1st January 1908: Nimrod Expedition sets off to Antarctica to reach the South Pole. There were two main expeditions headed to Antartica at the same time and the rivalry between them was, simultaneously polite, good natured and fierce. Shackleton had been warned by Scott not to touch his piece of land, that research there was forbidden and to land there a serious contravention – weather and emergencies forced them to land here and head towards the South Pole. They never made it: bad weather and the encroaching winter ice forcing them back. The return to the ship was just as harrowing – making it by the skin of their teeth had meant jettisoning rations and equipment deemed unnecessary, most seriously, three cases of Mckinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky.
Antarctica is probably more perilous than this....
In January 2006 these cases were located below Shckleton’s hut and were successfully and carefully excavated in 2010. They were then thawed delicately by specialists in Christchurch, New Zealand. White and Mackay’s owner (who purchased Mckinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt in 1995) flew a case back to Glasgow (precisely how much was flown back differs from source to source) to let Master Blender Richard Paterson (The Nose) pull the blend figuratively apart and piece it back together.
