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Crossing Continents: Frank Wild's last journey

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Frank Wild's last journey

29/12/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Crossing Continents, Frank Wild's last journey

Retracing the route of Antarctic explorer Frank Wild, Shackleton's second-in-command.

Karen Bowerman retraces the route of Antarctic explorer Frank Wild, Shackleton's second-in-command, as Wild's ashes are taken to South Georgia for burial next to Shackleton.

Sir Ernest Shackleton has a heroic place in the annals of Antarctic exploration, famously for his expedition on the aptly-named Endurance in 1914. He intended to cross over the Antarctic landmass. Instead, his ship became stuck in ice which eventually crushed it. Shackleton and his crew made a desperate voyage in three small boats to Elephant Island, where they split up. The men on the island were left under the command of Shackleton's Number 2, Frank Wild. Shackleton and a small team sailed 800 miles to South Georgia, from where they mounted a rescue mission for Wild's group. 
Nearly a century on, reporter Karen Bowerman joins a group of Wild's relatives retracing his extraordinary journey to the southern seas. They are bearing Wild's ashes, which they bury next to Shackleton, on South Georgia.
Producer: John Murphy.

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