Question 1

True or false: Shackleton's ship Endurance was made of steel and specially designed for ice travel.

Accepted Answer

False. False. Endurance was a wooden schooner, built with reinforced oak to withstand ice pressure, not steel.

Question 2

True or false: Shackleton's crew survived by eating penguin meat, seal blubber, and their sled dogs.

Accepted Answer

True. True. After Endurance sank, they relied on seal, penguin, and eventually killed their dogs for food to avoid starvation.

Question 3

True or false: Shackleton's ship Endurance sank in the Weddell Sea in 1915, but all 28 crew survived.

Accepted Answer

True. True. After the ship was crushed by ice, the crew endured months on ice floes and Elephant Island before being rescued.

Question 4

True or false: Shackleton successfully reached the South Pole in 1909, just days after his rival Robert Scott.

Accepted Answer

False. False. He turned back 97 miles from the Pole to save his men; Roald Amundsen reached it first in 1911.

Question 5

True or false: Shackleton died of a heart attack on South Georgia Island during his final expedition.

Accepted Answer

True. True. He suffered a fatal heart attack in 1922 while anchored off South Georgia, and was buried there.

Question 6

True or false: Shackleton was knighted for his leadership during the Endurance expedition.

Accepted Answer

False. False. He was knighted earlier, in 1909, after his Nimrod expedition—not for the Endurance voyage.

Question 7

True or false: The crew of the Endurance included a stowaway who was later put to work.

Accepted Answer

False. False. There were no stowaways; all 28 men were officially signed on, though one joined at the last minute legally.

Question 8

True or false: Shackleton never set foot on the Antarctic continent during any of his expeditions.

Accepted Answer

True. True. His Nimrod expedition got within 97 miles of the South Pole, but he never actually landed on the continent itself.

Ernest Shackleton Trivia Questions