Alexandra Shackleton: A Legend in Her Own Time

Alexandra Shackleton: The unsung heroine of the sea

In 1872, Alexandra Shackleton, the daughter of famous Arctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, became the first woman to solo-navigate across Antarctica. For her bravery and accomplishments during this historic expedition, she was awarded a Royal Geographical Society gold medal. .Alexandra Shackleton was born in 1876, the daughter of Sir Ernest Shackleton. The family lived in Britain for a few years, but then moved to South Africa to work as sheep farmers. In 1891, she began attending school at St. Andrew's College in Grahamstown until 1895 when she left to begin a three-month trip across Africa.

Alexandra Shackleton: A lifeboat legend

Alexandra Shackleton was born in the late 1800s, a time when women did not have the same rights as men. Though she found success as a writer, she faced many hardships throughout her life. She was constantly faced with adversity and always managed to find a way to make it work for her. In 1912, Shackleton was the captain of a ship called the SS Veor.

On December 4th of that year, she and her crew were in a lifeboat and watched their ship wreck in heavy weather. They survived for two weeks on driftwood from the wreckage before being rescued by another boat. Her story is then told through interviews with her children, personal letters as well as excerpts from her own writings.The book opens with Shackleton's first letter to her son, Frank. There is no date attached to the letter, but it is a response to a previous one from Frank in which he said he was sorry for being such an unsatisfactory father and that he could be more of one if she would let him see his children.