Ernest Shackleton Totally Explained

Everything about Ernest Shackleton totally explained

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish explorer. Born in Kilkea, Ireland, Shackleton was a member of four Antarctic expeditions, three of which he led. After the Nimrod Expedition, 1907–09, he was knighted for his achievement in establishing a record furthest south latitude at 88°23'S, 97 nautical miles (180 km) from the South Pole. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the Parliament of the United Kingdom and was involved in various business ventures aimed at raising revenue for his polar explorations.
Shackleton is most noteworthy for leading the unsuccessful Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, often known as the "Endurance Expedition", between 1914 and 1916. Although Shackleton failed to achieve his goal of crossing the Antarctic continent on foot, he demonstrated the qualities of leadership for which he's best remembered when the expedition ship Endurance became trapped in the ice and was destroyed. Shackleton, known by his contemporaries as "the Boss", led his men to refuge on Elephant Island before heading across of the Southern Ocean to South Georgia, in an open boat with five other men. Upon reaching the remote island, Shackleton and two others crossed severe, mountainous terrain to reach a whaling station, from which he was able eventually to rescue his men on Elephant Island. All the men on Endurance survived their ordeal after spending 22 months in the Antarctic, although three men of the supporting Ross Sea Party lost their lives.
Shackleton was a key figure in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration alongside Roald Amundsen, Douglas Mawson, and Robert Falcon Scott, each of whom is famed for exploits that captured the public imagination. In recent times, he's become known for his leadership skills, and is the topic of many books and films that focus on the explorer's ability to lead men through challenging conditions.

Life

Childhood

Ernest Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874, in Kilkea near Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, about from Dublin. Ernest's father, Henry, and mother, Henrietta Letitia Sophia Gavan, were of English-Irish ancestry. Ernest was the second of their ten children and the first of two sons. Furthermore, throughout his career, Shackleton was a voracious reader, which contributed to the broadening of his horizons.

Maritime career

At 16, Shackleton embarked on his career by joining the merchant marine. He chose this path for two reasons. Firstly, the fee to join a Royal Navy cadet ship was too expensive, and secondly, his father was able to procure him employment at the North Western Shipping Company aboard the sailing vessel Hoghton Tower. It was the first time Scott had led an expedition, and his command experience in the Royal Navy ran to a brief spell in charge of a Torpedo Boat in 1893, which he managed to run aground. Shackleton was assigned the duty of outfitting Discovery for the expedition. The team spent two summers in Antarctica, and between October 1902 and February 1903 Shackleton joined Scott and Edward Wilson, assistant surgeon and vertebrate zoologist, on a southern journey to achieve the highest possible latitude. The journey proceeded under difficult conditions as food was in short supply, the dogs were weakened by tainted food, and the party was forced to relay its sledging loads. The team reached a farthest south at on 31 December 1902, but were unable to continue southward because of terrain, severe conditions, and the onset of scurvy. Shackleton also suffered from heart and lung ailments. Notably, they were from the Pole and farther south than any human had previously travelled.
   Shackleton was sent home by Scott aboard the relief ship Morning because of illness, even though he'd almost fully recovered. Additionally, Shackleton noticed that Londoners had an unquenchable desire for his tales of the Antarctic, which helped him lay the groundwork for further expeditions.
   In search of regular employment, Shackleton applied for a commission in the Royal Navy but despite the sponsorship of Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society and President of the Royal Society, he wasn't successful. With Markham's blessing he accepted a temporary post assisting the outfitting of the Terra Nova for the second Discovery relief operation but turned down the offer to sail with her as chief officer. He also assisted in the equipping of the Argentinian gunboat Uruguay, which was being fitted out for the relief of the stranded Nordenskiöld Antarctic Expedition.. He was then offered, and accepted, the secretaryship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Shackleton wrote long letters to his wife during his explorations, but also engaged in several extramarital affairs, including one with the American actress Rosalind Chetwynd.
   In 1905 Shackleton became a shareholder in a speculative company that aimed to make a fortune transporting Russian troops home from the Far East. Despite his assurances to Emily that "we are practically sure of the contract" nothing came of this scheme. He also ventured into politics, unsuccessfully standing in the 1906 General Election as the Liberal Unionist Party's candidate for Dundee. Meantime he'd taken a job with wealthy Clydside industrialist William Beardmore (later Lord Invernairn), with a roving commission which involved interviewing prospective clients and entertaining Beardmore's business friends. Shackleton by this time, however, was making no secret of his ambition to return to Antarctica at the head of his own expedition.
   Beardmore was sufficiently impressed with Shackleton to offer financial support, but other donations proved hard to come by. Nevertheless, in February 1907 Shackleton presented his plans for an Antarctic expedition to the Royal Geographic Society, the details of which, under the name British Antarctic Expedition, were published in the Royal Society's newsletter, Geographic Journal. author Campbell Mackellar, and Guinness baron Lord Iveagh whose contribution was secured less than two weeks before the departure of the expedition ship Nimrod.

