Our time was sadly limited because we had to be back for Thanksgiving dinner by 6, so I left the penguins and went into Shackleton's hut. Things in the hut seemed a bit arranged, but authentic artifacts nonetheless. The hut was better built and better located than Scott's hut and the Cape Evans hut. It was smaller than the other two and held fewer people. Even with the wind blowing 40 mph outside, inside it was quiet (quieter than the modern Crary Lab where we have our office space). According to a little handout we got, the hut wasn't very well insulated though and was very cold.

Shackleton's expedition had a number of goals. He wanted to reach the South Pole, the South Magnetic Pole, and do a bit of geology. After wintering at the hut, one party left for the magnetic pole in early October. Another party, led by Shackleton, left for the South Pole in late October. None of them had enough food, but the party that went to the magnetic pole made it and the South Pole party made it to within 100 miles of the pole before turning around so that they wouldn't starve to death on the return journey. The magnetic pole party was picked up by the ship Nimrod by shear providence a long distance from the agreed upon meeting spot. The Nimrod had been searching the coastline for them and happened to be in the right place at the right time. Then since the pole party was late and one member, Eric Marshall, was really weak, Shackleton and Frank Wild left Marshall and Jameson Adams behind and sped ahead to catch the ship before it left for home on March 1st. They made it before the ship left and then a rescue party went back the 50 miles to get the two who had been left behind. Remarkably, everyone made it back alive.