The Quest Chronicle blog and its origins
In early 2021, it was suggested that I set up a blog to document the “100-years-ago” story of the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition as an unfolding diary. The blog launched in March 2021 and ran though the year up to January 4 2022, the eve of the centenary of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s death at South Georgia. By this time, I had decided that the story should be presented in a book and so transferred efforts to that cause – resulting in The Quest Chronicle being published in September 2022. This part of our website contains just some of the posts from the original blog.
Blog posts are listed below in reverse chronological order.
Jan Chojecki
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9-16 August, 1921
Saturday 13 August 1921 At Southampton, a lunch is held on board RMS Aquitania, attended by, amongst others, Shackleton, John Rowett, Wild, Jeffrey, Kerr, Macklin, Rickinson, Eriksen and Captain W Bridgland, the Channel Pilot. The Daily Mail (15 August) reports “Mr Harris, the manager of the Southampton office of the Cunard Line, was the host…
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1-8 August, 1921
John Charles Bee-Mason (47) joins the expedition team. Cinematographer and Assistant Naturalist. Originally J C Mason, he changed his name to Bee Mason after success making films about bee-keeping. He was a photographer during the war and he is a volunteer with the Scout movement. C E Smith, of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company,…
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16-31 July, 1921
Monday 18 July, 1921 In the fall-out following his comments at Becker’s event on 8 July, Ernest Shackleton writes to John Quiller Rowett’s wife, Ellie, from the Marlborough Club, Pall Mall: “never the lowered Banner, never the lost Endeavour” I like these lines. My dear Ellie, I have just left John and cannot refrain from…