the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh, and other Scottish organisations, but the timing was wrong; the Royal Geographical Society in London was fully occupied with Robert Scott's Terra Nova Expedition, and showed no interest in Bruce's plans. No rich private benefactors came forward, and persistent and intensive lobbying of the government for financial backing failed. Bruce suspected that his efforts were, as usual, being undermined by the aged but still influential Markham. Finally accepting that his venture would not take place, he gave generous support and advice to Ernest Shackleton, who in 1913 announced plans, similar to Bruce's, for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Shackleton not only received £10,000 from the government, but raised large sums from private sources, including £24,000 from Scottish industrialist Sir James Caird of Dundee. Shackleton's expedition was an epic adventure, but failed completely in its main endeavour of a transcontinental crossing. Bruce was not consulted by the Shackleton relief committee about that expedition's rescue, when the need arose in 1916. "Myself, I suppose," he wrote, "because of being north of the Tweed, they think dead". Scottish Spitsbergen syndicate During his Spitsbergen visits with Prince Albert in 1898 and 1899, Bruce had detected the presence of coal, gypsum and possibly oil. In the summers of 1906 and 1907 he again accompanied the Prince to the archipelago, with the primary purpose of surveying and mapping Prince Charles Foreland, an island unvisited during the earlier voyages. Here Bruce found further deposits of coal, and indications of iron. On the basis of these finds, Bruce set up a mineral prospecting company, the Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate, in July 1909. At that time, in international law Spitsbergen was regarded as terra nullius—rights to mine and extract could be established simply by registering a claim. Bruce's syndicate registered claims on Prince Charles Foreland and on the islands of Barentsøya and Edgeøya, among other areas. A sum of £4,000 (out of a target of £6,000) was subscribed to finance the costs of a detailed prospecting expedition in 1909, in a chartered vessel with a full scientific team. The results were "disappointing", and the voyage absorbed almost all of the syndicate's funds. Bruce paid two further visits to Spitsbergen, in 1912 and 1914, but the outbreak of war prevented further immediate developments. Early in 1919 the old syndicate was replaced by a larger and better-financed company. Bruce had now fixed his main