The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-25
GREAT CONCERN IS
 FELT FOR SAFETY OF
 LIEUT.. SHACKLETON
tContfnuea from Page one,

Teton Antarctic expedition was received l Tn London yesterday. The Aurora at 1 the time the message was sent was in , the far south Pacific. The wireless said the steamer had been damaged and was proceeding to New Zealand for repairs The fate of Lieut. Sir Ernest Shack teton and the party with him which | set out to cross the south pole is not l known M
 l Apparently an attempt had been made I to send the wireless for several months but 1t had only just been received at the New Zealand station, which forward ed 1t to England. The message was sent by member of the staff of the Aurora, which went from Australia to Ross sea
 at the end of 1914, for the purpose of bringing back Shacketons party when they had crossed the South Polar conti-
 nent It was not known that the Aurora
 had wireless on board and the dispatch was delivered to an officer of the expedi-
 tion which had been closed for some
 time
 The news as received in London leaves
 the world completely in the dark as to
 the doings or whereabouts of Lieutenant Shackelton and his immediate party. If they have carried out their programme
 they are now presumably at the Ross sea base but without the expected ship to take them off.
 EVen IT SnackeltOn has been unSucceSS- full in the attempt to cross the pole d
 has had to retrace his steps to the Wid- del sea base, thence to return to Buenos Aires, the relief expedition will have to be reorganized to effect the rescue of
 Lieut.. Aeneas Mackintosh, R. N. R., in
 command of the Aurora, and a number of his companions who were left on the
 shore at Ross sea when the Aurora broke from her moorings. The great question is will the stores which these men pos sessed be sufficient to sustain the lives of the party for a year?
 The information contained in the mes- sage received at London was at once com
 municated to King George, who presented
 Lieutenant Shackelton with a flag to carry during his march and who has taken great interest in Shackelton's task. The
 news caused consternation among the rel atives and friends of the explorers 1 Until the Aurora arrives at some port and full story of her adventures is available, the extent of the loss sustained by the party cannot be definitely known The full text of the wireless message l received in London contained about 400 ] words. It said that the Aurora had reached her destination late in January,
 1910, and landed two parties under Lieu
 tenant Mackintosh and also consid- erabe quantity of stores. Meanwhile, l the Aurora lay at her moorings off Cape
 Evans. Several attempts were made to l lind safe harbor, but these all failed, 1 owing to the extremely bad season l! A blizzard on May drove the Aurora
 from her moorings. The vessel became lodged in packed ice, which carried her
 northward around Cape Adare. She lost
 her rudder and suffered a severe strain l to her hull in the ice about July 21 when
 90 miles south of Coulman Island.
 1 The message adds the following six
 names to those reported ashore in the l Melbourne dispatch Lieutenant Mackin- | tosh. H. Wild and Messrs Joyce Cope, 1 Stevens and Smith.
 1 The breaking away of the Aurora and her consequent inability to pick up the
 members of the Shackelton expedition on | their arrival at the Ross sea side of the Antarctic was almost the only contingent cy that had not been foreseen.