Ernest Shackleton
(1874 - 1922)
Ernest Henry Shackleton was born at Kilkea House, County
Kildare, on February 15, 1874.
He is most remembered though for his expedition to cross
the Antarctic continent in 1914.
Shackleton's
plan was to take their aptly named ship The Endurance through the Weddell Sea, land on Antarctica, then cross the 1800 miles
to the other side, passing the South Pole and link up with The Endurance's
sister ship, The Aurora, for the journey home.
The Endurance left South Georgia Island on December 5th,
1914 sailing for the continent. On January 18, 1915 The Endurance become
lodged in drifting pack-ice and could not maneuver to open sea. The
Endurance floated for 10 months beset in the ice until extreme pressure caused
cracks in The Endurance's hull forcing the crew to abandon ship on October 27,
1915. The men and dogs camped on the ice near the ship for another month
until The Endurance sank in the Weddell sea on November 21st leaving them with
most of the ships provisions and three life boats.
They continued to float on the pack-ice until April 9,
1916 when they were forced to take to their boats with all they could
carry. They spent three days at sea in their life boats until they landing
on Elephant Island in April 12.
Shackleton decided that their only hope for rescue was to
get to the whaling station on South Georgia Island some 800 miles away. On
April 24 they loaded up the sturdiest of the life boats, the James Caird, with
one months provisions. Shackleton and five others would make the journey
and send back help.
Shackleton and crew sailed through some of the stormiest
seas in the world. Nearly capsizing many times and constantly bailing
water over the sides. They finally saw signs of land on May 8, and after
several attempts were able to land on the South-West side of South Georgia
Island on May 10.
Unfortunately, the men were 17 miles from the Stromness
whaling station: a journey over South Georgia's mountains and glaciers
awaited them, an effort no one had ever accomplished. Two members of the crew
were too weak to attempt the trek so Shackleton left them in the care of a
stronger member. On May 15, Shackleton, and the two remaining crew members from
the James Caird set out on their adventure. They climbed over icy slopes,
snowfields and glaciers until reaching a ridge the next morning that separated
them from Stromness Bay.
They found a gap in the ridge and went through it at 6 a.m. with
anxious hearts and weary bodies. The twisted rock formations of Huvik Harbor
appeared right ahead in the early light of dawn. While the other crew members started
the cooker, Shackleton climbed a ridge above them in order to get a better look
at the land below them. At 6:30 a.m. Shackleton thought he heard the sound of a
steam whistle calling the men from their beds at the whaling station. Shackleton
descended to the others and told them to watch the chronometer for seven o'clock
as this would be the time the whalers would be called to work; right to the
minute the steam whistle sounded. Never had they heard such a sweeter sound.
Shackleton noted that the Antarctic "which we had
entered a year and a half before with well-found ship, full equipment, and high
hopes. We had 'suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down yet grasped at
glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole.' We had seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man."
The
crew on the other side of South Georgia Island was rescued the next day, but it
would take four separate attempts on four ships before the rest of the crew was
rescued from Elephant Island on August 30 after 105 lonely days.
Miraculously there were no losses of life in the crew
during the entire ordeal
Last Updated: 12/07/2001
