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Ernest Shackleton's Quest for the South Pole

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Ernest Shackleton's Quest for the South Pole The Anatomy of Leadership ERNEST SHACKLETON’S QUEST FOR THE SOUTH POLE BY BRUCE SCHNEIDER, D.C. So read Sir Ernest Shakleton’s 1914 over the South Pole to the Ross Sea. It posting seeking a crew of men to join was a dangerous mission that held out him in a quest for his life-long dream: the possibility of rich scienti! c rewards an expedition in which he would and guaranteed high adventure. It was walk across the Antarctic continent the kind of quest that gives rise to the to traverse the South Pole. It would lifeblood of one who would sign up seem that few would answer the call. for such a journey and makes apparent Instead 5000 men applied. From these the restless spirit of the adventurer who applications Shackleton hand picked put out the call. “Sometimes I think a 27 member crew for a journey that I’m no good at anything,” Shackleton would ultimately prove to be a great confessed, “but being away in the testament to the strength of the human wilds.” spirit and to the leadership abilities of The journey began in August a man faced with near impossible odds 1914. Ernest Shackleton and his men for survival. embarked from Plymouth, England The South Pole had already been aboard The Endurance and landed at the discovered three years earlier by Grytviken whaling station in South Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Georgia, their last port of call. Local his party on December 14, 1911. seamen warned of unusually thick pack Shackleton had a more dazzling exploit ice that could trap the ship if the wind in mind. He and his crew would sail the and temperatures shifted suddenly. isolated waters of the Weddell Sea, land Shackleton patiently waited the month on Antarctica’s northwest shore and of November to see if conditions would travel with a sledging party 1500 miles change. They did not. Shackleton through unknown tundra, trekking was 40 years old and this was his last 38 Spizz Magazine Spizz Magazine 39 chance to achieve fame and fortune. On attitude even as his quest for the South expected to participate. Shackleton December 5, 1914 he commanded his Pole was in jeopardy. The Endurance worked side by side with the crew. crew to set sail on the uncharted waters was locked in the pack ice and drifting According to Peter Wordie, the son of of the Weddell Sea. Planning to take north, inching further each day from one of the crewmembers, “Shackleton, advantage of the Antarctic summer, the Antarctic continent. Spring was with his ability to join in made they headed south. seven months away. everybody feel that they were one. It On the third day they saw what While Shackleton’s optimism was a team and not a ‘them-and-us’ they were up against. Huge chunks of was steady he would act quickly and situation. He also communicated to his compacted pack ice stretched 1,000 forcefully when necessary. He would men that he put them above the object miles to the Antarctic continent. not tolerate bullying or dissent and he of the expedition. The object was great, They would attempt to sail through would stand up to anyone who would but they were more important.” As the shifting gaps of open water called challenge his authority. He would stop weeks unfolded and the days became leads. Captain Frank Worsely took on at nothing to reassert his command enveloped in perpetual darkness these the ice by “ramming” the floes with daily activities became indispensible for the ship’s bow splitting apart the pack Shackleton the crew’s survival. ice to create a path. The Endurance was The men were trapped on a designed to withstand this type of recognized that rotating island of ice for the months stress. Sometimes the ship’s progress idleness could easily of dark polar winter. The expedition was completely stopped by thick ! elds had brought 69 sled dogs aboard of ice. At other times the crew would lead to bickering, The Endurance intended to carry men sail through open waters. and supplies across the Antarctic After six weeks, when The Endurance depression and continent. The dogs now played was only 80 miles from the continent physical decay a different role. They became a field of heavy ice closed around companions for the men, lifting the ship. Using picks, axes, shovels during the long their spirits. Four puppies were and saws the crew tried to free the months they would born and were a source of constant ship from the ice. On February 14, entertainment. Soccer matches, 1915 temperatures dropped from 20 spend living on theatrical evenings, gramophone and degrees above zero to twenty below. the arctic ice. haircut sessions became an important The