Now that I have a few minutes I wanted to post a little more about my Shackleton pick. He was a remarkable man, who made some key discoveries during his life but is known even more for the courage and leadership he displayed during the ill fated, but aptly named, Endurance expedition.
Ernest Shackleton - Explorer
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton RVO OBE, (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Irish explorer who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. His first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain XXXXXXX’s Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, from which he was sent home early on health grounds. Determined to make amends for this perceived personal failure, he returned to Antarctica in 1907 as leader of the Nimrod Expedition. In January 1909 he and three companions made a southern march which established a record Farthest South latitude at 88°23'S, 97 geographical miles (114 statute miles, 190 km) from the South Pole, by far the closest convergence in exploration history up to that time. For this achievement, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home.
After the race to the South Pole ended in 1912 with XXXXXXXXX's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to what he said was the one remaining great object of Antarctic journeying—the crossing of the continent from sea to sea, via the pole. To this end he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17. Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, was trapped in pack ice and slowly crushed, before the shore parties could be landed. There followed a sequence of exploits, and an ultimate escape with no lives lost, that would eventually assure Shackleton's heroic status, although this was not immediately evident.[1] In 1921 he went back to the Antarctic with the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition, intending to carry out a programme of scientific and survey activities. Before the expedition could begin this work Shackleton died of a heart attack while his ship, Quest, was moored in South Georgia. At his wife's request he was buried there.
Away from his expeditions, Shackleton's life was generally restless and unfulfilled. In his search for rapid pathways to wealth and security he launched many business ventures and other money-making schemes, none of which prospered. His financial affairs were generally muddled; when he died, he owed over £40,000 (more than £1.5 million in 2008 terms).[2] On his death he was lauded in the press, but was thereafter largely forgotten, while the heroic reputation of his rival XXXXXXX was sustained for many decades. At the end of the 20th century Shackleton was "rediscovered",[3] and rapidly became a cult figure, a role model for leadership as one who, in extreme circumstances, kept his team together to accomplish a survival story which polar historian Stephanie Barczewski describes as "incredible".[4]
Nimrod Expedition
On 1 January 1908, Nimrod sailed for the Antarctic from Lyttleton Harbour, New Zealand. Shackleton's original plans had envisaged using the old Discovery base in McMurdo Sound to launch his attempts on the South Pole and South Magnetic Pole.[41] However, before leaving England he had been pressured to give an undertaking to Scott that he would not base himself in the McMurdo area, which Scott was claiming as his own field of work. Shackleton reluctantly agreed to look for winter quarters either at the Barrier Inlet (which Discovery had briefly visited in 1902) or at King Edward VII Land.[44]
To conserve coal, the ship was towed 1,650 miles (2,655 km) by the steamer Koonya to the Antarctic ice, after Shackleton had persuaded the New Zealand government and the Union Steamship Company to share the cost.[45] In accordance with Shackleton's promise to Scott the ship headed for the eastern sector of the Great Ice Barrier, arriving there on 21 January 1908. They found that the Barrier Inlet had expanded to form a large bay, in which were hundreds of whales, which led to the immediate christening of the area as the Bay of Whales.[46] It was noted that ice conditions were unstable, precluding the establishment of a safe base there. An extended search for an anchorage at King Edward VII Land proved equally fruitless, so Shackleton was forced to break his undertaking to Scott and set sail for McMurdo Sound, a decision which, according to second officer Arthur Harbord, was "dictated by common sense" in view of the difficulties of ice pressure, coal shortage and the lack of any nearer known base.[46]
Nimrod arrived at McMurdo Sound on 29 January, but was stopped by ice 16 miles (26 km) north of Discovery's old base at Hut Point.[47] After considerable weather delays, Shackleton's base was eventually established at Cape Royds, about 24 miles (39 km) north of Hut Point. The party was in high spirits, despite the difficult conditions; Shackleton's ability to communicate with each man kept the party happy and focused.[48]
The "Great Southern Journey",[49] as Frank Wild called it, began on 19 October 1908.
On 9 January 1909 Shackleton and three companions (Wild, Eric Marshall and Jameson Adams) reached a new Farthest South latitude of 88°23'S, a point only 112 miles (180 km) from the Pole.[50] En route the South Pole party discovered the Beardmore Glacier, (named after Shackleton's patron),[51] and became the first persons to see and travel on the South Polar Plateau.[52] Their return journey to McMurdo Sound was a race against starvation, on half-rations for much of the way.
At one point Shackleton gave his one biscuit allotted for the day to the ailing Frank Wild, who wrote in his diary: "All the money that was ever minted would not have bought that biscuit and the remembrance of that sacrifice will never leave me".[53] They arrived at Hut Point just in time to catch the ship.
