Shackleton’s Arrol-Johnston motor car
Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition (1907-09) achieved a number of firsts in Antarctica but one of the strangest and perhaps least successful was the introduction of the first motor vehicle to the Antarctic continent.
One of Shackleton’s backers was Sir William Beardmore, who had recently purchased the Arrol-Johnston Car Company. He gave Shackleton a car for free thinking he could get some mileage from advertising its association with an Antarctic expedition.
In the words of Shackleton:
“I decided to take a motor-car because I thought it possible, from my previous experience, that we might meet with a hard surface on the Great Ice Barrier, over which the first part at any rate of the journey towards the south would have to be performed. On a reasonably good surface the machine would be able to haul a heavy load at a rapid pace. I selected a 12-15 horsepower New Arrol-Johnston car, fitted with a specially designed air-cooled four-cylinder engine and Simms Bosch magneto ignition. Water could not be used for cooling, as it would certainly freeze. Round the carburetter was placed a small jacket, and the exhaust gases from one cylinder were passed through this in order that they might warm the mixing chamber before passing into the air. The exhaust from the other cylinders was conveyed into a silencer that was also to act as a foot-warmer. The frame of the car was of the standard pattern, but the manufacturers had taken care to secure the maximum of strength, in view of the fact that the car was likely to experience severe strains at low temperature. I ordered a good supply of spare parts in order to provide for breakages, and a special non-freezing oil was prepared for me by Messrs. Price and Company. Petrol was taken in the ordinary tins. I secured wheels of several special patterns as well as ordinary wheels with rubber tyres, and I had manufactured wooden runners [Skis] to be placed under the front wheels for soft surfaces, the wheels resting in chocks on top of the runners. The car in its original form had two bracket seats, and a large trough behind for carrying stores. It was packed in a large case and lashed firmly amidships on the Nimrod, in which position it made the journey to the Antarctic continent in safety”.(The Heart of the Antarctic Ch1, p28)
Unfortunately the vehicle had never been tested in the snow and the petrol engine and especially the tyres were totally inadequate for the task.
It ran OK (sort of) on hard surfaces, of which there were few in Antarctica, and it was used to move supplies at times, but on the whole achieved very little. It did manage to transport supplies for two depots 16 and 24 km from the main base though.
While a couple of parts remain and its garage still exists at Cape Royds the car left Antarctica with Shackleton and the skis are now held by the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, where they have undergone conservation treatment by the NZ Antarctic Heritage Trust.
The car made it back to New Zealand when the expedition finished but after that no-one is quite sure what happened to it.
A pity that a part of Antarctic history is now lost.