Three times, in vain, he challenged the pole
South. His ship was crushed by ice. He never gave up: sailing eight hundred miles on a seven-meter lifeboat in Antarctica, he rescued all 27 members of his crew. Let’s find out who the greatest explorer of all time is.
Give me Scott to lead a scientific expedition, Amundsen for a quick and effective raid, but if you are in adversity and see no way out get down on your knees and pray to God to send you Shackleton.” These words were spoken by Raymond Priestley, a British geologist, geographer and explorer who was also president of the Royal Geographical Society. Exaggerated? Not at all. Ernest Shackleton is, to this day, the epitome of the man capable of accomplishing the impossible.
FROM THE IRISH COUNTRYSIDE TO THE PACIFIC
Born in 1874 in Kilkea House, Ireland, Ernest Henry Shackleton at age 16 enlisted on a British merchant marine ship, fleeing the medical studies to which his father had directed him. Ten years of voyages between the Pacific and Indian Oceans ripened in him the conviction that the merchant marine was not adequate to fulfill his ambitions. The desire to attain fame and wealth then prompted him to pursue a career as an explorer, and to begin with he joined the Antarctic expedition organized by the Royal Geographical Society and led by Robert Falcon Scott, another sacred monster of pole exploration.
