Shackleton.

The “fourth man”

Ernest Shackleton — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:50:34 +0000

“When I look back at those days I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snow fields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing place on South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards Worsley said to me, “Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us.” Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels “the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech” in trying to describe things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a reference to a subject very near to our hearts.”

— Ernest Shackleton, South

["...dearth of human words..." from Endymion (Book II) by John Keats, 1818]

Great difficulties and dangers

Ernest Shackleton — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:50:59 +0000

“I do not wish to belittle our success with the pride that apes humility. Under Providence we had overcome great difficulties and dangers, and it was pleasant to tell the tale to men who knew those sullen and treacherous southern seas.”

— Ernest Shackleton, South

“These are Men!”

Ernest Shackleton — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:50:55 +0000

“One spoke in Norse, and the manager translated. He said that he had been at sea over forty years; that he knew this stormy Southern Ocean intimately… and that never had he heard of such a wonderful feat of daring seamanship as bringing the 22-foot open boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia, and then to crown it, tramping across the ice and snow and rocky heights of the interior, and that he felt it an honour to meet and shake hands with Sir Ernest and his comrades. He finished with a dramatic gesture:

“These are Men!

“Coming from brother seamen, men of our own cloth and members of a great seafaring race like the Norwegians, this was a wonderful tribute.”

— Frank Worsley

Rough Memory Map

Ernest Shackleton — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:50:25 +0000

Worth all that we had been through

Ernest Shackleton — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:50:40 +0000

“I don’t think I ever appreciated anything as much as that hot bath…it was worth all that we had been through to get it. Before bathing, I saw myself in the mirror…three days before…living under the boat—I had attempted to wash my face with snow but had merely rubbed soot and blubber into a sort of polished paste. The result was awful.”

— Frank Worsley

Who the hell are you?

Ernest Shackleton — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:50:21 +0000

“Manager say, ‘Who the hell are you?’ and terrible bearded man in the centre of the three say very quietly: ‘My name is Shackleton.’ Me—I turn away and weep. I think manager weep too.”

— Mansell, a Norwegian whaler who observed the encounter

We had pierced the veneer of outside things

Ernest Shackleton — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:50:53 +0000

“We had pierced the veneer of outside things. 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 men.”

— Ernest Shackleton, South

Retreat, retrace, repeat

Ernest Shackleton — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:50:41 +0000

“I suppose our desires were giving wings to our fancies, for we pointed out joyfully various landmarks revealed by the now vagrant light of the moon, whose friendly face was cloud-swept. Our high hopes were soon shattered. Crevasses warned us that we were on another glacier… I knew there was no glacier in Stromness and realized this must be Fortuna Glacier.”

- Ernest Shackleton, South

Slide

Ernest Shackleton — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:05:35 +0000

“We seemed to shoot into space. For a moment I my hair fairly stood on end. Then quite suddenly I felt a glow, and knew that I was grinning! I was actually enjoying it… I yelled with excitement, and found that Shackleton and Crean were yelling too.”

- Frank Worsley

Lit by electric light

Ernest Shackleton — Sun, 19 May 2013 06:50:26 +0000

“Men lived in houses lit by electric light on the east coast. News of the outside world waited us there, and, above all, the east coast meant for us the means of rescuing the twenty-two men we had left on Elephant Island.”

- Ernest Shackleton, South