[47], On 4 August 1907, Shackleton was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order, 4th Class (MVO; the present-day grade of lieutenant). [97] This was the first time they had stood on solid ground for 497days. This answer is: . In 2002, Shackleton was voted eleventh in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. [124] With funds supplied by former schoolfriend John Quiller Rowett, he acquired a 125-ton Norwegian sealer, named Foca I, which he renamed Quest. He was, as a shipmate recorded, "a departure from our usual type of young officer", content with his own company though not aloof, "spouting lines from Keats [and] Browning", a mixture of sensitivity and aggression but, withal, sympathetic. It was named after Shackleton'sfamily motto: "Fortitudine vincimus" (By endurance we conquer). [79], His interviewing and selection methods sometimes seemed eccentric; believing that character and temperament were as important as technical ability,[80] he asked unconventional questions. Shackleton is best known for his extraordinary achievement in leading the men of his Endurance expedition safely out of the Antarctic after their ship had been crushed in the ice. 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. Why did Shackleton go to Antarctica? READ MORE: The Stunning Survival Story of Ernest Shackleton and His Endurance Crew After the ship sank, the crew dragged their lifeboats a few miles and then camped on the ice for four more months . For that reason, he was. "[137], Before the return of Shackleton's body to South Georgia, there was a memorial service held for him with full military honours at Holy Trinity Church, Montevideo, and on 2 March a service was held at St Paul's Cathedral, London, at which the King and other members of the royal family were represented. [130] Leonard Hussey, a veteran of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition, offered to accompany the body back to Britain; while he was in Montevideo en route to England, a message was received from Emily Shackleton asking that her husband be buried in South Georgia. Shackletons publications were The Heart of the Antarctic (1909) and South (1919), the latter an account of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition. [68] The heroism was also claimed by Ireland: the Dublin Evening Telegraph's headline read "South Pole Almost Reached by an Irishman",[68] while the Dublin Express spoke of the "qualities that were his heritage as an Irishman".[68]. [162] This expedition was made into a documentary film,[163] screening as Chasing Shackleton on PBS in the US, and Shackleton: Death or Glory elsewhere on the Discovery Channel. [14] Following the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, Shackleton transferred to the troopship Tintagel Castle where, in March 1900, he met an army lieutenant, Cedric Longstaff, whose father Llewellyn W. Longstaff was the main financial backer of the National Antarctic Expedition then being organised in London. In 2002, in a BBC poll conducted to determine the "100 Greatest Britons", Shackleton was ranked 11th while Scott was down in 54th place. Robert Falcon Scotts British National Antarctic (Discovery) Expedition (190104) as third lieutenant and took part, with Scott and Edward Wilson, in the sledge journey over the Ross Ice Shelf when latitude 821633 S was reached. [70] Among the ventures which he hoped to promote were a tobacco company,[71] a scheme for selling to collectors postage stamps overprinted "King Edward VII Land" based on Shackleton's appointment as Antarctic postmaster by the New Zealand authorities[72] and the development of a Hungarian mining concession he had acquired near the city of Nagybanya, now part of Romania. Why did Sir Ernest Shackleton go to Antarctica? Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed. When Shackleton returned to England in May 1917, Europe was in the midst of the First World War. [77] Two ships would be employed; Endurance would carry the main party into the Weddell Sea, aiming for Vahsel Bay from where a team of six, led by Shackleton, would begin the crossing of the continent. [29] A record Farthest South latitude of 8217' was reached, beating the previous record established in 1900 by Carsten Borchgrevink. [d] En route the South Pole party discovered the Beardmore Glaciernamed after Shackleton's patron[55]and became the first persons to see and travel on the South Polar Plateau. [122], Shackleton returned to the lecture circuit and published his own account of the Endurance expedition, South, in December 1919. In October 2015, Shackleton's decorations and medals were auctioned; the sale raised 585,000. 