A failed expedition to the South Pole is bound to yield a few things — heartaches, frozen limbs, dead people, killer polar bears, killer penguins — but there are some things that you’d never expect to turn up at one. Such as Scotch.
Ernest Shackleton was one of the most famous explorers of his time. He mounted many expeditions to the poles, and many polar bears in their gardens. Just kidding about that last bit. He was so beloved, that when returning from an expedition to the South Pole, even though it failed, he was knighted for setting the record for farthest distance traveled south. Yeah, that’s a line he also turned into innuendo, I’m sure.
During the failed expedition in 1909, his team had to unload all the dead weight they could, which included two crates of scotch. If I were about to die, however, that would be the only load I’d want to carry. The load of sweet, sweet scotch. It would warm me before the inevitable freezing to death. But according to the BBC, the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust has announced plans to recover these crates of whiskey. Reason is, the blend of scotch, McKinlay and Co, is out of commission. McKinlay is still distributed by Whyte and Mackay though, and they’re looking to recover the bottles, recreate the blend, and sell it again. The crates were discovered under a hut to shelter explorers from the harsh polar climate.
That’s a 100-year-old bottle of scotch. I am going. I am going. Where the crates of whiskey are hiding. Now if they could just find the opium Magellan dropped, we’d have a party.
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