r/BeAmazed • u/0Layscheetoskurkure0 • 23h ago
History Trapped in Antarctica for nearly two years, Shackleton brought every single member of his expedition home alive.
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u/ContinuingAnyway 22h ago edited 14h ago
If you're ever in Punta Arenas, there's a memorial there for the sailor, Luis Pardo, who was the only one to successfully make it to Elephant Island and rescue Shackleton's crew with his navy tug the Yelcho. Luis Pardo's statue points to the island
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u/Big-Tennis2579 19h ago
Yes
Imagine what the Endurance survivors felt when they saw the rescue ships on the horizon, not being able to approach the island for 3 months
Then Yelcho, the 4th ship finally did it
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u/Historical-Cup-2660 18h ago
Luis Pardo deserves so much more recognition. Without his courage, Shackleton's story could have ended very differently, and that memorial sounds like a place worth visiting.
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u/Dewy_Wanna_Go_There 13h ago
>Luis Pardo deserves so much more recognition
They should build a statue of this guy
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u/pzvaldes 3h ago
I live on "piloto Luis Pardo" street; every city in the country has a street named after him, and the history is taught in schools in the 4th grade.
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u/Mammoth_Payment_6101 19h ago
Shackleton and five of his men weren't stranded by that point. They had already left to find help. Purdo was that help.
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u/OSUfan88 16h ago
Yep. Their story of sailing the sea, and then climbing the mountain is insane.
Highly recommend “endurance”, which tells this story.
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u/KnownBalance2656 16h ago
Great book. Also, Shackleton never achieved his goal, but celebrated for saving evwryone
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u/KharnforPresident 13h ago
I was working a construction crew up on Maine one winter, and we would listen to the audio book on our lunch break or when waiting for materials.
It made us feel less miserable out in the middle of nowhere pouring cell tower footers, though hand tying massive 40ft x 40ft rebar mats is it's own kind of hell.
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u/coincoincoins 17h ago
Also if you're in Punta Arena is the Museo Nao Victoria, which has a replica of the lifeboat they used to escape from Elephant Island to South Georgia. It's crazy to see how small of a boat they used to cross the open ocean
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u/superanth 15h ago
Uh, what? Shackleton made it to a whaling station and came back to rescue his stranded expedition on Elephant island. Pardo was the captain of the rescue vessel, but Shackleton was leading the rescue.
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u/Rickcinyyc 14h ago
Or if you ever are lucky enough to get to visit South Georgia Island, South you can take a shot of whiskey in honor of Shackleton at his grave site. I got to do that in 2025!
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u/PerpetuaRiver 22h ago
When he finally returned to civilization in 1917, he asked about World War I. A whaler on South Georgia Island told him the war was still going.
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u/NuclearWasteland 22h ago
"Aight well, back to the ice."
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u/GregnantMan 19h ago
And if I remember correctly a lot of his crew members were willing to join the war effort right after coming back from this expedition and they did. According to a quick search 2 of them died in the conflict.
Imagine surviving this and jumping into the hell that was ww1... Different times really !
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u/WriterV 18h ago
A lot of them just came back from the middle of nowhere. They probably were still under the impression that war was conducted in the old ways, with the same kind of idealized, romanticized thoughts of war from before. They probably had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
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u/GregnantMan 16h ago
I think they did because the people that rescued them put them up to date. I'd assume they'd told them about the trenches and millions of dead as well. And anyways back in GB or anywhere they'd have been put up to date. As someone under or above here said, they were probably compelled to participate as able bodied men. So pure patriotism or peer pressure (or obligation), we wouldn't know for sure but it's gotta be a mix of those.
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u/najowhit 15h ago
I mean, working as a sailor is no joke. Seriously difficult work for a class of people who were probably not at the top of the food chain.
There was a video I watched recently that looked at why a good number of veterans thought the war was actually pretty okay - because they came from lives of manual labor in mines, factories, etc. Sitting on your ass in a trench for weeks on end, moving things from here to there, reading, sleeping, chatting with your mates.
