Ernest Shackleton's Expedition Equipment

Key Gear Used on the Endurance Expedition (1914–1917)

Vessel

Endurance – 3-masted barquentine, reinforced for ice (greenheart sheathing, double hull). Equipped with scientific instruments: sextant, barometer, thermometers, microscope.

Sledges & Travel

• Dog sledges (Greenland huskies).
• Man-hauled sledges (12-ft Nansen pattern, ash runners).

Clothing

• Reindeer-skin sleeping bags.
• Gabardine windproof tunics & trousers.
• Wool sweaters, Balaclava helmets, mittens.
• Finnesko (reindeer-hide boots) with sennegrass insulation.

Food

• Pemmican (dried meat + fat).
• Ship's biscuits (hard tack).
• Tinned meats, vegetables, cocoa, sugar.
• Seal/ penguin meat (supplemented on ice).

Science & Documentation

• Sextants, theodolites, dip circles (magnetics).
• Meteorological instruments.
• Photography: glass-plate cameras, cine film (Frank Hurley).

Every item was chosen for extreme cold, weight efficiency, and redundancy—lessons still studied in polar logistics today.