Endurance became trapped. For days distraction. At the same time supplies the men tried to liberate the ship from He established were dwindling and huge blocks the mounds of ice that held their ship daily routines in of ice encroached on The Endurance prisoner. The frozen tundra did not threatening to crush the ship. budge and The Endurance was con! ned which everyone Blizzards pelted The Endurance beyond redemption, too far at sea for and in time Shackleton saw that the radio contact. A month later after was expected to ship’s days were numbered. He told surveying the situation Shackleton participate. Captain Worsley: “It’s only a matter determined that they were “con! ned of time…what the ice gets, the ice for the winter.” According to the keeps.” In October, despite the men’s ship’s surgeon Alexander Macklin, when necessary. Shackleton was a attempts to save the ship, it was clear “Shackleton did not rage at all or show multidimensional man sometimes that The Endurance was going down. the slightest sign of disappointment. taking the helm to lead his men to Shackleton gave the order to abandon He told us simply and calmly that we safety, sometimes showing great ship. Supplies, including sleeping bags must winter in the pack. Never lost his compassion and kindness as a mother were limited. Temperatures reached optimism and prepared for the winter.” would nurture her child, sometimes minus 27 degrees below zero (Celsius). Optimism was at the core of taking the role of a coach pushing and Shackleon secretly arranged it so that Shackleton’s personality. It was a inspiring men to do their best. The men the inferior wool bags were given to quality he drew on often and it was did not always agree with Shackleton, him and his officers while the men an indispensible tool during the dark but the great respect they had for him below them in rank received the warm winter months ahead when the men was a key element in their ultimate fur bags. It would be the ! rst time of would succumb to restlessness, tedium, survival. many that Shackleton would make in! ghting and despair. Thomas Orde- Shackleton recognized that these kinds of sacri! ces for his men. Lees, a member of the crew noted idleness could easily lead to bickering, At times he would give up his own Shackleton’s “unfailing cheerfulness… depression and physical decay during food and water for a man in need. He never appears to be anything but the the long months they would spend On November 21, 1915 the polar ice acme of good humor and hopefulness.” living on the arctic ice. He established claimed The Endurance and ! nally the Shackleton maintained his positive daily routines in which everyone was ship sank deep into the cold waters of 40 Spizz Magazine Spizz Magazine 41 the Weddell Sea. The sailors had lost their home. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition as it was called was quashed by frozen blocks of ice. Along with it went Shackleton’s dream and this could have crushed him as well. Instead his mission changed to one in which he would apply his knowledge and experience “to secure the safety of the party.” The polar historian Roland Huntford observed that “polar exploration was littered with dead bodies… Bringing his men back alive became the only thing he cared about. That change from aiming to attain what you had set out, to extricating yourself from defeat is a strain that had broken many a man. It did not break Illatiun ditendenis raepuda doles moditatatur? Hillitis dusda Shackleton.” Nancy F. Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School. After writing a case study on Ernest Shackleton she commented in 2011, “I was struck by Shackleton’s ability to respond to constantly changing circumstances. When his expedition encountered serious trouble, he had to reinvent the team’s goals…This capacity is vital in our own time, when leaders must often change course midstream – jettisoning earlier standards of success and rede! ning their purposes and plans.” The ship’s photographer Frank Illatiun ditendenis raepuda doles moditatatur? Hillitis dusda Hurley clearly defined the crew’s situation: “We are dwelling on a colossal ice raft with but five feet of frozen water separating us from two thousand fathoms of ocean and drifting along under the caprices of wind and tide to who knows where.” The men set up Ocean Camp from materials scavenged from the sunken ship. Part of the ship’s boiler was used to build a stove, heated by penguin skin and seal blubber. The men spent their days hunting for food and fuel. As dif! cult as the conditions were, Shackleton faced a greater challenge than physical survival. Roland Huntford: “At every turn Shackleton’s enemy was not the ice, but it was his own people.
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