A SLEDGE and flag used on explorer Ernest Shackleton’s famed attempt to reach the South Pole in the early 1900s will be put on show in London and Cambridge.
The artefacts had earlier been sold at auction to an overseas buyer, leading to the British Government to impose an export ban on the artefacts due to their national importance.
The National Heritage Memorial Fund, which is funded by the Government, said on yesterday that the items had been acquired for the nation after it awarded a £204,700 grant.
The fund was set up “to save some of the UK’s finest heritage at risk of loss”, and the items will go to two UK museums.
The sledge and flag were used on Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition, better known as Nimrod, which came within 100 miles of the South Pole before having to turn back.
The explorers would have died had they not turned back, having already stretched their rations to the limit and it became a race against time to return safely. On their return to the UK, the men of the 1907 to 1909 expedition were hailed as heroes.
Ros Kerslake, chief executive of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: “Few objects from the Nimrod expedition survive and these tell a gripping story about determination and resilience in the race to the South Pole and one of the most daring and ground-breaking expeditions of the 20th century.”
The sledge will go on display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the flag will join collections at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge.
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