The story of Shackleton's 1914 expedition is often held as one of those great human accomplishments - the power of the human will to overcome.
In 1914 Shackleton led a group to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent. His ship got caught in the ice just offshore Antarctica and sank (but with no loss of life). For almost two months they trudged through the ice before it started to break up and they could use the lifeboats. After rowing five days in open top boats in freezing temperatures they made it to an uninhabited island. Making a covering for one of the boats he and 5 others decided to sail to a whaling station in South Georgia 800 miles away. 15 days later they reached South Georgia but at the wrong end. Three of the men were too exhausted to carry on so Shackleton and the two remaining tried to cross the moutain peaks tothe other side. No one had crossed them before. they miraculously reached the whaling station and not one member of the expedition perished.
But there is a part of the story not so well known. In Shackleton's memoir he records this testimony:
"When I look back at those days I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snowfields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing-place on South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards Worsley said to me, "Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us". Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels "the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech" in trying to describe things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a reference to a subject very near to our hearts"
In 1914 Shackleton led a group to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent. His ship got caught in the ice just offshore Antarctica and sank (but with no loss of life). For almost two months they trudged through the ice before it started to break up and they could use the lifeboats. After rowing five days in open top boats in freezing temperatures they made it to an uninhabited island. Making a covering for one of the boats he and 5 others decided to sail to a whaling station in South Georgia 800 miles away. 15 days later they reached South Georgia but at the wrong end. Three of the men were too exhausted to carry on so Shackleton and the two remaining tried to cross the moutain peaks tothe other side. No one had crossed them before. they miraculously reached the whaling station and not one member of the expedition perished.
But there is a part of the story not so well known. In Shackleton's memoir he records this testimony:
"When I look back at those days I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snowfields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing-place on South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards Worsley said to me, "Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us". Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels "the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech" in trying to describe things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a reference to a subject very near to our hearts"
How inspiring...
