Charles Gray and Sir Ernest Shackleton
Charles Gray, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Elizabeth Gray at the summit of the Remutaka Hill Road, 9 December 1916. Photo National Library ref 1/2-029478-F.
Charles and Elizabeth Gray with Ernest Shackleton December 1916. Photo National Library ref 1/2-029479-F.
Charles Gray had a knack for getting on with prominent and well-known personalities. On 21 November 1915 Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance sank after becoming trapped in the Antarctic sea-ice. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition had aimed to cross the Antarctic Continent. After Shackleton’s astounding 720-mile open boat voyage to South Gorgia and the rescue of all the crew, he arrived a hero in Wellington on Saturday 2 December 1916 and the following Monday he gave a lecture to a large audience in the Wellington Town Hall.
On Saturday 9 December 1916 Sir Ernest visited Masterton. He was driven there by Charles Gray and his wife Elizabeth in their 18 h.p. Dodge car. They returned to Wellington that afternoon to the Grand Hotel. The powerful Dodge would have been very suitable for crossing the Remutaka Range.
The following year Shackleton again travelled to Masterton, this time by train, to deliver a fund-raising lecture on his Polar explorations.
Group standing alongside Charles Gray’s Dodge near Featherston, after a drive over the Rimutaka Hill Road, in 1916. From left to right Captain Mullineux, Ernest Henry Shackleton, Elizabeth Gray and Charles Gray. Photo National Library ref 1/2-029477-F.
The two big mysteries are: How did a sheep farmer from Pukerua get to drive Sir Ernest Shackleton, the most famous explorer of the day, to Masterton and back, and what was the attraction in Masterton for Shackleton? There have been many Shackletons living in the Wairarapa but none of them have any known connections with Sir Ernest. While he was in Wellington Shackleton stayed with Mr Harold Hislop, manager of Stewart Dawsons, the jewellers. Hislop is also in a photograph taken on the Wairarapa trip. Harold Hislop was a keen tennis player and it is possible that Gray and Hislop met through tennis. Gray was an enthusiastic tennis player being instrumental in forming the first Pukerua Bay Tennis Club. Further research may shed light on the Shackleton – Gray connection.
On 9 March 2022 the BBCs Science Correspondent Jonathan Amos reported:
Scientists have found and filmed one of the greatest ever undiscovered shipwrecks 107 years after it sank. The Endurance, the lost vessel of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, was found at the weekend at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. The ship was crushed by sea-ice and sank in 1915, forcing Shackleton and his men to make an astonishing escape on foot and in small boats.
