As it turns out, the crate was shipped to the Antarctic by a British polar explorer named Sir Ernest Shackleton back in 1909 – an expedition which he had abandoned. The Scotch whiskey was made by McKinlay and Co., who is now owned by drinks group Whyte & Mackay.

Workers from New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust will be using special drills to access the crates, frozen in Antarctic ice under the site of Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition hut near Cape Royds.

The New Zealanders have been given permission to try to retrieve some of the bottles, although the rest must stay, under conservation guidelines, agreed by 12 Antarctic Treaty nations.