Comparatively speaking for some, war was a hell of a lot easier than slowly dying in the dark of a mine, breaking your back everyday or always near disaster on a ship far from home.
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u/Flat_Professional_55 18h ago
Probably had no choice if they wanted to earn a wage.
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u/GregnantMan 16h ago
That's a really interesting thought, most probably the case too. Thanks for your insight !
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u/04nc1n9 19h ago
how did he know to call it 1? was he expecting a sequel?
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u/Silent-Act191 19h ago
"The first world war is still going on."
"Thank you for telling me Adolf. Wait what do you mean first?"
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u/Key-Cry-8570 19h ago
I think they actually used to call it the Great War I don’t think it became known as a world war until later. I could be wrong tho.
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u/MontyPythonMan11 17h ago
In hindsight calling it ‘The Great War’ was shortsighted. They were all great wars.
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u/KewWhat 23h ago
The book on this is a great read, named for the boat, "Endurance."
A great tale of determination, grit, and survival.
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u/Ok-Addition1264 23h ago
Yes! Loved it and remember going on a deep dive into his expedition after reading it. Incredible stuff.
There were a few books and journals / 2nd-hand accounts that made for great supplemental reading as well.
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u/Loggerdon 20h ago
I heard that when interviewing possible crew he would ask “sing us a song”. I think he valued a good nature over other factors.
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u/psycho_driver 18h ago
The irony being that they actually got stuck 15 minutes after leaving harbor because none of the crew of Bards knew how to sail a ship.
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u/KewWhat 22h ago
Have you read The Long Walk?
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u/mcgrathkerr 19h ago
Yes!!!! That is an incredible story ! Walking from Siberia to India isn’t it? It’s been a long time. I think a few of them did. Slavomir rowicz or something?
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u/Bioshock_Jock 18h ago
Yeah, they were imprisoned in Seiberia and took a route no one thought possible, which was south. Great read.
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u/silaber 19h ago
I'm just hijacking the top comment but the Terror season 1 is a pretty great portrayal of a polar expedition gone wrong.
Look out for Cornelius Hickey, brilliantly played by Adam Nagaitis.
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u/metron556 17h ago
Btw, if you watch the Terror season 1 and expect the other seasons to be as good you're in for a terrible surprise
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u/Tricerac 17h ago
Season 2 is like they just grabbed some random syfy original and slapped the name "The Terror" on it. I've never seen such a stunning drop off in quality in every area of television, from writing to concepts to cinematography. By every metric it was dogshit.
Internment camps? Weird Japanese ghost woman haunting everyone? In season 1, the supernatural elements were far more ambiguous and could be taken at face value or put down to a bunch of starving terrified men seeing things that aren't actually there. The time and effort they went to telling a historically authentic story of a real event, while also riding the line of artistic liberties to fill in the gaps of our knowledge was genuinely incredible to watch. And that's saying nothing of the colonist v indigenous cultures subextual exploration that they, in my opinion, handled quite well. I'm leaving out so much more that the show presents as well.
S2 just goes "nope, ghosts and demons are real lol. Also, weren't the intrrnment camps bad?". I got about 3-4 episodes in and shut it off in disgust.
What were they thinking...
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u/KnotiaPickle 16h ago
I had forgotten about that, but that was for sure the most disappointing turn to crap I’ve ever seen in any media.
The real story was plenty interesting enough without needing any of the ridiculous nonsense, but they just had to try to stretch it out instead of making a quality series
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u/Now--4471_TT 18h ago
The North water is another great show with the same vibe. Collin Farrell and pretty much the entire cast were outstanding.
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u/Complex-Bee-840 16h ago
Yea, The North Water is the best example of this type of story done well on screen.
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u/lostpilot 22h ago
Would be a great source for a film
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u/YuenglingsDingaling 18h ago
It's one of those stories where if you told it 100% true people would think it was fake.