The expedition's other main accomplishments included the first ascent of Mount Erebus, and the discovery of the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole, reached on 16 January 1909 by XXXXXXXXXX.[54] Shackleton returned to the United Kingdom as a hero, and soon afterwards published his expedition account, The Heart of the Antarctic. Emily Shackleton later recorded: "The only comment he made to me about not reaching the Pole was "a live donkey is better than a dead lion, isn't it?" and I said "Yes darling, as far as I am concerned".[55]
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17
Endurance departed from South Georgia for the Weddell Sea on 5 December, heading for Vahsel Bay. As the ship moved southward, early ice was encountered, which slowed progress. Deep in the Weddell Sea conditions gradually grew worse until, on 19 January 1915, Endurance became frozen fast in an ice floe.[80] On 24 February, realising that she would be trapped until the following spring, Shackleton ordered the abandonment of ship's routine and her conversion to a winter station.[81] She drifted slowly northward with the ice through the following months. When spring arrived in September the breaking of the ice and its subsequent movements put extreme pressures on the ship's hull.[82]
Shackleton after the loss of EnduranceUntil this point Shackleton had hoped that the ship, when freed from the ice, could work her way back towards Vahsel Bay. On 24 October, however, water began pouring in. After a few days, with the position at 69°05'S, 51°30'W, Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship; and men, provisions and equipment were transferred to camps on the ice.[83] On 21 November 1915, the wreck finally slipped beneath the surface.[84]
For almost two months Shackleton and his party camped on a large, flat floe, hoping that it would drift towards Paulet Island, approximately 250 miles (402 km) away, where it was known that stores were cached.[85] After failed attempts to march across the ice to this island, Shackleton decided to set up another more permanent camp (Patience Camp) on another floe, and trust to the drift of the ice to take them towards a safe landing.[86] By 17 March their ice camp was within 60 miles (97 km) of Paulet Island[87] but, separated by impassable ice, they were unable to reach it. On 9 April their ice floe broke into two, and Shackleton ordered the crew into the lifeboats, to head for the nearest land.[88] After five harrowing days at sea the exhausted men landed their three lifeboats at Elephant Island.[89] Shackleton's concern for his men was such that he gave his mittens to photographer Frank Hurley, who had lost his during the boat journey. Shackleton suffered frostbitten fingers as a result.[90]
The open-boat journey
Launching the James Caird from the shore of Elephant Island, 24 April 1916Elephant Island was an inhospitable place, far from any shipping routes. Consequently, Shackleton decided to risk an open-boat journey to the distant South Georgia whaling stations, where he knew help was available.[91] The strongest of the lifeboats, christened James Caird after the expedition's chief sponsor, was chosen for the trip.[91] Ship's carpenter Harry McNish made various improvements, including raising the sides, strengthening the keel, building a makeshift deck of wood and canvas, and sealing the work with oil paint and seal blood.[91] Shackleton chose five companions for the journey: Frank Worsley, Endurance's captain, who would be responsible for navigation; Tom Crean, who had "begged to go"; two strong sailors in John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy, and finally the carpenter McNish.[91] Shackleton had clashed with McNish during the time when the party was stranded on the ice but, while he would not forgive the carpenter's earlier insubordination, Shackleton recognised his value for this particular job.[92]
Shackleton refused to pack supplies for more than four weeks, knowing that if they did not reach South Georgia within that time, the boat and its crew would be lost.[93] The James Caird was launched on 24 April 1916; during the next fifteen days it sailed through the waters of the southern ocean, at the mercy of the stormy seas, in constant peril of capsizing. On 8 May, due to Worsley's navigational skills, the cliffs of South Georgia came into sight, but hurricane-force winds prevented the possibility of landing. The party were forced to ride out the storm offshore, in constant danger of being dashed against the rocks. They would later learn that the same hurricane had sunk a 500-ton steamer bound for South Georgia from Buenos Aires.[94] On the following day they were able, finally, to land on the unoccupied southern shore. After a period of rest and recuperation, rather than risk putting to sea again to reach the whaling stations on the northern coast, Shackleton decided to attempt a land crossing of the island. Although it is likely that Norwegian whalers had previously crossed at other points on ski, no one had attempted this particular route before.[95] Leaving McNish, Vincent and McCarthy at the landing point on South Georgia, Shackleton travelled with Worsley and Crean over mountainous terrain for 36 hours to reach the whaling station at Stromness.[96]
The next successful crossing of South Georgia was in October 1955, by the British explorer Duncan Carse, who travelled much of the same route as Shackleton's party. In tribute to their achievement he wrote: "I do not know how they did it, except that they had to—three men of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration with 50 feet of rope between them—and a carpenter's adze".[97]
