Ernest Shackleton: Anglo-Irish explorer

May 13, 2020

H.M.S. Endurance

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica have written a series of mini-biographies. Here is an excerpt from the Editors’ profile of Ernest Shackleton. To learn more about him and others, please click here.
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Ernest Shackleton, in full Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, (born February 15, 1874, Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland—died January 5, 1922, Grytviken, South Georgia), Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who attempted to reach the South Pole.
Educated at Dulwich College (1887–90), Shackleton entered the mercantile marine service in 1890 and became a sublieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1901. He joined Capt. Robert Falcon Scott’s British National Antarctic (Discovery) Expedition (1901–04) as third lieutenant and took part, with Scott and Edward Wilson, in the sledge journey over the Ross Ice Shelf when latitude 82°16′33″ S was reached. His health suffered, and he was removed from duty and sent home on the supply ship Morning in March 1903.
In January 1908 he returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition (1907–09). The expedition, prevented by ice from reaching the intended base site in Edward VII Peninsula, wintered on Ross Island, McMurdo Sound. A sledging party, led by Shackleton, reached within 97 nautical miles (112 statute miles or 180 km) of the South Pole, and another, under T.W. Edgeworth David, reached the area of the south magnetic pole. Victoria Land plateau was claimed for the British crown, and the expedition was responsible for the first ascent of Mount Erebus.The sledging party returned to the base camp in late February 1909, but they discovered that the Nimrod had set sail some two days earlier. Shackleton and his party set fire to the camp to signal the ship, which received the signal and returned to the camp a few days later, successfully retrieving them.

On his return to England, Shackleton was knighted and was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
In August 1914 the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–16) left England under Shackleton’s leadership. He planned to cross Antarctica from a base on the Weddell Sea to McMurdo Sound, via the South Pole, but the expedition ship Endurance was trapped in ice off the Caird coast and drifted for 10 months before being crushed in the pack ice. The members of the expedition then drifted on ice floes for another five months and finally escaped in boats to Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands, where they subsisted on seal meat, penguins, and their dogs.

Shackleton and five others sailed 800 miles (1,300 km) to South Georgia in a whale boat, a 16-day journey across a stretch of dangerous ocean, before landing on the southern side of South Georgia. Shackleton and his small crew then made the first crossing of the island to seek aid. Four months later, after leading four separate relief expeditions, Shackleton succeeded in rescuing his crew from Elephant Island. Throughout the ordeal, not one of Shackleton’s crew of the Endurance died. A supporting party, the Ross Sea party led by A.E. Mackintosh, sailed in the Aurora and laid depots as far as latitude 83°30′ S for the use of the Trans-Antarctic party; three of this party died on the return journey.

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In her classic study of courageous leadership  in turbulent times, Forged in Crisis, Nancy Koehn suggests several insights to be gained from Ernest Shackleton heroism: “One of these was the responsibility that he assumed for his crew once the ship was locked in the ice [and then crushed]…he was prepared from the onset of the crisis to take full responsibility for the outcome of the enterprise. A second aspect of Shackleton’s authority was his constant ability to face forward…It takes reserves of emotional awareness and discipline for leaders to balance attention on the path ahead with knowledge gleaned from the past. Shackleton cultivated both as he struggled to bring his men back to safety…The final aspect of Shackleton’s leadership that demands our attention today is the humanity with which he exercised his authority.”

Oh to have leadership of this quality in the Oval Office.

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