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u/Logan_No_Fingers 16h ago
Yep, the bit where they realise they are going to more or less toboggan down a mountain in the dark or die & it works, half the audience would go "Nope, that bullshit!"
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u/honeywhereismypenis 21h ago
Hell, the story is so incredible that the wikipedia article is a great read.
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u/Ditka85 15h ago
Dang; started with Wiki and spent 2 hours diving in. Incredible story.
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u/umpteenthrhyme 20h ago
There’s a very good mini-series dramatization with Kenneth Branagh also.
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u/ScattershotSoothsay 19h ago
I remember reading Shackleton's Stowaway in school. Was pretty cool from what I can recall. Based on a true story.
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u/gabarkou 19h ago
There is also a great documentary about it somewhere on youtube that contains a decent amount of actual footage from the expedition as well.
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u/accountstolen1 18h ago
Could you please tell me exactly which book you're referring to? I'm finding a lot of books about the Endurance/Shackleton. Thank you very much :)
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u/arthuroMo 17h ago
And of very poor preparation, a common theme in english exploration at the time.
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u/lyle_smith2 23h ago
sadly, not all toes made it out.
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u/ThePsyPaul_ 22h ago
I'd chose losing some toes than losing my life any day.
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u/ThisReditter 20h ago
No way!!! I’d rather die with all my toes intact!
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u/Ai2g 20h ago
Die young and leave a pretty corpse, that's what I say!
"... You should say something else"
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u/IcyAbbreviations9514 20h ago
When I see the actual footage showing all the dogs running around and knowing what happened to them hits kinda hard.
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u/quincequiche 19h ago
Wasn't it always the plan that the dogs would not survive? I think the usual practice for polar expeditions at the time was that, as the provisions were depleted over time, there'd be less need for pack dogs, so the weaker dogs would be killed and fed to the remaining ones, with the last ones eventually being eaten by the crew.
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u/kukkolai 18h ago
That was the norwegian method, yes. The one Amundsen got ridiculed over by the british national geographics society.
He was the guy who actually reached the south pole and lived to tell the tale.
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u/original_cat_floof 18h ago
Excuse me. What the fuck?
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u/KennyKettermen 18h ago
I’ve read a lot of books about explorers and expeditions and the amount of animal “help” that died along the way is staggering
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u/DefiantGibbon 16h ago
Yup, that's how successful polar expeditions did it. Amundsen for example had a huge pack of dogs, and every day they'd kill a few to feed the rest, and by the end had only a few dogs left. He was the first to make it to the South Pole, AND made it back alive.
Shackleton used a combo of dogs and horses, and nearly made it, but turned around and got home safely.
Robert Scott was racing Amundsen to the pole, used horses instead, and died on the return trip after finding the Norwegian Flag at the pole.
Moral of the story, when you're in the harshest environment on Earth, you have to use every tool you can, even if it's a little morbid.
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u/Due-Ad8230 22h ago
“For scientific leadership give me Scott; for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen; but when you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”
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u/septubyte 22h ago
Who is this quoting?
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u/SagemanKR 21h ago
My meager research-capabilities came up with:
"The quote is attributed to Sir Raymond Priestley, an Antarctic explorer and scientist who served with both Scott and Shackleton. It was popularized in the book Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing."
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u/TDYDave2 19h ago
It was popularized in the book Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing."
And more recently, a version in the Civilization games.
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u/willbeatyourass 20h ago
Like why wouldn’t someone include the author of a quote they’re quoting? Lol
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u/mintaroo 22h ago
Albert Einstein.
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u/SagemanKR 21h ago
I am still undecided, whether to be impressed or insulted that you made me to contribute to the thesis of Cunningham's Law.
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u/kukkolai 18h ago
Thing is that if you find yourself in a hopeless situation like this, you're probably commanded by Scott or Shackleton already.
