Ireland

Cabin where Ernest Shackleton died of heart attack arrives in Kildare after being restored

After nine years of restoration in Letterfrack, cabin of explorer’s ship the Quest will go on display when Shackleton Museum opens in Athy next summer

The cabin in which Ernest Shackleton died near Kilkea House, the site of his birth. Photograph: Andy Davies/Celtic Photography
The cabin in which Ernest Shackleton died near Kilkea House, the site of his birth. Photograph: Andy Davies/Celtic Photography
Cian O'Connell
Fri Jul 05 2024 - 12:21

After nine years of restoration, the ship cabin in which Irish Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton died is set to go on display in Co Kildare.

The cabin has been returned to the Shackleton Museum in Athy, near Kilkea House, where he was born in 1874. The museum will open to visitors in June 2025 after an extended period of renovation.

In 1922 the explorer died of a heart attack in the cabin while his ship, the Quest, was anchored off a whaling station in South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean. His last words, aimed at his doctor, Alexander Macklin, were reported to be: “You’re always wanting me to give up things. What is it I ought to give up?”

“Chiefly, alcohol, boss. I don’t think it agrees with you,” came the response.

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[ Wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Quest found off coast of Canada ]

The Quest was used as a minesweeper through the second World War and sank in 1962 during a seal hunt off the Labrador coast. Three weeks ago, the Quest was located on the seafloor near Newfoundland, Canada.

Thankfully, the owner of the ship, Johan Drage, had long removed Shackleton’s cabin, dubbed his “sea bedroom”, and transported it to Norway.

In 2008, Drage’s great-grandson Ulf Bakke agreed to donate it to the heritage centre in Athy. Bakke had grown up calling the sea bedroom “the Shackleton” – his family had used it as a garden shed.

For the past nine years, the cabin has been in Letterfrack, Connemara.

Craftsman and Shackleton enthusiast Sven Habermann, with the aid of one surviving photograph and descriptions of the interior from scout James Marr, restored the cabin and kept it safe at the centre ahead of its move to the museum.