The
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–17), also known as the
Endurance Expedition, is considered the last major expedition of the
Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by
Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the
Antarctic continent. After the
conquest of the
South Pole by
Roald Amundsen in 1911, this crossing from sea to sea remained, in Shackleton's words, the "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings". The expedition failed to accomplish this objective, but became recognised instead as an epic feat of endurance.