Shackleton

We watched a documentary about the expedition last night. I was struck for the first time by the parallels with Apollo 13: A near disaster from which they recovered only through ingenuity and endurance (the ship was aptly named).

I only mentioned him in the book in terms of the probably apocryphal ad in the Times of London. If I ever do a new edition, I’ll probably talk more about that, as I did with Magellan.

7 thoughts on “Shackleton”

  1. Roland Huntford has a couple of books about that era of Antarctic exploration that were also made into docudrama TV series. One is about Shackleton and the other about the 1911 Scott expedition. Both series are excellent. What struck me was the stark contrast in the leadership styles of the two men. Both made mistakes, but Shackleton didn’t blame anyone else to any misfortune. He also brought all his men home. Scott, on the other hand had “Major Frank Burns Disease”. Anything bad that happened was either God’s will or somebody else’s fault. Neither man was as capable as Amundsen, but as a leader, I think Shackleton was the best.

  2. I think the Shackleton expedition’s experience provides a good reason to fly penguins into space along with the astronauts. We all want to see penguins fly, which, by my quick aeronautical calculations based on wing loading, should become possible at about 1/10th G.

    The question is what would people like Lovell, Haise, and Swigert would do in a crisis.

    *goes and check’s Jay Lovell’s dinner menu*

    I suggest:

    Penguin Salad with Fresh Lime & Dijon
    Smoked Penguin w/ Espresso BBQ
    Fried Penguin Sandwich w/1000 Island on Grilled Rye.

  3. Shackleton is proof that some diety watches out for fools… Even for the age he was woefully unprepared for his trip, that he survived – endured despite it is even more remarkable.

    But divine intervention is not a good plan for exploration…

  4. Flight-ER-Doc: Deity. For a moment, I thought you were commenting on George Turner’s diet suggestions.

  5. I read the Lansing book: “Endurance”

    The don’t give up attitude of the survivors was astonishing. Nothing was easy…every step had setbacks…yet they kept on.

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