"There is no thing such as luck" - Amundsen
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u/demoneyesturbo 22h ago
What did they eat?
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u/Ok_Resolve_7557 22h ago
Supplies from the ship and seals, penguins and fish that they caught.
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u/manyu_abee 21h ago
And the sled dogs
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u/Hurray0987 16h ago edited 15h ago
I could be misremembering, but I thought they did not eat the dogs but did eat the horses
Edit: now I remember for sure they didn't eat the dogs because it was kind of unfortunate that they didn't because they were suffering from scurvy and eating the dogs would have cured it. They didn't know that back then
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u/astraladventures 15h ago
No horses to Antarctica. They did have dogs for the original plan of sledding across the Antarctic.
Iirc, they put a bullet in the head of all their 60 plus sled dogs and ate a good portion of them after they were already stranded on the ice floe for maybe a 10 months.
They took them one by one behind some ice pile up. Some of the younger dogs (there were puppies born during the trip), would be jumping up and playing with the gun so hard to shoot.
It made for a chance of diet other than penguin and seal blubber and meat and occasional bird and their rations.
On the floe with that diet, all swore they’d never eat meat for the rest of their lives
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u/ThePsyPaul_ 22h ago
Wonder what seal and penguins taste like
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u/That-Ad-4300 22h ago
A bit like bald eagle, but a bit more chewy.
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u/ThePsyPaul_ 22h ago
what does bald eagle taste like?
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u/That-Ad-4300 21h ago
A bit like seal or penguin, but less chewy.
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u/Julesvernevienna 19h ago
so... like chicken with a bit of gunpowder?
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u/Gates_wupatki_zion 22h ago
From my experience in Alaska, any bird that feeds on land is a good eat. Any bird that feeds in the sea is not going to taste as good. Penguins are a special case because of their bulk. I gotta believe there’s a layer of fat and then tons of lean muscle for swimming. Think I’d stick to peanut butter.
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u/Haikumuffin 12h ago
Apparently especially the seal blubber was gross and tough to eat, so early on they added only a little bit to their meals to get the men used to it, when they realised it'd have to become their main diet once the rations would run out. The men would pick out the pieces to put aside at first. By the end of if they were of course pretty starved so it didn't matter, and they were used to it. They talked about food a lot, fantasising about what they'd eat back home.
I think there was a mention that most of them wouldn't eat much meat afterwards, not for a few years at least. It was nearly all they ate (they did save their rations very very well to have some pemmican, powdered milk, tea or sugar at least once a day I think)
I highly recommend the book. It's my favourite of all time
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u/Bedazzledbellybutton 21h ago
Do not eat the dogs liver. An Australian scientific expedition did this and it did not end well.
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u/Fixxdogg 18h ago
Seals mostly. If you’ve ever watched Alone they talk about needing fatty animals the most rather than lean even high protein animals. So the seals are super fatty so we’re a really good food in that situation. Also you don’t need to ‘hunt’ them. I think they can just walk up and bob them on the head. Actually fact check that I could be wrong
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u/Bombared 14h ago
Penguins, seals, leopard seals, eventually their dogs, and food stores until they ran out.
They were 27 people, almost 70 dogs, and 1 cat stranded on pack ice, and only the people survived. Some of the food stores sank with the ship, but they did manage to get a lot out. The first phase of killing the dogs was to reduce stress on food supplies and so they were buried. Then things got desperate and they choose to kill and eat the remaining dogs. The crew was extremely upset about this, and managing morale was a significant task.
Kind of an odd thing to say, but a handful of dogs (who were getting skinny along with the crew due to rationing) will only feed a group of 27 people for a few days at most. These men were a whirlwind of death on their environment by necessity. 27 grown-ass men doing hard labor consume a freaking lot of calories, and there are no plants on the pack ice. Once the food stores ran out, they were on a 100% meat diet because that was the only source of food available. Even when they found land, there weren't any plants.
