'Greatest escape in history': Ernest Shackleton's epic journey still provides a lesson to us all
To paraphrase one Antarctic explorer, when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and remember Shackleton
It was “the single greatest self-rescue, the single greatest escape in recorded history”, according to historian Dan Snow. Now Snow and a team of documentary film-makers are preparing to retrace the steps of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton and five companions across the island of South Georgia.
This was the final leg of an epic journey after Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was crushed by sea ice in 1915 during an Antarctic expedition. First, the crew sailed in lifeboats to the uninhabited Elephant Island, then in an extraordinary feat of navigation, six of them sailed the 800 miles to South Georgia, and finally they trekked across the mountainous island to a whaling station. The whole crew survived.
Antarctic explorer Raymond Priestly, a contemporary, once said: “For scientific discovery, give me [Captain Robert] Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me [Roald] Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”
Whether or not you are lost in the Antarctic, Shackleton’s determination provides an ever-lasting lesson to us all: never, ever give up.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.