Anglo-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) conducted three expeditions to the South Pole: the first, in 1901-03, under the direction of Robert Falcon Scott; the second, in 1907-09, which achieved the greatest advance to the pole in history, for which he received his knighthood; and the third, from 1914-17, a disastrous adventure that concluded with a near-miraculous escape, which he chronicled in South. Shackleton was at the start of yet another expedition in 1922 when he experienced a fatal heart attack.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874–1922) was an Anglo-Irish polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, and one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.In 1914, as the shadow of war falls across Europe, a party led by veteran explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton sets out to become the first to traverse the Antarctic continent. Their initial optimism is short-lived, however, as the ice field slowly thickens, encasing the ship Endurance in a death-grip, crushing their craft, and marooning 28 men on a polar ice floe.In an epic struggle of man versus the elements, Shackleton leads his team on a harrowing quest for survival over some of the most unforgiving terrain in the world. Icy, tempestuous seas full of gargantuan waves, mountainous glaciers and icebergs, unending brutal cold, and ever-looming starvation are their mortal foes as Shackleton and his men struggle to stay alive.What happened to those brave men forever stands as a testament to their strength of will and the power of human endurance.