Rescue
"All Safe, All Well", allegedly depicting Shackleton's return to Elephant Island, August 1916. However, a photograph of the departure of the James Caird in April was doctored by photographer Frank Hurley to create this image.[98]Shackleton immediately sent a boat to pick up the three men from the other side of South Georgia while he set to work to organise the rescue of the Elephant Island men. His first three attempts were foiled by sea ice, which blocked the approaches to the island. He appealed to the Chilean government, which offered the use of Yelcho, a small seagoing tug from its navy. Yelcho reached Elephant Island on 30 August, and Shackleton quickly evacuated all 22 men.[99]
There remained the men of the Ross Sea Party, who were stranded at Cape Evans in McMurdo Sound, after Aurora had been blown from its anchorage and driven out to sea, unable to return. The ship, after a drift of many months, had returned to New Zealand. Shackleton travelled there to join Aurora, and sailed with her to the rescue of the Ross Sea party. This group, despite many hardships, had carried out its depot-laying mission to the full, but three lives had been lost, including that of its commander, Aeneas Mackintosh.[100]
Legacy
Before the return of Shackleton's body to South Georgia, there had been a memorial service held for him, with full military honours, at Holy Trinity Church, Montevideo, and on 2 March a service had been held at St Paul's Cathedral, London, at which the King and other members of the royal family had been represented.[114] Within a year the first biography, The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton, by Hugh Robert Mill, had been published. This book, as well as being a tribute to the explorer, was a practical effort to assist his family; Shackleton had died some £40,000 in debt (2008: £1.5 million). A further initiative was the establishment of a Shackleton Memorial Fund, which was used to assist the education of his children and the support of his mother.[115]
During the ensuing decades Shackleton's status as a polar hero was generally outshone by that of Captain XXXXXXX. XXXXXXX's polar party had, by 1925, been commemorated in Britain alone by more than 30 monuments, including stained glass windows, statues, busts and memorial tablets.[116] A statue of Shackleton designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens was unveiled at the Royal Geographical Society's Kensington headquarters in 1932,[117] but public memorials to Shackleton were relatively few. Likewise, the printed word saw much more attention given to XXXXXXX—a forty-page booklet on Shackleton, published in 1943 by OUP as part of a "Great Exploits" series, is described by cultural historian Stephanie Barczewski as "a lone example of a popular literary treatment of Shackleton in a sea of similar treatments of Scott". This disparity continued into the 1950s.[118]
In 1959 Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage was published. This was the first of a number of books about Shackleton that began to appear, showing him in a highly positive light. At the same time, attitudes towards XXXXXX were gradually changing, as a more critical note was sounded in the literature, culminating in Roland Huntford's 1979 treatment of him in his dual biography XXXXXXX and XXXXXXX, described by Barczewski as a "devastating attack".[119] This negative picture of Scott became accepted as the popular truth,[120] as the kind of heroism that XXXXXXX represented fell victim to the cultural shifts of the late twentieth century.[121] Within a few years he had been thoroughly overtaken in public esteem by Shackleton, whose popularity surged while that of his erstwhile rival declined.
In 2002, in a BBC poll conducted to determine the "100 Greatest Britons", Shackleton was ranked eleventh, while XXXXXXXX was down in 54th place.[122]
In 2001 Margaret Morrell and Stephanie Capparell presented Shackleton as a model for corporate leadership, in their book Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer. They wrote: "Shackleton resonates with executives in today's business world. His people-centred approach to leadership can be a guide to anyone in a position of authority".[123] Other management writers were soon following this lead, using Shackleton as an examplar for bringing order to chaos. The Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) offers a course on Shackleton, who also features in the management education programmes of several American universities.[124] In Boston USA a "Shackleton School" was set up on "Outward Bound" principles, with the motto "The Journey is Everything".[124] Shackleton has also been cited as a model leader by the US Navy, and in a textbook on Congressional leadership, Peter L Steinke calls Shackleton the archetype of the "nonanxious leader" whose "calm, reflective demeanor becomes the antibiotic warning of the toxicity of reactive behaviour".[124]
Shackleton's death marked the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, a period of discovery characterized by journeys of geographical and scientific exploration in a largely unknown continent, without any of the benefits of modern travel methods or radio communication.
In the preface to his book The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard, one of XXXXXXX's team on the Terra Nova Expedition, wrote: "For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me XXXXXX; for a Winter Journey, XXXXXXX; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, XXXXXXX: and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time".[125]
Shameless.
