shackleton, “his expeditions, and celebrating the recent discoveries of his vessels Quest and Endurance”.
Amongst the speakers will be Shackleton scholars from the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich, London), the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and Irish participants including Kevin Kenny and Seamus Taaffe of the Shackleton Museum in Athy, Co Kildare and Enda O'Coineen.
O'Coineen will speak with marine archaeologist, Mensun Bound, director of exploration on the Discovery team which found the original Endurance, on plans for design and build of an “Endurance II”.
As previously reported by Afloat, O'Coineen is spearheading a 14 million euro project to build a replica of Shackleton’s most famous ship.
The symposium programme includes a full day of lectures on Saturday, February 15th, and a special dinner on Saturday night.
The 150th anniversary of the birth of Ernest Henry Shackleton in Kilkea, Ireland, was marked in London last year with the unveiling of a memorial plaque in his honour at Westminster Abbey, near those honouring fellow explorers Cook and Drake, and close to the tomb of his favourite poet Robert Browning.