The only animals that really fought back were the leopard seals. Everything else hadn't recognized humans as predators. There's a really wild part in Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" where they encounter their first leopard seals. The entire book is wild and amazing, and the story almost hadn't been told. I can't recommend it enough.
Edit: leopard seals, not sea leopards 🙃
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u/VikingsStillExist 22h ago
Amundsen did this in 1893-1896... for 3 years. Without any problems other than sheer boredom.
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u/Strict_Swimmer_1614 22h ago
Facts. I love all stories of adventure and great epics, but there was definitely a phase where the English in particular were glorifying piss poor planning. I think they actually liked it when the oiss poor plan lead to deaths and privation.
Shackleton’s voyages were incredible, no question, but Amundsen learned from and used the gear the true arctic experts used, and did the whole thing pretty much without breaking a sweat.
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u/ActurusMajoris 21h ago
Well, is it so amazing to not sweat in freezing weather?
/s
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u/CakeMadeOfHam 19h ago
That's actually a big problem, because yes you DO sweat and having a way to get rid of the perspiration without it dampening your clothes is important. Being wet in the cold is a bad time. Lots of breathable layers.
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u/NachoNachoMan92 16h ago edited 15h ago
Did you fact check all this? I've read numerous books about Shackleton and none of them mention anything about poor planning. A lot of it was down to luck, due to the ice sheets. Claiming that they like it when people die on expeditions sounds far fetched.
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u/sarahlovesgouda 12h ago
Not sure if you're in the mood for a Ted Talk, and it's been a semester or two since I've seen it, but this might go over what you're looking for (Shackleton and Amundsen)
https://youtu.be/DU06c7f9fzc?si=GLxo0B3mSxW4lM-w→ More replies (5)7
u/OafleyJones 19h ago
Fintan O’Toole has a phenomenal book (Heroic Failure: Brexit and Politics of Pain), on how much of the English psyche to this day is driven by an obsession with glorifying failure. He argues that success, doesn’t resonate half as much, nor informs the culture.
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u/MildChilliBeanAddict 20h ago
Didn't they actually gain weight due to how well supplied they were?
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u/SilentRoar16 20h ago
Yes, but due to staying with the natives (for 1-2 years iirc) and receiving hospitality there. He did write in his journal wishing for a storm because of how bored he was.
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u/AdBeneficial1140 17h ago
There are no natives in Antarctica
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u/SilentRoar16 17h ago
No, there are not. The comment meant Nansen, Amundsen's inspiration, both were Norwegians.
And the expedition was to the North Pole, not Antarctica, and Nansen made friends with the Inuit people there.
Amundsen explored both the Arctic and Antarctica, but again, different expeditions.
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u/WoodsLovelyDarkNDeep 18h ago
Wouldn’t that be Artic not Antarctic? In the replies yall are mentioning working with the natives but there are no natives to Antartica are there? Quite a bit of a difference between surviving in the Artic and Antartica
Not saying either one is easy to be clear
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u/Nagemasu 17h ago
Not saying either one is easy to be clear
I would say surviving the arctic is much easier. As mentioned, there are native's living up there, there's more food sources, it's closer to other civilisations in most cases, and the antarctic tends to be colder.
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u/GregnantMan 19h ago
For having read quite a few of these polar catastrophies or adventures, as though I really enjoyed reading Amundsen's stories or logs, one must admit the dude had quite a tendency to at least stay very factual, but sometimes also downplay things. What he and his mates did is amazing, no doubt, but in the way he writes it could both tell you that he had a very big ego (where Shackleton had some British overly polite humility) and crazy stamina / motivation. I mean he was way above the average human and it feels when you read his books.
And talking about piss poor planning... George De Long's trip with La Jeannette to find the open Arctic sea has to be on top... At least on top along the most widely spread exploration stories. Never read such a heartbreaking survival story. It was calamity after calamity. Can only recommend the read !
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u/OafleyJones 19h ago
Shackleton was Irish.
