S1661

Epitaph to three officers who died on Shackleton's 1914-17 expedition, recovered from McMurdo Sound by Rear Admiral R. H. Cruzen U.S. Navy in 1947. Long Caption: Epitaph to three officers who died on Shackleton's 1914-17 expedition, recovered from McMurdo Sound by Rear Admiral R. H. Cruzen U.S. Navy in 1947. A copper tube made of soldered sheet, the top turned over a wire ring, the bottom solid. It contained a folded piece of lined paper inscribed: 'JIAE / 1914-1917 / Sacred to the memory / of / Lieut. Aeneas Lionel A Mackintosh RNR, / V G Hayward / and / the Rev A. P. Spencer Smith BA / perished in the service of the expedition / Things done for gain are nought / But great things done endure / I ever was a fighter, so one fight more / The best and the last / I should hate that death bandaged / my eyes and bid me creep past / Let me pay in a minute life's / glad arrears of pain darkness and cold'. Credit line: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Object: AAA4270 Date: 1917 Medium: paper; copper Size: 155 x 43 mm Click here to buy a bespoke print of this image.