2010-02-16 16:39:59. They set sail again on New Year's Day, 1908. He still harboured thoughts of returning south, even though in September 1910, having recently moved with his family to Sheringham in Norfolk, he wrote to Emily: "I am never again going South and I have thought it all out and my place is at home now". Although the expedition failed, it would be remembered by generations as the greatest feat of survival in the history of exploration. [49], To conserve coal, the ship was towed 1,650 miles (2,655km) 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. There was a (male) cat named Mrs Chippy that belonged to the carpenter Harry McNish. [148], The Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter offers a course on Shackleton, who also features in the management education programmes of several American universities. The return of the sun after 92 days. [118], For his "valuable services rendered in connection with Military Operations in North Russia" Shackleton was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1919 King's Birthday Honours,[119] and was also mentioned in despatches by General Ironside. On January 4, 1922, Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Quest, finally reached South Georgia, an ice-capped island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Shackleton suffered frostbitten fingers as a result. 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. Go on a trip C. Get an assistant 15 1.5 22.5 . In his 1956 address to the British Science Association, Sir Raymond Priestley, one of his contemporaries, said "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton", paraphrasing what Apsley Cherry-Garrard had written in a preface to his 1922 memoir The Worst Journey in the World. Shackleton's will was proven in London on 12 May 1922. A century ago a ship sank beneath the ice of the Weddell Sea off Antarctica. [59], In 1910, Shackleton made a series of three recordings describing the expedition using an Edison phonograph. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 10 December 2011 (M.P.C. Shackleton's mind turned to a project that had been announced, and then abandoned, by the British explorer William Speirs Bruce, for a continental crossing, from a landing in the Weddell Sea, via the South Pole to McMurdo Sound. [110] The Yelcho took the crew first to Punta Arenas and after some days to Valparaiso in Chile where crowds warmly welcomed them back to civilisation. October 10, 2012, 11:40 AM Live Oct. 11, 2012 -- Ernest Shackleton ought to have died on the Antarctic ice. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Over a century after it sank to the depths of the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica, the lost ship of Anglo Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton has been found. [69] The reality was that the expedition had left Shackleton deeply in debt, unable to meet the financial guarantees he had given to backers. BBC Science Correspondent. Although some of his former crew members had not received all their pay from the Endurance expedition, many of them signed on with their former "Boss". Why is Shackleton famous? [86][87], Endurance departed from South Georgia for the Weddell Sea on 5 December, heading for Vahsel Bay. 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?' [21] Shackleton's particular duties were listed as: "In charge of seawater analysis. Led by explorer and environmental scientist Tim Jarvis, the team was assembled at the request of Alexandra Shackleton, Sir Ernest's granddaughter, who felt the trip would honour her grandfather's legacy. Ernest Henry Shackleton was born at Kilkea House, County Kildare, on February 15, 1874. Edgeworth David, and Douglas Mawson. He and his crew drifted on sheets of ice for months until they reached Elephant Island. Why did Ernest Shackleton want to go to Antarctica? Upon his death, he was lauded in the press but was thereafter largely forgotten, while the heroic reputation of his rival Scott was sustained for many decades. Born in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton and his Anglo-Irish family[1] moved to Sydenham in suburban south London when he was ten. Leaving McNish, Vincent and McCarthy at the landing point on South Georgia, Shackleton travelled 32 miles (51km)[97] with Worsley and Crean over extremely dangerous mountainous terrain for 36hours to reach the whaling station at Stromness on 20 May. In January 1908 he returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition (190709). Four months later, after leading four separate relief expeditions, Shackleton succeeded in rescuing his crew from Elephant Island. [146] 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. The three men all suffered at times from snow blindness, frostbite and, ultimately, scurvy. There is a legend that Shackleton posted an advertisement which emphasised the hardship and danger of the voyage, so that he could better narrow down and select candidates for his expedition, but no record of any such advertisement has survived and its existence is considered doubtful. What is Ernest Shackleton best known for? Sir Ernest Shackleton, the intrepid explorer, is best remembered for embarking on a fateful voyage aboard the Endurance in a bid to cross the Antarctic. McIlroy was head of the scientific staff, which included Wordie. Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's century-old whisky has been retrieved. Details. Born on February 15, 1874 - Sir Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish explorer who led a total of three voyages to Antarctica. In 1901, Shackleton was chosen to go on the Antarctic expedition led by British naval officer Robert Falcon Scott - Britain's other Antarctic hero - on the ship Discovery. It's probably fair to say that adventurer Ernest Shackleton's attempt to cross the 2,000-mile Antarctic continent in 1914 was a successful failure. [107], 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. Deep in the Weddell Sea, conditions gradually grew worse until, on 19 January 1915, Endurance became frozen fast in an ice floe. On the contrary, his heart belonged to this great continent, and in 1921 he decided to go back with the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition. Ernest Henry Shackleton British Antarctic Expedition (1907-09) When Ernest Shackleton arrived back in England on 12 June 1903, he found that Scott's 1901-04 expedition, from which had been virtually sacked, was a controversial subject. [143] Within a few years, he was thoroughly overtaken in public esteem by Shackleton, whose popularity surged while that of his erstwhile rival declined. [15], Shackleton used his acquaintance with the son to obtain an interview with Longstaff senior, with a view to obtaining a place on the expedition. After the race to the South Pole ended in December 1911, with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to the crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole. [96], After five harrowing days at sea, the exhausted men landed their three lifeboats at Elephant Island, 346 miles (557km) from where the Endurance sank. [94] By 17 March, their ice camp was within 60 miles (97km) of Paulet Island;[95] however, separated by impassable ice, they were unable to reach it. [149] 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". Ernest Shackleton, in full Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, (born February 15, 1874, Kilkea, County Kildare, Irelanddied January 5, 1922, Grytviken, South Georgia), Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who attempted to reach the South Pole. [149] In Boston, a "Shackleton School" was set up on "Outward Bound" principles, with the motto "The Journey is Everything". [7], In 1880, when Ernest was six, Henry Shackleton gave up his life as a landowner to study medicine at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), moving his family to the city. [113][114] In October 1917, he was sent to Buenos Aires to boost British propaganda in South America. Ernest H. Shackleton 1874-1922. His handling of the ships under his command combined with his understanding of Antarctic conditions was crucial to the safety of the expeditions he undertook with Ernest Shackleton and Douglas Mawson. For the next two years, he kept his crew of 27 men . [19], Although Discovery was not a Royal Navy unit, Scott required the crew, officers and scientific staff to submit to the conditions of the Naval Discipline Act, and the ship and expedition were run on Royal Navy lines. Some of the polar ships were built with a hull shape that allowed them to rise up if being crushed by pack ice. Shackleton and his men have been the subject of much media fervor throughout the last century, and this latest flurry of Shackleton media comes more than two decades after the tale experienced. [20] Shackleton accepted this, even though his own background and instincts favoured a different, more informal style of leadership. Although it is likely that Norwegian whalers had previously crossed at other points on ski, no one had attempted this particular route before. [76], Shackleton published details of his new expedition, grandly titled the "Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition", early in 1914. Shackleton served in the British army during World War I and served as a military advisor in the multinational North Russia Expeditionary Force during the Russian Civil War. [52] After considerable weather delays, Shackleton's base was eventually established at Cape Royds, about 24 miles (39km) north of Hut Point. Launched in August 1914, the expedition became one of the most famous survival stories of all time after . He also socialised with his crew members every evening after dinner, leading sing-alongs, jokes, and games. Throughout the ordeal, not one of Shackletons crew of the Endurance died. 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. Proposing a toast to the explorer at a lunch given in Shackleton's honour by the Royal Societies Club, Lord Halsbury, a former Lord Chancellor, said: "When one remembers what he had gone through, one does not believe in the supposed degeneration of the British race. [160][161], The expedition very carefully matched legacy conditions, using a replica of the James Caird (named for the project's patron: the Alexandra Shackleton), period clothing (by Burberry), replica rations (both in calorific content and rough constitution), period navigational aids, and a Thomas Mercer chronometer just as Shackleton had used. The Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-1917 . Consequently, Shackleton decided to risk an open-boat journey to the 720-nautical-mile-distant South Georgia whaling stations, where he knew help was available. [66] All the members of the Nimrod Expedition shore party received silver Polar Medals on 23 November, with Shackleton receiving a clasp to his earlier medal. In charge of holds, stores and provisions[] He also arranges the entertainments. [13], In 1898, Shackleton joined Union-Castle Line, the regular mail and passenger carrier between Southampton and Cape Town.
