Ernest Shackleton.

A group of intrepid explorers are readying themselves for the first-ever recreation of the epic voyage made by British explorer Ernest Shackleton on his ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole in 1914, on an exact copy of Shackleton’s lifeboat.

Shackleton’s boat, the Endurance, became trapped in the Antarctic ice and was eventually crushed and sank. His attempt to raise the alarm is considered by many to be one of the greatest journeys ever made.

Shackleton took a small party from his crew and rowed 1,287km on the lifeboat James Caird from Elephant Island to South Georgia, where they knew they could get help from a whaling station. Their journey took from 1914 to 1916.

The British and Australian team, led by Australian explorer and environmentalist Tim Jarvis, will row the same route and then cross the mountainous, glacial interior of South Georgia to reach the north coast. They will use no equipment that was not available in Shackleton’s time.

The journey will not be without danger. The replica boat... has no keel and capsizes very easily

The Shackleton Epic team will depart from South America in early January, rowing an identical copy of Shackleton’s 6.85 metre-lifeboat before climbing the mountains.

The journey will not be without danger. The replica boat, named the Alexandra Shackleton after the British explorer’s grand-daughter, has no keel and capsizes very easily.

“You know, we ran the numbers and said what can we do with an exact replica of Shackleton’s boat, without cheating, to try and make this... less susceptible to capsize than what he had,” Jarvis said.

The team have practised capsizing the vessel and trying to right it again, and have attempted to use their supplies, equipment and rocks as ballast instead of just rocks as Shackleton did.

“We ran all the numbers, we fiddled around with rocks and our camera batteries because we are filming this... and you know what? We came up with exactly the same configuration of how the ballast was loaded as what Shackleton did with rule of thumb,” Jarvis said.

“It’s amazing to think that (after) a hundred years, with all of our modern thinking, we’ve ended up with exactly what Shackleton had. But yeah, it’s still a very tippy, very unsafe boat,” he said.

Jarvis was toasted at a presentation in Sydney at the weekend with an identical whisky to that carried on board the original Endurance, served in tin mugs for added authenticity. An environmental scientist and an experienced explorer, Jarvis said he was inspired by Shackleton’s leadership style and his ability to turn disaster into success.

He also said Shackleton’s story was an ideal platform to promote his environ-mental message.

“Well, Shackleton was trying to save his men from the Antarctic and we’re now trying to save Antarctica from man,” Jarvis said.

The doomed voyage of the Endurance

• In 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton set sail for the Antarctic aboard the ship Endurance, trying to be the first to cross Antarctica from one side to the other.

• With the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen having gained the South Pole in 1911, Shackleton felt crossing the continent was the next great Antarctic first to be accomplished.

• Endurance departed London the same day Germany declared war on Russia – August 1, 1914.

• With the ship anchored at Plymouth, England, Shackleton offered the services of his ship and crew for the war effort, but Winston Churchill, then Secretary of the Admiralty, sent back a one-word telegram: “Proceed.”

• With a crew of 26 and a stowaway, a 20-year-old Welshman named Perce Blackborow, the ship left Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 26, heading for the Antarctic.

• On December 5, with Blackborow now made steward, the ship departed South Georgia Island, on its way to the Antarctic continent. Unbeknown to them, Shackleton and his 27 men would not touch land again for 497 days.

• Endurance became beset in pack ice on January 18, 1915.

• On November 15, almost a year after they had left South Georgia, Shackleton and his crew watched the ice-crumpled Endurance sink beneath the frozen sea.

• After 23 weeks camping on the ice, the crew went to sea in three salvaged lifeboats, trying to reach one of several islands off the Antarctic Peninsula.

• Seven days later, on April 16, 1916, after surviving days and nights of freezing cold, stormy seas and a debilitating lack of food and water, they landed on remote Elephant Island.

• A week later, realising that no ship would ever find them, Shackleton and five others left Elephant Island aboard the 23-foot lifeboat James Caird and sailed for South Georgia, 800 miles away across some of the roughest seas in the world.

• After 17 days in stormy seas, and with superior navigation by Endurance captain Frank Worsley, Shackleton and his five-man crew miraculously arrived on the west coast of South Georgia.

• Even today, polar historians consider the voyage aboard the James Caird one of the greatest small-boat journeys of all time.