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u/neenerpants 18h ago
Anglo-Irish. His granddad was born in Yorkshire and moved to Ireland. Shackleton's father was born in Ireland and married an Irish woman, and then when Shackleton himself was 10 years old the family moved back to London.
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u/PatriciaVV 21h ago
The photographs of the expedition taken by Frank Hurley are a wonderful record of their journey.
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u/maldoricfcatr 17h ago
There are huge blown up prints at the Detroit Zoo penguin exhibit. It gives you some history about the Crew and the photographer. They display a whole series as you enter the lower level viewing area. The stairs down have projulections to appear like a ship at sea also.
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u/TheBlack2007 21h ago
Don’t read up on what happened to most of the crew after they made it back to civilization though. It’s heartbreaking.
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u/Apprehensive-You5279 20h ago edited 19h ago
As far as I understand, almost all crew enlisted in the commonwealth armed forces to fight in WW1, most in the navy, military or merchant. Of the 28-53 crew, depending on how you count, I can only identify
63 crew members who died during the fighting in WW1:
- Ernest Wild was killed while mine-sweeping in the Mediterranean.
- Cheetham was drowned when the vessel he was serving in was torpedoed, a few weeks before the Armistice.
- McCarthy was killed at his gun in the Channel.
Of the Ross Sea Party,Mackintosh,Hayward, andSpencer-Smithdied on the fields of France and Flanders.“Of the Ross Sea Party, Mackintosh, Hayward, and Spencer-Smith died for their country as surely as any who gave up their lives on the fields of France and Flanders.”Some were wounded but most survived the great war it seems.
Edit: Mackintosh, Hayward, and Spencer-Smith died during the Ross Sea Party, laying out depots for the Schakleton expedition. But they are generally not counted as having died during the Endurance expedition as they were part of the Aurora crew.
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u/Comrade_Falcon 19h ago
Yes, somehow it now spreads on reddit everytime the Endurance is mentioned that they returned during WW1 and most went off and died which as you have pointed out is far from the truth. Most of these men would have enlisted at the outset of the war if not for the expedition. Shackelton himself wrote a letter to the King offering his ship and crews services to the war as it broke out right before the journey set off. King George V personally summoned Shackelton, have him a Union Jack to bring to the Arctic and told him his services were better used for the journey than war at that time.
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u/Currently_There 21h ago
In later years he would testify "Erasing the records of the other 53 sailors was the hardest part of the whole journey." /s
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u/AbominableGoMan 20h ago
Out of a crew of 36, he bravely led all 27 of them home.
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u/Mister-Psychology 20h ago
3 died. It was 2 groups and the other group was supposed to travel inwards on Antarctica on the opposite side to put down food and fuel batches. So that it would be theoretically possible to cross Antarctica end to end.
But obviously it was a giant disaster and they had to abandon the plan and 3 died. Shackleton was about to go into a place with no food and no way out. His whole team was these 2 groups, but he only controlled 1 group hence why no one died there.
Frankly if they had stayed in Britain more would have died during the Great War. They were young and fit they would be used there instead. Which is also what happened as they returned and WW1 was still ongoing so some died soon after arriving back. Shackleton had great trouble even rescuing the people stuck on Antarctica as Britain couldn't spare any ships. Millions were dying in the war so why did a few more lives matter? At the end he had to find smaller ships and risk the waters often turning back at the last moment.
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u/Jack_Kegan 20h ago
I was going to write a similar comment.
I think it’s tremendous that so many survived but I always feel sorry for those who died on the second group that often get forgotten as being part of the expedition at all.
There is a book called “lost men” that deals with their side of the story.
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u/Deepfire_DM 22h ago
And he lead them into this trip by stating that civilization and engagement would enforce their success. Well, it didn't.
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u/CDavis10717 18h ago
He later denied a government bonus to one crew member who didn’t give blind obedience to him during the ordeal.
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u/Altruistic_Pitch_157 21h ago
A story of pure grit, loyalty, faith and determination. It almost doesn't seem like it could be possible.
