“Well Shacky, what do you think of this old tub? You’ll be skipper of her one day.” “You see, old man,” he said “as long as I remain with this company, I’ll never be more than a skipper. But I think I can do something better. In fact, really, I would like to make a name for myself (he paused for a moment or two) and her.” He was looking pensively over the sea at the moment, and I noticed his face light up at the mention of “her.”

“To see him once made an impression on one’s mind, and my first impression was: That this man is made for something better than a captain of a small trading vessel.

“At that time a marked ‘standoffishness’ existed between officers and engineers but Shackleton soon broke down the barrier which showed he was a man among men.”

— Third Engineer James Dunmore, Flintshire (Welsh Line), 1898; as reported in The United Methodist, 1922