​“Honour to Whom Honour is Due: Researching Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party in and around Antarctica"


The adventures of Sir Ernest Shackleton are the stuff of legend. Less well known is the fact that he sent a second ship, the Aurora, to the Ross Sea in Antarctica to support his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914. Stranded for two years after the loss of their ship, the Ross Sea Party heroically carried on in the face of calamity. Author Kelly Tyler-Lewis shed new light on their story with a wealth of previously unpublished material, photographs, and motion picture footage uncovered in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica.
 
As a film producer and writer, Tyler-Lewis received an Emmy Award for Best Historical Documentary for “Shackleton’s Voyage of Endurance”, of the PBS series NOVA.  It was also nominated for Best Documentary of 2022. She authored the 2006 book The Lost Men: The Harrowing Story of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party.  Tyler-Lewis is a graduate of Harvard University, worked on numerous NOVA productions, and has been a Senior Member of Wolfson College and a Visiting Scholar of the Scott Polar Research Institute, both of the University of Cambridge; and a consulting historian for the British Film Institute.

From farming in Ireland to studying climate in Patagonia, caring for penguins in Portugal, and diving on coral reefs from Papua New Guinea to the Red Sea, Explorers Club member Christina Janulis has built a career shaped by global travel and curiosity. In this photo-rich talk, Christina traces her path from a Harvard biology student to Program Officer for an international conservation fund at the New England Aquarium, sharing how experiences in the field have shaped - and reshaped - her understanding of conservation, community, and our connection to the natural world.

This richly illustrated presentation will take you into the world of non-instrumental navigation and a world-view of the sea largely unknown to
the West. In photographs from his field work research and original film footage from The Last Navigator documentary film, you will be transported into a navigational world in which the paliuw has only his courage, his memory, and the seas own signs of land to guide him.

Television viewers will recognize Steve as the two-time Emmy
award-winning host of This Old House, Renovation Nation, and Save Our
History. He is also an experienced home builder and sailor. Beginning in 1977, he sailed a 43-foot wooden sloop from England to San Francisco via the Panama Canal, Galapagos, Marquesas, and Hawaii. In the early 1980s, he journeyed to the remote Micronesian island of Satawal to learn the ancient technique of star path navigation, an experience that resulted in this book as well as a documentary for the PBS series Adventure.

National Geographic Explorer and internationally acclaimed birder and wildlife expert, James Currie is largely known for his birding expertise, having created and produced Nikon's Bird Adventures and Nat Geo Wild's Aerial Assasins. A life-long wildlife enthusiast and native of South Africa, he also has a pssion for adventure and remote cultures, which has led him - through his wildlife and birding tours, to nearly every corner of the world. His book, When Eagles Roar: The Amazing Journey of an African Wildlife Adventurer, details his life as a wildlife guide in Africa. And his film, Last of the Big Tuskers, inspired by the death of Isilo, the largest tusker in the Southern Hemisphere, documented the largest elephants on earth and what is being done to ensure their survival. On a lighter note, James consulted for the 2011 Hollywood birding movie,“The BigYear”, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson.

Tonight's talk will cover some of James's adventures and his work with elephants.

Larry will talk about his expedition on the Swedish Icebreaker ODEN which made it to Victoria and Nordenskiold Fjords in northern Greenland, further than any ship had ever traveled before in the Lincoln Sea -- as well as other expeditions to the far north spending several weeks mapping and making a myriad of other measurements in order to understand the processes responsible for the rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Larry is Professor and (founding) Director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, and the co-director of the NOAA/UNH Joint Hydrographic Center. He has a broad background in marine geology and geophysics and his research interests include sonar imaging, remote characterization of the seafloor, and advanced applications of 3-D visualization to ocean mapping challenges.
 
In his own words, he "has participated in more than 90 cruises (over 70 months at sea!) during the last 35 years, and has been chief or co-chief scientist of numerous expeditions", and "has served on, or chaired, far too many international panels and committees" to count.