Shackleton's Whiskey Found in Antarctica

I love this story: Century-old whiskey abandoned by explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton has been discovered buried in ice in Antarctica.

Crates of scotch and brandy were left behind by Shackleton's 1909 expedition when they were forced to abandon an attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.

The distillery which made the whiskey hopes to analyze the contents to reproduce the original recipe, which had been lost.

A 1914 Shackleton expedition became famous when the crew was marooned in Antarctica for nearly two years, amazingly without any loss of life. The story is told in some excellent books, including THE ENDURANCE by Caroline Alexander, a superb book which spotlights the stunning black and white photographs taken during the expedition by Frank Hurley.

We were fortunate to see the photographs, made from glass plates, at an exhibit at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum a few years ago. Hurley performed what some have called "the world's greatest editing job" as he had little time to decide which of the heavy glass plates to save and which to abandon. The pictures are works of art, as crisp and clear as if they'd just been taken.

The story of the 1914 expedition was told in the film SHACKLETON (2002) with Kenneth Branagh in the title role.