Jonathan Shackleton, cousin of Antarctic legend Sir Ernest Shackleton, returns to the ice in February 2027 aboard PONANT’s L’Austral for a historic Southern Ocean voyage.
The ice remembers a name.
More than a century after Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance splintered in the Weddell Sea’s grip, a Shackleton is coming back to the ice — again. In February 2027, Jonathan Shackleton, cousin of the legendary explorer, will join Ponant Explorations aboard L’Austral for a 20-day voyage from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, tracing some of the most remote waters on Earth.
This is his 44th expedition south and his 15th to South Georgia, the island he calls one of his favorites in the world and a place where, he says, “each return is emotional and inspiring.” The voyage will call at Grytviken, where Sir Ernest Shackleton lies buried since 1922, his final “Quest” complete.
For 25 years, Jonathan has worked this frozen frontier, as a historian, guide, photographer, and Zodiac driver, carrying not just a name but a lived devotion to the landscapes his cousin made legend. Onboard, he’ll lecture on the Heroic Age, on polar literature, on the natural history written into ice and rock. Guests won’t just hear the story of the Endurance. They’ll hear it from blood.
Some legacies fade. This one boards a ship every year and sails south to meet the cold again.
