why did ernest shackleton go to antarctica

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish explorer of Antarctica who attempted to reach the South Pole. He still harboured thoughts of returning south, even though in September 1910, having recently moved with his family to Sheringham in Norfolk, he wrote to Emily: "I am never again going South and I have thought it all out and my place is at home now". Shackleton made his own discoveries about Antarctica, but he was not the first to explore the continent. On 8 May, thanks to Worsley's navigational skills, the cliffs of South Georgia came into sight, but hurricane-force winds prevented the possibility of landing. Four months later, after leading four separate relief expeditions, Shackleton succeeded in rescuing his crew from Elephant Island. An extended search for an anchorage at King Edward VII Land proved equally fruitless, so Shackleton was forced to break his undertaking to Scott and set sail for McMurdo Sound, a decision which, according to second officer Arthur Harbord, was "dictated by common sense" in view of the difficulties of ice pressure, coal shortage and the lack of any nearer known base. The Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-1917 . In 1914, Ernest Shackleton was determined to walk across Antarctica. Alternate titles: Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. [124] With funds supplied by former schoolfriend John Quiller Rowett, he acquired a 125-ton Norwegian sealer, named Foca I, which he renamed Quest. On the Endurance, the second in command was the experienced explorer Frank Wild. For that reason, he was. He joined Capt. Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874, in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. October 10, 2012, 11:40 AM Live Oct. 11, 2012 -- Ernest Shackleton ought to have died on the Antarctic ice. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. A sledging party, led by Shackleton, reached within 97 nautical miles (112 statute miles or 180 km) of the South Pole, and another, under T.W. [84], Despite the outbreak of the First World War on 3 August 1914, Endurance was directed by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, to "proceed",[g] and left British waters on 8 August. The members of the expedition then drifted on ice floes for another five months and finally escaped in boats to Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands, where they subsisted on seal meat, penguins, and their dogs. [128] He refused a proper medical examination, so Quest continued south, and on 4 January 1922, arrived at South Georgia. Rowett agreed to finance the entire expedition, which became known as the ShackletonRowett Expedition. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. This party would then lay supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier as far as the Beardmore Glacier; these depots would hold the food and fuel that would enable Shackleton's party to complete their journey of 1,800 miles (2,900km) across the continent. "; and men, provisions and equipment were transferred to camps on the ice. [15], The British National Antarctic Expedition, known as the Discovery expedition after the ship Discovery, was the brainchild of Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society, and had been many years in preparation. [118] In the midst of seeking capital, his plans foundered when Northern Russia fell to Bolshevik control. He was planning to cross it. "This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. [76], Shackleton published details of his new expedition, grandly titled the "Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition", early in 1914. After a period of rest and recuperation, rather than risk putting to sea again to reach the whaling stations on the northern coast, Shackleton decided to attempt a land crossing of the island. Reality TV Crew: Tim Jarvis in the Footsteps of Shackleton", "Shackleton adventurers complete epic re-enactment voyage", "Adventurer Tim Jarvis survives to tell of his recreation of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic journey", "Chasing Shackleton: Chasing Shackleton re-aired August 12, 2014", "Ernest Shackleton's polar voyage to feature on Royal Mail stamps", "Statue of Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton unveiled in Athy", "The unveiling of Shackleton statue at Athy, Co. Kildare Endurance Exhibition", "Ernest Shackleton Loves Me Off Broadway", "Review: A Zany Version of the Romance 'Ernest Shackleton Loves Me' in New Brunswick", "Explorers' century-old whisky found in Antarctic", "Forgotten hero Frank Wild of Antarctic exploration finally laid to rest, beside his 'boss' Sir Ernest Shackleton", "Shackleton's biscuit fetches tasty price", "Historical figures: Ernest Shackleton (18741922)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ernest_Shackleton&oldid=1133108864, Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO, 1909; MVO 4th Class: 1907), Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division (OBE, 1918), Polar Medal (1904; with clasp for Nimrod Expedition: 1909), Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Antwerp (1909), This page was last edited on 12 January 2023, at 08:34. Why did Ernest shackleton go to antarctica? This march was not a serious attempt on the Pole, although the attainment of a high latitude was of great importance to Scott, and the inclusion of Shackleton indicated a high degree of personal trust. [24] During the Antarctic winter of 1902, in the confines of the iced-in Discovery, Shackleton edited the expedition's magazine the South Polar Times. Why did Ernest Shackleton want to go to Antarctica? [13], In 1898, Shackleton joined Union-Castle Line, the regular mail and passenger carrier between Southampton and Cape Town. Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914-1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.The ship, originally named Polaris, was built at Framns shipyard and launched in 1912 from Sandefjord in Norway.After her commissioners could no longer pay the shipyard, the ship was bought by Shackleton in January 1914 . Proposing a toast to the explorer at a lunch given in Shackleton's honour by the Royal Societies Club, Lord Halsbury, a former Lord Chancellor, said: "When one remembers what he had gone through, one does not believe in the supposed degeneration of the British race. The fate of Scott's expedition was not then known. An Anglo-Irish adventurer, he became a pivotal figure in the era later characterised as the "Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration", thanks to the laudable and ambitious . This is the latest accepted revision . But when ice trapped his ship Endurance, his mission instantly changed from exploration to pure survival. Shackleton and Scott stayed on friendly terms, at least until the publication of Scott's account of the southern journey in The Voyage of the Discovery. After a medical examination (which proved inconclusive),[34] Scott decided to send Shackleton home on the relief ship Morning, which had arrived in McMurdo Sound in January 1903. Although some of his former crew members had not received all their pay from the Endurance expedition, many of them signed on with their former "Boss". [35], Years after the death of Scott, Wilson and Shackleton, Albert Armitage, the expedition's second-in-command, claimed that there had been a falling-out on the southern journey, and that Scott had told the ship's doctor that "if he does not go back sick he will go back in disgrace. His people-centred approach to leadership can be a guide to anyone in a position of authority". Mackintosh, sailed in the Aurora and laid depots as far as latitude 8330 S for the use of the Trans-Antarctic party; three of this party died on the return journey. Unqualified as a diplomat, he was unsuccessful in persuading Argentina and Chile to enter the war on the Allied side. [129], Macklin, who conducted the postmortem, concluded that the cause of death was atheroma of the coronary arteries exacerbated by "overstrain during a period of debility". [131] Within a year the first biography, The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton, by Hugh Robert Mill, was published. (, Beardmore's help took the form of guaranteeing a loan at Clydesdale Bank, for 7,000 (2008 equivalent approx. Shackleton's first solo expedition [13] In August 1894, he passed his examination for second mate and accepted a post as third officer on a tramp steamer of the Welsh Shire Line. On the contrary, his heart belonged to this great continent, and in 1921 he decided to go back with the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition. [149] Shackleton has also been cited as a model leader by the US Navy, and in a textbook on Congressional leadership, Peter L Steinke calls Shackleton the archetype of the "nonanxious leader" whose "calm, reflective demeanor becomes the antibiotic warning of the toxicity of reactive behaviour". A supporting party, the Ross Sea party led by A.E. Led by explorer and environmental scientist Tim Jarvis, the team was assembled at the request of Alexandra Shackleton, Sir Ernest's granddaughter, who felt the trip would honour her grandfather's legacy. February 5, 2010, 10:09 AM. What did John King Davis do? The "Great Southern Journey",[54] as Frank Wild called it, began on 29 October 1908. In tribute to their achievement, he wrote: "I do not know how they did it, except that they had tothree men of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration with 50feet of rope between themand a carpenter's adze".[108]. In October 2015, Shackleton's decorations and medals were auctioned; the sale raised 585,000. Shackleton's original plans had envisaged using the old Discovery base in McMurdo Sound to launch his attempts on the South Pole and South Magnetic Pole. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton is best known as a polar explorer who was associated with four expeditions exploring Antarctica, particularly the Trans-Antarctic (Endurance) Expedition (191416) that he led, which, although unsuccessful, became famous as a tale of remarkable perseverance and survival. Partly this was in search of better professional prospects for the newly qualified doctor, but another factor may have been unease about their Anglo-Irish ancestry, following the assassination by Irish nationalists of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the British Chief Secretary for Ireland, in 1882. They found that the Barrier Inlet had expanded to form a large bay, in which were hundreds of whales, which led to the immediate christening of the area as the Bay of Whales. He felt certain that others would soon succeed in reaching the South Pole where he had failed having come so close, and so looked to the next goal. As the ship moved southward navigating in ice, first-year ice was encountered, which slowed progress. His exertions in raising funds to finance his expeditions and the immense strain of the expeditions themselves were believed to have worn out his strength. In 1914, Shackleton set out from England to cross Antarctica on foot. [90], Until this point, Shackleton had hoped that the ship, when released from the ice, could work her way back towards Vahsel Bay. Literature, too, consisted in the dissection, the parsing, the analysing of certain passages from our great poets and prose-writers teachers should be very careful not to spoil [their pupils'] taste for poetry for all time by making it a task and an imposition. The attitudes of his men were a point of emphasis in leading his men back to safety. But he is best known for his heroic leadership after his ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice at the start of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17. To this end, he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 19141917. [10] He was schooled by a governess until the age of eleven, when he began at Fir Lodge Preparatory School in West Hill, Dulwich, in southeast London. [169], "Shackleton" redirects here. The expedition, prevented by ice from reaching the intended base site in Edward VII Peninsula, wintered on Ross Island, McMurdo Sound. 