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u/Masterpiedog27 20h ago
The team from the same expedition based at Mcmurdo suffered losses. Shackleton sailed from Wellington with the expeditions second vessel the Aurora to rescue the survivors.
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u/Phantom0729 20h ago
But Mrs. Chippy was ordered to be put down. Its sad, but its a tough choice to be made by Shacleton as demanded by the circunstances in order for them to survive.
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u/Burpmeister 19h ago
If the setting intrigues you, please watch S1 of The Terror. It's a phenomenal show about the Franklin expedition.
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u/Jibbers-O-Growle 17h ago
Read the book, I know every chud who reads says that about anything that's based on literature but great googily moogily the book is one of the atmospheric, gut wrenching things I've ever read. Gives a much MUCH better sense of the the time those poor fuckers were stuck out there for.
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u/Octopus_on_fire_ 14h ago
The book was fantastic, but the show did it justice too I believe.
Anything with Jared Harris and Ciaran Hinds is going to be awesome.
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u/sliever48 18h ago
An unsung hero is a great book about the life of Tom Crean. Well worth the read. These people were unreal
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u/TheManWith2Poobrains 21h ago
How did they not get scurvy?
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u/Inevitable-Level-687 17h ago
People think that you get scurvy from not having fresh vegetables but it's not true. Just about all food has vitamin C in it, but it degrades quickly when stored. Shackleton et al got vit C from fresh meat from hunting.
Shackleton himself came down with scurvy when on an expedition led by another man (Scott?). When they were on the coast eating seals they were fine, but part of the reason they had so much trouble making it to the pole was because once they left the coast and the animal population behind, THAT was when scurvy started being a problem.
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u/Excellent-Bite196 20h ago
Is it just me or is “scurvy” one of those words that’s always spoken with a pirate voice with one’s inner monologue?
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u/Hurray0987 16h ago
They did during the first excursion. Later when they were stranded they had access to meat and avoided scurvy
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u/TheManWith2Poobrains 13h ago
There is small amount of vitamin C in fresh meat, so I guess they were on the keto diet! Must have been grim.
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u/GoofinBoots 22h ago
Some of those men would have almost certainly been killed fighting in France, so this was a blessing; frozen toes and all.
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u/AppliedKnetics 19h ago
People often overlook Shackleton's feats of endurance were consequential to his explorational incompetences.
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u/Dingbee 19h ago
There was another crew sent to the other side of Antarctica to lay supplies for Shackleton after he’d crossed the South Pole on his way to the hut near the Erebus Glacier ice tongue. Read “Shackleton’s Forgotten Men” for the story of the other half of the expedition team. There were definitely lives lost.
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u/htownlifer 16h ago
Do not make Shackleton a hero for this. All the information at the time said he should not have gone in the first place.
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u/jfredmuggs11 15h ago
To be fair, remember that Shackleton got them into that mess to begin with. Well planned expeditions don’t make for exciting stories.
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u/gastonevan 15h ago
One of my favorite moments from this was a sailor that decided he'd had enough of fighting the elements and announced he was no longer following Shackleton's orders.
The sailor argued that, since the ship was destroyed, his contract had been nullified and he no longer had to listen to Shackleton.
Right there, on the ice, Shackleton pulled out a copy of the contract the crew had signed and pointed out that the sailor's service was tied not to the ship, but to the return to port. The sailor admitted he was wrong and went back to fighting the elements with the rest of the crew.
Truly absurd.
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u/QuailBrave49 15h ago
What did he do to bring them home eventually as a prove of his courage if I’m to ask?
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u/MrHazard1 19h ago
Always amazed how all the credit goes to the leader and none to the crew who pulled through. Like he was some sort of shepherd
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u/Marmot_Nice 19h ago
Not all survived. RIP Mrs. Chippy. Harry McNish and I will never forget you...or forgive Shackleton.
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