124 



NATURE 



[JULV 26, 1923 



his future wife appears on the scene and stirs him 

 to an incentive which in his own words at the time 

 is expressed by the wish " to make a name for myself 

 and for her/' though as yet the sphere of fame liad not 

 been selected. 



The chance came with his appointment to the 

 Discovery expedition, and he seized it with both hands. 

 Though but a junior officer he was selected for the most 

 important journey, and under the hardest conditions 

 he learnt the manifold tricks of the sledger's trade. 

 How well he learnt them was to be seen some six 

 years later when he took his own expedition south 

 equipped with improvements on the Discovery arrange- 

 ments in every direction. Compared to his own 

 ventures, that of the National Antarctic Expedition 

 was perhaps a little rigid in character, a little complex 

 both in resources and aims, and a little embarrassed 

 by committee control from home. We find Shackleton 

 going to the opposite extreme in these matters, and 

 generally with success, but- we believe he had much 

 to thank his first polar school for, if it can be called 

 a school when all were learning and no one taught. 

 The apprenticeship to Antarctic service is followed 

 by shore jobs and a life varied in the extreme, a period 

 through which the biographer takes us most success- 

 fully and indeed humorously, concluding the first 

 part of the book with what must have been most 

 excellent training, Shackleton's unsuccessful candida- 

 ture for the general election of 1906. 



Then comes " Achievement," the thrilling story of 

 the multiple successes of his Nimrod expedition, a 

 story hitherto told only in Shackleton's own words 

 and therefore affording scope for the biographer to 

 add many new and personal notes which explain 

 actions formerly incomprehensible. Such, for example, 

 was his repeated endeavour to seek a base on King 

 Edward Land, not because his judgment selected it 

 but because of a compact with Scott. How heavily 

 this promise weighed upon him is seen in one of the 

 gems of the book, a quotation from his letter written 

 at the time of the decision — forced upon him by circum- 

 stances — to go back upon a promise which bound him 

 too hardly. The journeys that follow, the triumphs 

 of organisation and endurance which make up the 

 history of that expedition, are well and fairly told. 

 Records were broken in all directions, and from the 

 popular point of view it was indeed the achievement 

 of the whole career. From the point of view of the 

 student of character and of the discerning reader 

 of polar literature it was not the climax, which was 

 to come eight years later. Served by his great ability, 

 mental as well as physical, and aided by what he 

 himself liked to call his luck, but which was largely 

 his own foresight, he went magnificently far. ' Yet, 



NO. 2804, VOL. 112] 



in a sense, he went no farther than many another 

 great leader has gone, with a similar f/ortitude, that i 

 to say, to the limit of safety. To our mind the trm 

 ability of his leadership was not shown until he ha'' 

 gone farther than safety permitted and yet brougl 

 back his men in safety. None will dare belittle the 

 triumph, but we believe that posterity will regard th*- 

 management of the retreat of the Endurance part 

 as his masterpiece and not the attainment of the 

 heart of the Antarctic. 



In the chapters which follow, headed " Popularity 

 and " Unrest," the biographer records faithfully tlu 

 honours by kings and emperors, the triumphal progress 

 of lecture tours, and the ups and downs of precarious 

 finance. These things had to be recorded since they 

 were part of Shackleton's life, but one is impatient all 

 the time to get away from an atmosphere which never 

 really suited him however brilliantly he shone in it on 

 occasion. 



Then comes the third part of the book, " Bafflement," 

 a title true enough in a popular sense, for the rebuffs 

 of fate were now well-nigh continuous, but scarcely 

 comprehensive enough to indicate the real essence 

 of this period of his life, the paradox of lasting fame 

 arising from apparent failure. The stor>' of the 

 Endurance, already well, if tersely, told by Shackleton 

 himself, gains colour in the hands of this master of 

 narrative, and so too does our picture of the man, 

 always at his best when with his back to the wall. 

 Of polar travel it may be said more truly than of most 

 ventures that any fool can get into a tight place but 

 that it takes a man to get out of it again. Paraphras- 

 ing, we may say that most polar leaders have dared 

 to the utmost as Shackleton did, many have achieved 

 the utmost hmit of endurance as he did, but few 

 indeed have retreated in good order from an almost 

 hopeless position. One has only to read the long 

 list of ghastly retreats in polar history to imagine 

 what might have happened, and then to admire the 

 hand that grew firmer and the spirit that grew more 

 courageous as the outlook grew darker. The chapter 

 concluding the account of the Endurance expedition 

 would have been an artistic ending to the book had 

 it been possible. Not that great service was not yet 

 to come, but the story now becomes diffuse with the 

 welter of war, and the man is but one of many instead 

 of at the head of a few. The ston*- of the Quest 

 inconclusive so far as the man is concerned, and i> 

 brief. It shows Shackleton with the same extra- 

 ordinary capacity for organisation and the same 

 magnetic personality ensuring support from unexpected 

 quarters and rallying most diverse elements round him. 

 At the same time it shows his judgment somewhat 

 dimmed or perhaps merely harried by considerations 



