Shackleton's unique version of 'The Nations Favourite Poem' displayed for the first time by the National Maritime Museum

Friday 2 November 2001 -- A parody of Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If', written by Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew on his final voyage was given a rare reading yesterday evening by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. HRH was taking part in Seawords, an annual evening of maritime poems and stories organised by the Friends of the National Maritime Museum.

Shackleton wrote the verses of his version of 'If' on a cardboard page in 1921 during the Quest expedition to Antarctica, just a few months before he died. This is the only known example of the poem in Shackleton's own handwriting in existence. On the back of the page are a number of photographs of Shackleton and his crew taken while ashore at Madeira during the Quest voyage and the page is signed by Shackleton and his crew. The manuscript has never been on public display before and is on display at the National Maritime Museum as part of its current exhibition South: the race to the Pole from Friday 2 November until Thursday 31 January 2002.

It is known that Shackleton had three verses from "If" engraved and placed under the bridge deck of Quest. Shackleton often referred to poetry for inspiration and had been friends with Kipling since 1900, having stayed at his home, Batemans.

According to Sian Flynn, Exhibitions Manager at the Museum:

This is an extremely rare object which shows Shackleton's humour, as well as his love of poetry. It is also evidence of the good relationship which had existed between Shackleton and Kipling for a number of years. There is also added poignancy in this being one of the last surviving examples of Shackleton committing his words to paper before his death in January 1922.

The run of the Museum's current exhibition, South: the race to the Pole, has recently been extended due to popular demand until 31 January 2002. One of the most successful exhibitions in the history of the National Maritime Museum, it is also the world's first on three heroes of Polar exploration, Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton. It features 180 objects including the Union flag placed at the Pole by Scott, alongside the Norwegian flag taken by Amundsen and Shackleton's boat compass from the James Caird.

Seawords is just one of the many events organised throughout the year by the Friends of the National Maritime Museum. The 5000-strong organisation supports the development of the Museum and the preservations of its collections. In the past five years, the Friends have organised over 200 events for members, ranging from talks on Captain Cook, masqued balls, behind the scenes visits in the Museum and sailing trips in historic craft. Seawords will be held at Greenwich, where a dinner will be served between the 'acts' of the recital by celebrities of serious, sad, funny and frivolous pieces with a maritime flavour.

The Friends' Office
Friends of the National Maritime Museum
Greenwich
London SE10 9NF
Tel: +44 (0)20 8312 6678
Fax: +44 (0)20 8312 6551

Notes to Editors
Transcript of Shackleton's version of 'If' as it appears on the Museum exhibit.

• IF
  If you can stand the Quest and all her antics
  When all around you turn somersaults upon her deck;
  And go aloft when no one has told you
  And not fall down and break your blooming neck;
  If you can work like Wild and also like Wuzzles*
  Spend a convivial night with some old bean,
  And then come down and meet the Boss at breakfast
  And never breathe a word of where you've been.
  If you can fill the port and starboard bunkers
  With fourteen tons of coal; and call it fun;
  Yours is the ship and everything that's in it
  And you're a marvel; not a man my son.

* Wuzzles = F.A. Worsley, hydrographer and sailing master, also sailed with Shackleton on Endurance.

• Rudyard Kipling was the man who named the National Maritime Museum. Kipling was enlisted to suggest a suitable name for the institution, having previously named the streets at the popular British Empire Exhibition, held at Wembley during 1924-5. He chose the words 'Maritime Museum' at some time between July 1928 and October 1929. The meeting of museum trustees agreed to the name and the title National Maritime Museum was approved by the Admiralty in 1931. The Museum holds a large collection of maritime books from Kipling's personal collection, donated by his widow in 1936. This collection can be viewed by appointment with the Museum's Library.
• Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton - 1874-1922
  Born at Kilkea House, Co. Kildare on 15 February 1874. The Shackleton family (originally Yorkshire Quakers) moved to Ireland in the early 18th century. Ernest's father, Henry, was a doctor who migrated back to England, practising at Sydenham in south east London. Ernest was one of ten children. After schooling at Dulwich College (1887-1890), Shackleton went to Liverpool to become an apprentice on a merchantman, before eventually transferring to the Union Castle line in 1899 as third officer in the Tintagel Castle.
• Through contact with a Union Castle passenger, Cyril Longstaff, whose father sponsored Scott's Discovery expedition, Shackleton was taken on as Third Officer on the Discovery, which departed for Antarctica in the summer of 1901. Scott selected him for the southern journey across the Great Ice Barrier, where Shackleton's breakdown due to scurvy became a turning point in his life. Seriously ill, Shackleton was invalided home aboard the relief ship Morning. He was devastated at having to leave the expedition and resolved to return to the Antarctic to prove himself as a polar explorer.
• In 1903, Shackleton was approached by the Admiralty to sail as chief officer on the Terra Nova to assist the Morning in bringing Scott and his men home from the Discovery expedition, which was about to spend its second winter in the Antarctic against the organisers' wishes. Shackleton declined, his mind fixed on leading his own expedition to Antarctica. On 11 January 1904, Shacklelton was elected secretary of the Scottish Royal Geographical Society and on 9 April, he married Emily Dorman at Christchurch, Westminster. Shackleton's gift for public speaking led to him running for Parliament, although he was not elected.
• In 1907, with the backing of a Clydebank shipbuilder, William Beardmore (later Lord Invernairn), Shackleton formed his own expedition and attempted to reach the South Pole in Nimrod. The expedition failed to reach the Pole by ninety-seven miles. Shackleton was knighted on his return home in 1909 and received a hero's welcome.
• The aim of Shackleton's second expedition, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1916) was to cross the Antarctic continent from the Weddell to the Ross Sea, but his ship, Endurance, was crushed by ice and Shackleton and his crew became stranded on Elephant Island off the tip of Graham Land. With five of his men, Shackleton made his way across 800 miles of treacherous, stormy ocean in the 22-foot boat James Caird to get help at South Georgia. Amazingly, Shackleton and his men reached land, but were still seventeen miles from their destination, Stromness whaling station. The team had to undertake a previously unattempted journey over South Georgia's mountains and glaciers before reaching the whaling station and announcing their identity to an amazed station manager. Shackleton later rescued his stranded crew and he returned to England in May 1917. However, another party under Captain Aeneas Mackintosh in the Aurora had gone to the Ross Seas to lay depots for Shackleton's trans-Antarctic expedition, unaware that it had foundered. One of the members died of scurvy and two others were lost on an ice floe carried out to sea. These were the only men ever lost under the leadership of Shackleton.
• Shackleton sailed on his third and last solo expedition in the Quest in 1922 to explore the Enderby Land region. But Shackleton died on board of heart failure on 5 January 1922, aged forty-seven, leaving a wife, two sons and a daughter. He was buried at Grytviken, South Georgia at the request of his wife Emily. Not long before his death, Shackleton wrote `I grow old and tired but must always lead on'.