Penguins are depicted in the 1916 ink sketches, drawn by Ninnis on official expedition paper while he was aboard Aurora during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, laying supplies for Ernest Shackleton and his crew aboard Endurance.
The three drawings, mounted on light card, belonged to a Dunedin family. They are one of 622 lots to be auctioned at Hayward's Auction House tomorrow from 11am.
Hayward's co-owner and auction curator Jude Ferguson said the sketches were "quite special" and had drawn the attention of collectors throughout New Zealand.
"Books become rare but there are always several copies, while these are one-offs and they've got that local connection," she said.
Ninnis was enlisted on Aurora as a purser but also undertook engineering work while on board.
The ship left Port Chalmers in early 1916 and journeyed to the Ross Sea to lay supplies for Shackleton and fellow Endurance crew members, who were attempting at the time to make the first transcontinental march across the Antarctic from the Weddel Sea to the Ross Sea.
Shackleton's plight was well known, but fewer knew of the drama which beset the Aurora crew, Ms Ferguson said.
"A landing party went ashore to put supply posts in but the ship blew out to sea in a blizzard and the landing party was stranded, while those on board (including Ninnis) drifted on the ice for 10 months. They made it back to Port Chalmers and got supplies then returned to rescue what was left of the landing party, which they did in January 1917," she said.
Ninnis settled in Dunedin, where he worked at the 4YA radio station. He died in 1956.
The Hocken Collections Library had a set of his drawings from the same expedition.
Also in the Hayward's auction are original photographs from a 1926 expedition by Antarctic explorer Richard Byrd, showing his attempt to be the first to reach the North Pole by air.
