Original work hardbound in blue cloth covered boards with gilt title. Highly technical works published by the Hydrographer to the UK Navy. Foolscap format, 336 pages after preliminaries.
Keith Shackleton (1923-2015) a relative of Sir Ernest Shackleton and inspired by him. A wildlife painter with a specialty for colder climates and the Antarctic. Close friend and collaborator with Conservationist and fellow painter Peter Scott, son of Robert Falcon Scott. Keith was co-presenter on one of the first televised wildlife programs the BBC’s ‘Animal Magic’. He was a skilled yachtsman and represented Britain on several occasions. He was President of the Society of Wildlife Artists and the Royal Society of Marine Artists, and a Trustee of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. In his later years he spent much time in the Antarctic on board the MV Lindblad Explorer … where this Pilot was put to good use (see below). A retrospective exhibition of his “Polar Art”’ was held at the Scott Polar Research Institute in 2007.
The “Pilot” contains many highly instructive charts and shoreline photographic images as would be expected. Also serious chapters with good illustrations on fauna, birds, albatrosses and petrels, penguins etc and tables of breeding distribution. Fish similarly covered and the various members of the seal family and whales and dolphins that inhabit the southern waters. The islands covered include Bouvetoya, Prince Edward Islands, Crozet, Kerguelan, Heard, McDonald and Macquarie and the South Georgia, South Sandwich and South Orkney and Shetland Groups
The front end papers, title and facing page are covered in stamps and stickers from Shackleton’s Antarctic voyages on the Lindblad Explorer – 57 in total with three signatures from Base Commanders … including that of Grytviken, South Georgia dated 1981 … which was invaded the following year as part of the Falklands War. An interesting manuscript addition at the top of the front free endpaper “Though it may be left in the bridge …. This is Keith Shackleton’s Antarctic Pilot”. The Lindblad Explorer sank near the South Shetlands in 2007. Presumably, Keith Shackleton took his Pilot with him … he was not on that voyage!
Another interesting note in Shackleton’s hand appears on page vi quoting American writer and naturalist Charles William Beebe [from "the Bird" - 1906] … “The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though the first material expression is destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things [beings] breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again”
In addition there is also Supplement of 1977 which includes a sheet of stamps associated with a voyage in the Frontier Spirit … we understand that Shackleton worked as naturalist on both the Lindblad and Frontier Spirit.
Lastly, a large original photograph 25cm by 18cm of bergs and snow capped mountainous island … could be Deception Island.
A wealth of Antarctic knowledge beyond the navigation – special provenance with additional elements