According to biographer Roland Huntford, Shackleton's pride had been further wounded by the references to his physical breakdown made in Scott’s The Voyage of the Discovery, published in 1905. It then became his personal mission to return to the Antarctic and outperform Scott.[8] He began looking for potential backers for an expedition of his own; his initial plans appear in an unpublished document dated early 1906. These include a cost estimate of £17,000 (updated value £1,330,000) for the entire expedition.[9][10] He received his first promise of financial backing when early in 1907 his employer, Beardmore, offered a £7,000 loan guarantee (updated value £550,000).[10][11] With this in hand, Shackleton felt confident enough to announce his intentions to the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) on 12 February 1907.[12] One reason for Shackleton's sense of urgency was the knowledge that the Polish explorer Henryk Arctowski was planning an expedition, which was announced at the RGS on the same day as Shackleton's. In the event, Arctowski's plans were stillborn.[13]
[edit] Preparations
[edit] Initial plans
Shackleton’s original unpublished plan envisaged basing himself at the old Discovery Expedition headquarters in McMurdo Sound. From there he proposed to launch attempts to reach the geographical South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole. Other journeys would follow, and there would be a continuous programme of scientific work.[9] This early plan also revealed Shackleton’s proposed transport methods, involving a combination of dogs, ponies and a specially designed motor vehicle. Neither ponies nor motor traction had been used in the Antarctic before, though ponies had been used by Frederick Jackson during the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic expedition of 1894–97. Despite Jackson's confused reports of his ponies' prowess, and contrary to specific advice from Nansen, Norway's renowned polar traveller, Shackleton was impressed enough to take 15 ponies, later scaled down to 10.[14] By the time he announced his plans to the RGS in February 1907 Shackleton had revised his cost estimate to a more realistic £30,000 (updated value £2,350,000).[10][15] However, the response of the RGS to Shackleton's proposals was muted; Shackleton would learn later that the Society was by this time aware of Scott’s wish to lead a new expedition and that the Society wished to reserve its full approval for Scott.
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