Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary says he has met the ghost of eminent British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, who died during an expedition to Antarctica in 1916.
In a video promoting conservation work on Shackleton’s hut in Antarctica, New Zealand’s greatest explorer describes how he saw the apparition when he first visited the hut at Ross Island.
”I remember when I first went to Shackleton’s hut — and I’m not a person who really sees things very much — but I went inside the door … when I opened the door — it’s a rather sort of bare hut inside — but I distinctly saw Shackleton walking towards me and welcoming me and then it all sort of flashed away and he was gone,” he said.
”It’s the only time I can ever remember something occurring like that, so I have a very warm feeling indeed for Shackleton and for his hut and I really believe that those huts … Shackleton and [Robert Falcon] Scott’s … must be preserved.”
Shackleton’s hut is listed on the World Monuments Fund’s 100 most-endangered sites, and the New Zealand-based Antarctic Heritage Trust is implementing the conservation plan.
The endangered hut is one of the few wooden buildings remaining on the frozen continent from the golden age of Antarctic exploration at the start of last century, and still contains tins of food and other food items, preserved over the decades.
It was built for the 1907-09 British Antarctic expedition when Shackleton led an attempt on the South Pole.
He turned his team back just 156km from its destination — the furthest south anyone had ventured at that time — when bad weather and dwindling supplies threatened their safe return.
During the expedition, Shackleton’s team also made the first ascent of the world’s southern-most active volcano, Mount Erebus.
Funding for the conservation work was kick-started with a $100 000 grant from American Express.
Spokesperson Craig Dowling said on Tuesday the aim is to keep the hut as original as possible, but it is inevitable some building materials will have to be replaced. — Sapa-AFP