Nimrod Expedition (1907–09)

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. However, before leaving England he'd been pressured to give an undertaking to Scott that he wouldn't 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 or at King Edward VII Land.
To conserve coal, the ship was towed by Koonya to the Antarctic ice. The South Pole party also discovered the Beardmore Glacier route (named after Shackleton's patron) to the South Polar Plateau, and were the first persons to set foot on the plateau. Regarding the failure to reach the South Pole, Shackleton remarked to his wife: "Better a live donkey than a dead lion."

Endurance Expedition (1914–16)

Although Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1911, public interest in the Antarctic continued. From early 1913 onwards Shackleton sought financial backing from donors to enable him to launch his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which would carry the British flag across the continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea by way of the Pole. The largest contribution, £24,000 (2008 equivalent approximately £1.05million), came from James Key Caird. Shackleton also obtained funds from the British government (£10,000); from the Royal Geographical Society (£1,000); from Dudley Docker of the Birmingham Small Arms Company (£10,000); and from tobacco heiress Dame Janet Stancomb-Wills, an undisclosed sum. In due course Shackleton would acknowledge the generosity of these private donors by naming geographical features after them, including the Caird Coast and the Stancomb-Wills Promontory
Interest in the expedition was enormous: Shackleton received more than 5,000 applications for participation. Fifty-six men were finally chosen and divided into two groups for the two expedition ships: Endurance for the Weddell Sea team and Aurora for the Ross Sea party. and might ask unconventional questions. Thus physicist Reginald James was asked if he could sing; others were accepted on sight because Shackleton liked the look of them, or after the briefest of interrogations. This means of selection was meant to ensure compatibility and camaraderie during the difficult journey ahead. Shackleton also loosened some traditional hierarchies, expecting all men, including the scientists, to take their share of ship's chores, even tasks such as scrubbing the decks. Although Endurance withstood considerable stress, on 24 October she was forced against a large floe, and water began pouring in. After a few days, on 27 October, with the position at 69°05'S, 51°30'W, Shackleton gave the abandon-ship order and the men, provisions and equipment were transferred to the ice. Mrs. Chippy, the beloved cat of the carpenter, Harry McNish, and the youngest of the pups born during the expedition were shot soon afterwards because Shackleton didn't think they'd survive the prolonged ordeal ahead. On 21 November 1915, the wreck finally slipped beneath the ice. but, separated by impassable ice, they were unable to reach it as the floe continued to drift north. On 9 April the ice floe that they were camped on broke into two, and Shackleton decided that the crew should enter the lifeboats and head for the nearest land. After seven days at sea in the three small lifeboats, the men landed at Elephant Island. Of one hair-raising moment of the journey, Shackleton wrote:

At midnight I was at the tiller and suddenly noticed a line of clear sky between the south and south-west. I called to the other men that the sky was clearing, and then a moment later I realised that what I'd seen wasn't a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave. During twenty-six years' experience of the ocean in all its moods I hadn't encountered a wave so gigantic. It was a mighty upheaval of the ocean, a thing quite apart from the big white-capped seas that had been our tireless enemies for many days. I shouted, "For God's sake, hold on! It's got us!" Then came a moment of suspense that seemed drawn out into hours. White surged the foam of the breaking sea around us. We felt our boat lifted and flung forward like a cork in breaking surf. We were in a seething chaos of tortured water; but somehow the boat lived through it, half-full of water, sagging to the dead weight and shuddering under the blow. We baled with the energy of men fighting for life, flinging the water over the sides with every receptacle that came to our hands, and after ten minutes of uncertainty we felt the boat renew her life beneath us.

