ERNEST SHACKLETON: BIOGRAPHY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) was a British polar explorer who went down in history after leading three different British expeditions to Antarctica. His original goal in all his explorations was to reach the South Pole, a feat that until now had not been possible.

However, after the conquest of the South Pole by another Norwegian explorer - Roald Amundsen - Shackleton focused on crossing Antarctica from one sea to another through the same South Pole.

See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

Shackleton was successful in his explorations, but not in his personal life. He sought to achieve wealth on various occasions (particularly through investing), but never did. When he died - relatively young - he had a large amount of debt with the banks.

He was not originally hailed as a great of exploration, but during the course of the 20th century, various texts brought his fame back to life. Today he is remembered as a famous explorer who was able to keep his team motivated despite facing adverse circumstances.

Biography

Early years

Ernest Henry Shackleton was born on February 15, 1864, in County Kildare, Ireland. His mother was of Irish descent, but his father's family had English roots.

He was one of the 10 children his parents had; his brother, the only other male in the family, also rose to fame after being accused of stealing the Irish Crown Jewels.

When Henry was just a child, his father devoted himself to studying medicine. The studies had to be completed in Dublin, so he moved to the city with his whole family.

After graduating, the Shackleton family left Ireland behind to move to England. His father bought property in suburban London, where he hoped to find better job opportunities as a doctor, compared to those in Ireland.

From a very young age, Shackleton loved to read and showed a great passion for adventure. When he started studying at a college (already living in London), he never really enjoyed his studies. In fact, he called them boring on several occasions.

Marine

After Shackleton's father became a doctor, he repeatedly tried to convince his son to follow in his footsteps in the medical field.

However, when he was 16 years old, he decided to join the merchant navy of England. At the age of 18, he became First Officer, and at 24 he obtained the Master Sailor certification.

First expedition with Scott (Discovery Expedition)

During his early years in the navy, he traveled many times. However, in 1901, he joined the exploration led by Robert Falcon Scott in pursuit of becoming the first sailors to reach the South Pole of the planet.

This expedition had been planned long in advance by the president of the Royal Geographical Society of the United Kingdom. As a consequence of this, the objectives of the expedition were merely for exploration and geographic mapping purposes.

The expedition was called "Discovery", as this was the name of the ship on which Shackleton and the rest of the crew traveled. The journey began at the end of July 1901, and had to pass through New Zealand and then reach its destination in Antarctica, in early January 1902.

During the course of the trip, Shackleton worked on the issue of the expedition's magazine, called "The South Polar Times."

Successful exploration

On November 2, 1902, Scott planned an expedition that departed from the ship to the depth of the South Pole, in search of reaching the highest latitude achieved by humanity. At no point in this expedition was it planned to conquer the South Pole, but it was part of Scott's team's exploration efforts.

The expedition was affected by the ineffectiveness of the scout dogs they brought with them. The bad state of the food harmed the health of the dogs; none of the canines made it back to the ship alive.

Shackleton fell seriously ill after the expedition. In fact, during the trip, the three explorers suffered from severe blindness due to freezing, scurvy and freezing of the body.

When they reached the ship, a doctor examined Shackleton. He had been the sailor hardest hit by the voyage. During the later stages, he could hardly move. Once examined, Scott decided to send him home again to continue his recovery.

Despite the difficulties, the three sailors became the first explorers to go as far as 82 ° latitude from the South Pole.

Return

Shackleton recovered for a time in New Zealand, before leaving for England. As is known according to records of the author of his autobiography, Shackleton created a rivalry with Scott, as he felt his pride hurt after the relative failure of his expedition and his return home.

However, not everything was negative for Shackleton. When he returned to England, he realized that being one of the men to return from the expedition meant a lot of job offers. He acted as one of those in charge of renovating the Terra Nova, a ship that left for the South Pole to relieve Discovery.

He wanted to work with the British Royal Navy, but could not find a position that would accept him. He went on to practice as a journalist, but did not enjoy the work and left the profession.

Soon after, Shackleton went on to work with the Royal Geographical Society. He met his wife, with whom he had three children.

During this period, he invested money in some ventures that were not very fruitful, and he was forced to find another source of income. He decided to return to Antarctica, so he needed to find someone to finance his expedition.

Second Voyage (Nimrod Expedition)

After getting some of his wealthy friends to contribute to his cause, the second expedition set sail for Antarctica in 1908. Shackleton's original plan was to use the same base of operations that the Discovery expedition used, but this was not possible because Scott did not allow to use what he considered "his work area."

Some climatic changes made the explorer see that part of the ice had melted, creating a large bay that the ship crossed during the trip. When the expedition approached the area near the Discovery base, the weather did not allow a clear advance towards the deepest part of Antarctica.

The strong blizzards delayed the time of the operation a bit, but they finally managed to establish the base of the Nimrod expedition 40 kilometers from where they originally wanted to arrive.

This trip again demonstrated Shackleton's ability to communicate. Even with adverse weather conditions, all the sailors and their equipment were encouraged and ready to continue with the expedition. This was due to the motivational ability of Shackleton, who went down in history for this very reason.

The expedition was a success: they crossed the South Pole Plateau for the first time, climbed Mount Erebus, and the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole was discovered.

Third Voyage (Imperial Post-Antarctic Expedition)

After Shackleton returned to England, he was greeted like a hero. Soon after, he began his preparations to set sail again for Antarctica with a clear objective: to cross Antarctica through the South Pole.

This expedition had many problems, after setting sail in 1914. The "Endurance", the ship on which the mission was carried out, was trapped in the ice of a coast and remained adrift for 10 months. The ship was then crushed by the devastating massive blocks of ice that it collided with.

The sailors lived for almost half a year on floating blocks of ice, eating what few rations of food they had. They managed to reach the mainland in their boats, but the islands they found were uninhabited. They ate penguins, seals and their own dogs to survive, while Shackleton set sail for Georgia to seek help.

Although the mission was a failure, Shackleton managed to rescue all the Endurance sailors alive (in 4 missions from Georgia to the islands where they were).

Fourth Voyage and Last Days (Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition)

Upon the return of the fourth expedition in 1916, Shackleton enlisted in the British Army to fight in the First World War. After the end of the war, the explorer attempted one more expedition, financed by his school friend, John Quill Rowett.

The goal of the expedition was to explore unknown Antarctic regions and circumnavigate the continent. For this, a Norwegian ship was acquired, which Shackleton renamed "Quest".

He called several of the crew from his third expedition; many of them had not received their full payment from Tras-Antarctica, but decided to go with Shackleton anyway.

During the expedition, Shackleton suffered a fatal heart attack, which ended his life instantly. The explorer died at 2:50 a.m. on January 5, 1922, aboard the Quest.

References

1. Antarctic Explorers: Ernest Shackleton, The South Pole Website, (nd). Taken from south-pole.com
2. Ernest Shackleton, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2018. From Britannica.com
3. Ernest Shackleton Biography, The Biography Website, 2016. Taken from biography.com
4. Historic Figures: Ernest Shackleton, The BBC, 2014. Taken from bbc.co.uk
5. Ernest Shackleton, Wikipedia in English, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org