Unreal Photos From Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic Expedition

Flickr/State Library of New South Wales collection

Beginning on August 8, 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton led a crew of 27 Englishmen to Antarctica in an attempt to make the first land crossing.

The expedition almost didn't happen, as Shackleton offered his ships, stores, and services to his country the night before World War I began, but the Royal Navy and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill wanted the journey proceed.

Australian photographer Frank Hurley brought 40 pounds of color-photo equipment on the onerous journey and would have to dive into three feet of icy seawater to salvage cases of glass negative plates from their wrecked ship.

Good thing he did, because the expedition became one of the earliest examples of color photography.