Ernest Shackleton memorial ‘Hope Cross’ goes on show in Dundee

Shackleton died in 1922 at the age of 47 in Grytviken, South Georgia, during his fourth expedition to the area. His crew honoured him by constructing a cross from salvaged timber found at whaling stations, dubbed the Hope Cross.

The memorial stood for almost a century before being placed in storage and replaced by a concrete monument in 2018.

Standing at a height of 3m, the memorial is now on display beside RRS Discovery, the ship that first took Shackleton to Antarctica in 1901. It will be open to the public to view from Tuesday (15 October), following a private rededication ceremony on Monday that included descendants of polar explorers.

The hope is that more people will visit the memorial, given its relatively less remote location.

“If you wanted to go down to South Georgia, the only way to do it is on a cruise ship. There aren’t that many, and the season is quite short,” Dundee Heritage Trust heritage manager Sophie Hinde told the BBC.

“We were approached by the South Georgia Heritage Trust, who had the cross in a warehouse after it was taken down in 2018 for conservation reasons …They just wanted to give people the space to see it,” she said.

Having taken part in Captain Robert Scott’s first Antarctic expedition on the Discovery between 1901 and 1904 and planned – unsuccessfully – to cross the South Pole on board his ship The Endurance between 1914-1917, Shackleton reached Grytviken on South Georgia Island onboard the Quest but suffered a fatal heart attack during this last voyage on 5 January, 1922.

The cross’ unveiling in Dundee coincides with the release of a new documentary about Shackleton’s ill-fated Endurance expedition and the 2022 search for the sunken ship. 

The Endurance documentary premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 12 October and was released in UK cinemas on 14 October.