2d. [44] Shackleton by this time was making no secret of his ambition to return to Antarctica at the head of his own expedition. Educated at Dulwich College (188790), Shackleton entered the mercantile marine service in 1890 and became a sublieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1901. By early 1912, the world was aware that the pole had been conquered, by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. In 2002, in a BBC poll conducted to determine the "100 Greatest Britons", Shackleton was ranked 11th while Scott was down in 54th place. [79], His interviewing and selection methods sometimes seemed eccentric; believing that character and temperament were as important as technical ability,[80] he asked unconventional questions. [51], It was noted that ice conditions were unstable, precluding the establishment of a safe base there. In 1901 he got a place on Captain Robert Falcon Scott 's first Antarctic expedition. Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's century-old whisky has been retrieved. Before departing, Scott had been told that the expedition was not to stay a second winter, and Discovery . [27][28], The party set out on 2 November 1902. [82] Shackleton also loosened some traditional hierarchies to promote camaraderie, such as distributing the ship's chores equally among officers, scientists, and seamen. Norwegian-built three-master that was intended to take Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all, to the southernmost shore of Antarctica's adventuring was even then a thoroughly commercial effort . The ship, after a drift of many months, had returned to New Zealand. [110] The Yelcho took the crew first to Punta Arenas and after some days to Valparaiso in Chile where crowds warmly welcomed them back to civilisation. by Jessica Brain. On the return journey, Shackleton had by his own admission "broken down" and could no longer carry out his share of the work.[32]. He was sent home early due to bad health. Why is Shackleton a hero? [83] He ultimately selected a crew of 56, twenty-eight on each ship. [64][65] He was honoured by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him a gold medal; a proposal that the medal be smaller than that earlier awarded to Captain Scott was not acted on. Shackleton served in the British army during World War I and served as a military advisor in the multinational North Russia Expeditionary Force during the Russian Civil War. Under treacherous conditions, Shackleton's perilous journey and the subsequent rescue of all his men remains one of the most heroic stories of all time. [48], On 1 January 1908, the Nimrod set off on the British Antarctic Expedition from Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand. [11], Shackleton's restlessness at school was such that he was allowed to leave at 16 and go to sea. [19], Although Discovery was not a Royal Navy unit, Scott required the crew, officers and scientific staff to submit to the conditions of the Naval Discipline Act, and the ship and expedition were run on Royal Navy lines. The wreck of Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, the ship at the heart of one of the world's greatest survival stories, was discovered in the seas off Antarctica this week, more than a century after it was crushed by pack ice and sank. (Ernest Shackleton) (Perce Blackborow) Suggested answers: Shackleton:"Shackleton turned me down because he thought I was too young and wasn't qualified." From the sentence we can infer that Shackleton was a responsible leader.Obviously he really needed people to work for him,but the expedition was very . Sir Ernest Shackleton, the intrepid explorer, is best remembered for embarking on a fateful voyage aboard the Endurance in a bid to cross the Antarctic. Consequently, Shackleton decided to risk an open-boat journey to the 720-nautical-mile-distant South Georgia whaling stations, where he knew help was available. Shackleton suffered frostbitten fingers as a result. He was forced to make an 800-mile open boat journey, then cross the island of South Georgia, before the ship's crew could be rescued. At the same time, attitudes towards Scott were gradually changing as a more critical note was sounded in the literature, culminating in Roland Huntford's 1979 treatment of him in his dual biography Scott and Amundsen, described by Barczewski as a "devastating attack". Victoria Land plateau was claimed for the British crown, and the expedition was responsible for the first ascent of Mount Erebus. Shackleton began planning his next journey to Antarctica almost as soon as he returned from the Nimrod expedition of 1907 - 1909. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO OBE FRGS FRSGS (15 February 1874 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. [86][87], Endurance departed from South Georgia for the Weddell Sea on 5 December, heading for Vahsel Bay. What did Ernest Shackleton accomplish on his expedition to Antarctica? 2 min read. The great polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton never achieved his goal of traversing the continent of Antarctica, but is remembered these days for something more extraordinary. At the age of thirteen, he entered Dulwich College. What is Ernest Shackleton best known for? Shackleton's . The third option was chosen. [6] Ernest was the second of their ten children and the first of two sons; the second, Frank, achieved notoriety as a suspect, later exonerated, in the 1907 theft of the so-called Irish Crown Jewels, which have never been recovered. [101] The strongest of the tiny 20-foot (6.1m) lifeboats, christened James Caird after the expedition's chief sponsor, was chosen for the trip. At 47 years old, Shackleton was on his fourth journey to Antarctica, and the third he had led. [136] Lady Shackleton survived her husband by 14 years, dying in 1936. [16][17] Although officially on leave from Union-Castle, this was in fact the end of Shackleton's Merchant Navy service. 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why did ernest shackleton go to antarctica