The Prestwich - ca. 1910
Price on Request

 

 


When there are no second takes, reliability is of the camera is of the utmost importance. This is the reason Frank Hurley, the Australian photographer and cinematographer of the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition chose a Prestwich as his cine camera. In October 1914 Hurley sailed with Sir Ernest Shackleton on the wooden steam/sailing ship Endurance from Buenos Aires for Antarctica. He had to abandon his Prestwich camera when the ice crushed the ship Endurance on November 21, 1915. Hurley was able to film the crushing and sinking of the ship and then seal his films in cans in order to preserve them. It is believed that this is the first actual filming of a sinking ship. His Prestwich camera gave us some incredible historically important film. He and the crew were desperately stranded on the ice beyond all hope of rescue. Six months later Shackleton and two others staggered into a whaling camp a thousand miles away and mounted a rescue party to return and save the rest of their crew.

 

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