250 - A WELL-PRESENTED 1:200 SCALE WATERLINE MODEL OF SHACKLETON'S 1907-09 ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION SHIP NIMROD

A WELL-PRESENTED 1:200 SCALE WATERLINE MODEL OF SHACKLETON'S 1907-09 ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION SHIP NIMROD modelled by R. H. Piggott c.1947, the 7in. carved hull with partially snow-covered fittings, rigged masts with furled sails, stayed funnel, depicted ice-bound with a dog sledge team embarking with a skier approaching, contained in wood-bound glazed case with brass plate inscribed S.Y. NIMROD / BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1907-1909 and paper label underneath inscribed Made by Richard Henry Piggott 1947 / Born 1917-Died 1985 -- 7½ x 13 x 6in. (19 x 33 x 15cm.) Built by Alexander Stephens & Sons, Ltd., Dundee, in 1865 as a sealer, Nimrod's composite wood hull was designed for rugged work in the Arctic and Antarctic and was an economical candidate for Ernest Shackleton, who purchased her for his British Imperial Antarctic Expedition. Measuring 136 x 26ft with a 16ft draught, she registered just 334 gross tons, making her one of the smallest vessels to attempt Antarctic exploration at the time. Sailing from Torquay on August 7, 1907, her 60hp engine delivered just six knots; thus, they reached the Ross Sea via New Zealand in January 1908. After searching in vain for a landing site on King Edward Land, Nimrod was forced to go to Ross Island at McMurdo Sound, despite a promise to his old captain and rival, Robert Falcon Scott, that he would stay west of 170 oE. Establishing a base at Hut Point (where Captain Scott's Discovery previously lay from 1901 to 1904), Shackleton attempted to reach the geographic South Pole 1,725 miles away. Crossing the Ross Ice Shelf, his team ascended to the 10,000-foot-high Polar Plateau but had to turn back at 88 o23’S, 162 oE – a new farthest south, yet still 97 miles from their goal. Nimrod returned to England in June 1909, and Shackleton used her as a floating museum of his voyage before selling her for funds in 1910. She was wrecked in the North Sea in 1919 after running aground on the treacherous Barber Sands off Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk.