Category Archives: Other Voices

Nobody will ever know

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

“I said to myself: What a pity. We have made this great boat journey and nobody will ever know. We might just as well have foundered immediately after leaving Elephant Island. Then I thought how annoying it was that my … Continue reading →

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Very bad lumpy sea

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

“Heavy westerly swell. Very bad lumpy sea. Stood off for night; wind increasing…” — Frank Worsley

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Savage and horrible…

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

Various views on South Georgia: “…savage and horrible… the very sides and craggy summits of the lofty Mountains were cased with snow and ice, but the quantity which lay in the Vallies is incredible.” — James Cook, 1776 “This was … Continue reading →

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One glimpse

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

“There, right ahead through a rift in the flying scud our glad but salt-rimmed eyes saw a towering black crag with a lacework of snow around its flank. One glimpse, and it was hidden again. We looked at each other … Continue reading →

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So extraordinarily crude

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

“I looked after dawn in vain for the sun & felt anxious, for my navigation had, perforce, been so extraordinarily crude that we might make a bad landfall. The sky was overcast & the weather misty and foggy…Heavy cross swells … Continue reading →

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No limb to the sun

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

“It was misty, the boat was jumping like a flea, shipping seas fore and aft and there was no “limb” to the sun so I had to observe the centre by guesswork. Astronomically, the limb is the edge of sun … Continue reading →

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What if we miss South Georgia?

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

“Sir E. discussed with me what we would do if thro’ lack of… observations of a heavy series of Sly gales blowing us off course, we missed S. Georgia. The prospect was not attractive. Our water, we knew, would be … Continue reading →

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Flew & fussed around

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

“Then there was a small bird, unknown to me, that appeared always to be in a fussy, bustling state, quite out of keeping with the surroundings. It irritated me. It had practically no tail, and it flitted about vaguely as … Continue reading →

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The swearing rule

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

“As a rule when a sea wets a sailor through he swears at it comprehensively, and impartially curses everything in sight beginning with the ship & ‘the old man’—if he’s not within hearing, but on this trip we said nothing … Continue reading →

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Rime of the Ancient Mariner, pt 4

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Ernest Shackleton

Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge […] Four ‘I fear thee, ancient Mariner! I fear thy skinny hand! And thou art long, and lank, and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand. I fear thee and thy glittering … Continue reading →

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