“He called for me, looked me up and down, walked up and down when he was talking to me, didn’t seem to take any notice. Finally he said, ‘Yes, I like you, I’ll take you.’ He told me afterwards he took me because he thought I looked funny!”

— Leonard Hussey

“Leonard Hussey, an irrepressible, peppery little individual, was signed on as meteorologist even though he had practically no qualifications for the position at the time. Shackleton simply thought Hussey ‘looked funny,’ and the fact that he had recently returned from an expedition (as an anthropologist) to the torrid Sudan appealed to Shackleton’s sense of whimsy. Hussey immediately took an intensive course on meteorology and later proved to be very proficient.”

— Alfred Lansing, Endurance

More on Hussey at coolantarctica.com.