A biscuit which polar explorer Ernest Shackleton handed
to a starving fellow traveller on an expedition more than 100 years
ago sold at British auction on Thursday for £1,250.
The biscuit, one of thousands which formed the staple diet for
Shackleton and his companions on the 1907-1909 Nimrod expedition,
failed to reach its top catalogue price of £1,500 ($2,350, 1,700
euros) at Christie's.
Made especially for the expedition by British company Huntley
and Palmers, the biscuits were fortified with milk protein to help
the group on their arduous journey.
The explorers were forced to turn back after battling to within
100 miles (160 kilometres) of the pole. Their return journey became
a race against starvation, with the group surviving on half
rations.
At one point Shackleton handed fellow explorer Frank Wild one of
his own biscuits, prompting Wild to record in his diary: "Thousands
of pounds would not have bought that biscuit."
The biscuit was left at the hut at Cape Royds in the Antarctic
where Shackleton was based during the expedition and is perfectly
preserved.
Nicholas Lambourn, a director at Christie's, said ahead of the
auction that the biscuits were designed to provide the explorers
with maximum stamina but they lacked a crucial ingredient.
"They had a special recipe in an attempt to produce the right
amounts of protein and carbohydrate," he told AFP.
"But they didn't understand the importance of vitamin C, they
weren't perfect."
In 2001, a biscuit from another Shackleton expedition sold for
£7,637 at auction, even though just several crumbs remained.