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60 free Ernest Shackleton trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ernest Shackleton trivia quiz covers the Anglo-Irish explorer who never reached his goal and became the model of a leader anyway. The easy questions cover the basics: the continent he explored, the ship crushed in the ice, the island where he left 22 men, the island he sailed to for help and the man he is always compared with. From there it moves through his birth in County Kildare, the school he was bored at, the years before the mast, the sea-water analysis job on Scott's Discovery, the 82°17′S record, the illness that sent him home and the resentment that followed. The harder end covers the Nimrod expedition: the Bay of Whales, the promise to Scott he had to break, the biscuit he gave Frank Wild, the Beardmore Glacier and the 'live donkey' remark. Then the Endurance: 5,000 applicants, the stowaway, the cat, 'She's going down!', Patience Camp, 497 days without solid ground, the 720-mile boat journey, the screws in the boots for the mountain crossing, the Chilean tug that finished the rescue, and the drink his doctor told him to give up on the night he died. It ends with the biscuit that sold at Christie's and the wreck found in 2022. Every answer was checked against Shackleton's encyclopaedia entry before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Antarctica and James Cook quizzes are natural companions.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many British expeditions to the Antarctic did Shackleton lead?
Three
Nimrod, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic and the Shackleton-Rowett; he also sailed under Scott on the Discovery.
Q 02In which Irish county was Shackleton born in 1874?
Kildare
The family moved to Sydenham in south London when he was ten; he called himself 'an Irishman' all his life.
Q 03Shackleton's brother Frank was a suspect, later exonerated, in which famous 1907 crime?
The theft of the Irish Crown Jewels
The jewels have never been recovered.
Q 04Which south London school did Shackleton attend from the age of thirteen?
Dulwich College
He was said to be 'bored' by his studies but still finished fifth of thirty-one in his final term.
Q 05On which square-rigged ship did the 16-year-old Shackleton begin his apprenticeship?
Hoghton Tower
A Royal Navy cadetship was too expensive and he was over the age limit anyway.
Q 06How did Shackleton get his place on Scott's Discovery expedition?
Through the son of its main financial backer
He met Cedric Longstaff on the troopship Tintagel Castle and talked his way to an interview with Longstaff senior.
Q 07Which of these was among Shackleton's listed duties on the Discovery expedition?
In charge of sea-water analysis
He was also ward-room caterer, in charge of stores, and 'arranges the entertainments'; he edited the South Polar Times.
Q 08What Farthest South record did Scott, Wilson and Shackleton set on the 1902 southern journey?
82°17′S
All 22 dogs died and Shackleton 'broke down' with scurvy on the way back.
Q 09On which relief ship did Scott send Shackleton home early from the Discovery expedition in 1903?
Morning
Officially on health grounds; some think Scott resented his popularity with the crew.
Q 10Which post did Shackleton take up in January 1904 after leaving the Antarctic?
Secretary of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society
He had tried journalism first and found it unsatisfying; three months later he married Emily Dorman.
Q 11For which constituency did Shackleton stand unsuccessfully as a Liberal Unionist in 1906?
Dundee
He stood in opposition to Irish Home Rule.
Q 12Which Clydeside industrialist backed the Nimrod expedition, and had a glacier named after him?
William Beardmore
The Beardmore Glacier was the party's route up to the polar plateau.
Q 13What promise to Scott was Shackleton forced to break on the Nimrod expedition?
Not to base himself in McMurdo Sound
The bay he had promised to use proved unsafe and no anchorage could be found further east.
Q 21To which official proceedings did Shackleton give evidence in 1912?
The British inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic
He was regarded as an authority on ice and maritime risk.
Q 22What was the goal of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914?
To cross Antarctica from sea to sea via the Pole
Amundsen had reached the Pole in 1911, so the crossing was 'the one great main object' left.
Q 23What is the status of the 'Men wanted for hazardous journey' advert credited to Shackleton?
Q 14What did the Nimrod party name the cetacean-filled bay they found in the Great Ice Barrier in January 1908?
The Bay of Whales
Amundsen would later use it as his base for the Pole.
Q 15How close to the South Pole did Shackleton's party get on 9 January 1909?
97 geographical miles (112 statute miles)
The latitude was 88°23′S, the biggest single advance towards the Pole in exploration history.
Q 16Which ailing companion got Shackleton's one daily biscuit on the return from Farthest South?
Frank Wild
Wild wrote that 'all the money that was ever minted would not have bought that biscuit'; a biscuit sold at Christie's for £1,250 in 2011.
Q 17Which Antarctic volcano did members of the Nimrod expedition make the first ascent of?
Mount Erebus
Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson and Alistair Mackay also reached the area of the South Magnetic Pole.
Q 18What did Shackleton say to his wife about turning back short of the Pole?
'A live donkey is better than a dead lion, isn't it?'
She replied 'Yes darling, as far as I am concerned', and they left it at that.
Q 19What was found at the Nimrod hut in 2010, a century after being left behind?
Cases of whisky and brandy
A distiller revived the vintage formula and sold it, with proceeds to the Antarctic Heritage Trust.
Q 20Which monarch knighted Shackleton in 1909?
Edward VII
He also received the RGS gold medal, but the expedition left him deeply in debt until a £20,000 government grant.
No record of it survives and its existence is doubtful
He received more than 5,000 applications regardless.
Q 24What was the name of the second ship of the 1914 expedition, sent to lay depots from the Ross Sea side?
Aurora
Under Aeneas Mackintosh, the Ross Sea party laid its depots but lost three men, including Mackintosh.
Q 25What unusual question did Shackleton put to the physicist Reginald James at interview?
Whether he could sing
He believed character mattered as much as skill and accepted some men on sight.
Q 26Which First Lord of the Admiralty told the Endurance to 'proceed' despite the outbreak of war in 1914?
Winston Churchill
Shackleton had offered the ship and men to the war effort.
Q 27Who captained the Endurance and later navigated the James Caird to South Georgia?
Frank Worsley
His navigation with a sextant in a tiny boat is regarded as one of the great feats of seamanship.
Q 28How did the 19-year-old Perce Blackborow come to be on the Endurance?
He stowed away after being refused a job
Discovered too late to turn back, he was put to work in the galley.
Q 29What was the name of the ship's cat on the Endurance?
Mrs Chippy
He was actually male and belonged to the carpenter McNish; he was shot when the ship sank.
Q 30On what date did the Endurance become frozen fast in the Weddell Sea ice?
19 January 1915
She drifted with the ice for months before the pressure crushed her in the spring.