Shackleton’s Crow’s Nest leaves Kildare museum on journey to South Georgia

The Crow’s Nest look-out post used by famed explorer Ernest Shackleton on his last Antarctic expedition aboard the Quest has been given a farewell from Athy on its way to South Georgia.

Members of Athy Sing and Sign Club posed with the artefact recently with historical conservator Sven Habermann.

The Crow’s Nest had been on display in the Shackleton Museum n Athy for several months but is now going to the museum in Grytviken, a former whaling station in South Georgia — the explorer’s final resting place.

Mr Habermann featured in the recent RTÉ documentary Shackleton’s Cabin, a fascinating insight into his painstaking journey to bring the explorer’s cabin from the Quest ship back to its original state.

On January 5, 1922, Shackleton died of a heart attack in his cabin aboard The Quest, on what was to be his final expedition to the South Pole.

Cabin restoration

Shackleton’s cabin from the Quest was donated to the Shackleton Museum which asked Mr Habermann to begin its restoration.