Shackleton had refused to pack supplies for more than four weeks, knowing that if they didn't reach land by that time the boat would be lost. And indeed, after 14 days, the crew was within sight of Cave Cove, South Georgia. To avoid a night landing on an unfamiliar shore Shackleton ordered the boat to sit out at sea until first light, during which time a storm with hurricane-force winds blew up. After battling against the storm for nine hours they were finally able to land. 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 Stromness. No man had previously been able to venture more than inland on the island; Staggering into Stromness, Shackleton and his team were welcomed into the whaling manager's house.

Rescue

Shackleton's first three attempts to rescue his men on Elephant Island failed. Desperate, he finally appealed to the Chilean government, which offered the help of Yelcho, a small seagoing tug from its navy. Yelcho reached Elephant Island on 30 August, and Shackleton, in a quick operation, evacuated all 22 men, who had been stranded for 105 days. three members of the Ross Sea Party lost their lives.

Shackleton-Rowett Expedition and death (1921–22)

Despite the events of the Endurance expedition, Shackleton set out again for the Antarctic aboard Quest intending to circumnavigate Antarctica by sea. Although some of his former crew members hadn't received all of their pay from the Endurance expedition, many of them signed on with their former "Boss". However, when the party arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Shackleton fell ill after a heart attack. Even so, he refused to return the ship to England or seek treatment, and Quest continued south.
   These were the last words spoken by Sir Ernest Shackleton. A few moments later, at 2:50 a.m. on 5 January 1922, he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 47. Macklin, who conducted the autopsy, concluded that the cause of death was atheroma of the coronary arteries exacerbated by "overstrain during a period of debility". Leonard Hussey, a veteran of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition, offered to return his body to Britain; however, while he was in Montevideo en route to England, a message was received from Shackleton's wife asking that her husband be buried in South Georgia. Hussey returned with the body, and on 5 March 1922, Ernest Shackleton was buried at Grytviken. Although Shackleton had been generous to the family of crew by providing for them in the case of accidental death, he didn't sufficiently protect his own family: his wife was required to live on her own resources following his death.
   Additionally, Sir Ernest Shackleton is the subject of Shackleton, a two-part Channel 4 drama directed by Charles Sturridge and starring Kenneth Branagh as the explorer. The same story is related in greater detail in the book, by Alfred Lansing and Shackleton is also the subject of a documentary,, produced and directed in 2000 by George Butler and narrated by Liam Neeson. Shackleton is also a minor character in a 1958 Soviet fiction novel 'Iz Tupika' (From the Deadlock) by Valentine Pickul, who addressed Shackleton's participation in the British intervention in Northern Russia of 1918-1919. In this novel, Shackleton is depicted as a British imperialist dreaming of making Russian North another colony of the British Empire.
   Shackleton's grave, near the former whaling station at Grytviken on South Georgia, is frequently visited by tourists from passing cruise ships. The British Antarctic Survey's logistics vessel RRS Ernest Shackleton (the replacement for RRS Bransfield) is named in his honour. In May 1998 the Shackleton Memorial Library opened at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. He is commemorated with a statue outside the headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, London, designed by the sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger. In recent years interest in Shackleton has revived, and he's become an icon of successful leadership for some modern business writers, who have published books extolling his leadership style.

Expedition advertisement

The following advertisement is said to have appeared in The Times to recruit crew members for one of Shackleton's expeditions:

Men Wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.

Although the advertisement has been widely attributed to Shackleton, its existence in The Times or other contemporary London sources hasn't been confirmed.

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