For almost a century, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton’s expeditions in the Antarctic have captured the hearts and imaginations of armchair explorers, scientists, historians, and most recently, even stockbrokers and CEOs, who laud Shackleton’s skills as a visionary and an exemplary leader. Books, movies, television specials, and reprints of expedition members’ diaries and letters have recounted the details of Shackleton’s extraordinary 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition—the expedition that brought to a close the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration. South however, is the story in Ernest Shackleton’s own words.
Over de auteur
Not surprisingly, the Shackleton family motto is Fortitudine Vincimus, “By Endurance We Conquer.” One of ten children, Ernest Shackleton was born in Ireland during the great potato famine in 1874. To escape, the family moved to England, where Shackleton defied his father’s wishes to pursue medicine and apprenticed to the merchant marine. His career took him all over the world enabling him to fulfill his dream to become an explorer. Shackleton was a member of four expeditions to Antarctica: Robert Falcon Scott’s 1901–1904 Discovery Expedition; the 1907-1909 Nimrod Expedition; the 1914-1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition; and the 1921 Shackleton-Rowett Expedition aboard the Quest, where he died after a massive heart attack while the ship was docked at South Georgia Island. Shackleton is hailed as a heroic success, largely due to his demonstrations of excellent leadership.