144 



MATURE 



[February 2, 1922 



the end without giving in, and only last year he 

 refuted with the utmost indignation a published 

 statement that he had been dragged on a sledge, by 

 his comrades on that occasion. He was much dis- 

 tressed at the decision that he should return home 

 by the relief ship, and it may well be that this 

 fact was the germ of the determination to return 

 to the Antarctic with an expedition of his own. 

 Shackleton had more than recovered by the time 

 he reached England, and his health never gave way 

 again. 



In 1904 he became secretary of the Royal Scot- 

 tish Geographical Society and took up his residence 

 in Edinburgh after his marriage to Emily, daughter 

 of the late Mr. Charles Dorman. It is scarcely 

 too much to say that the breezy energy of the new 

 secretary electrified the society. Unheard-of innova- 

 tions were installed, unprecedented expenses under- 

 taken, and a harvest of new members justified every 

 reform. At the general election of 1906 he appeared 

 as the Unionist candidate for Dundee and conducted 

 a vivacious though unsuccessful campaign. 



After this, secretarial duties, proved too common- 

 place, and for a time Shackleton found a freer 

 vent for his energies in business life, taking part in 

 one of the great shipbuilding and engineering works 

 on the Clyde. But all the time unseen lines of 

 force were holding his ambition true to the south, 

 and silently but solidly he laid his plans. He 

 bought an old whaler, the Nimrod, raised a con- 

 siderable sum of money under his personal guar- 

 antee of repayment if the expedition proved a 

 success, and, profiting by the mistakes of the Dis- 

 covery expedition, he had all his provisions pre- 

 pared, packed, and stowed under his personal in- 

 spection. He had no committee and no orders, but 

 held himself free to carry out his own plans in his 

 own way at his own risk. He decided to base his 

 transport on ponies and motor haulage, methods 

 never used before in p>olar exploration, and 

 although the motor broke down at an early stage, 

 the ponies brought the expedition to a point on 

 the barrier beyond that reached in the Discovery 

 expedition, and but for the loss in a crevasse of 

 the last pony, the South Pole would have been 

 reached. An ascent to the plateau was found by 

 the Beardmore Glacier, and when it was clear that 

 the provisions could not carry the party all the way 

 and back, Shackleton turned in lat. 88° 23' S. 

 Had he pushed on for another day before turning 

 he would have met the fate which afterwards befell 

 Scott, and, indeed, he very narrowly missed it. 

 On this expedition there were many innovations in 

 food, in lighting, and for the first time it carried 

 a kinematograph into the polar regions. 



On his return in 1909' the recognition of the 

 epoch-making advances in methods and results was 

 widespread, if not universal, and the splendid 

 achievement of David and Mawson in reaching first 

 the summit of Mount Erebus and then the Magnetic 

 Pole, together with the biological, meteorological, 

 and geological work of all the parties, gave the 

 expedition, as a whole, high scientific value. 

 Shackleton received a shower of gold medals from 

 NO. 2727, VOL. 109] 



the geographical societies of the world and the 

 honour of knighthood. He passed a strenuous year 

 or two lecturing in Europe and America to pay off 

 the debts of the expedition and the expense of the 

 scientific reports. 



The attainment of the South Pole by Amundsen 

 and Scott in 191 2 turned Shackleton's attention to 

 the project of crossing the Antarctic continent by 

 landing on the shores of the Weddell Sea and 

 marching via the Pole to his old quarters on the 

 Ross Sea. Again his word was sufficient security 

 for the advance of funds, and again the plan was 

 his own. The war broke out after his start in the 

 first week of August, 1914, and he at once placed 

 ships, stores, and men at the disposal of the 

 Government for military service. The offer was 

 declined, and the expedition sailed. The Ross Sea 

 party carried out its programme and laid a chain 

 of depots from Macmurdo Strait to the Beardmore 

 Glacier, but the men were imprisoned at their winter 

 quarters by the drifting away of their ship, the 

 Aurora. Meanwhile, Shackleton, in the Endurance, 

 had carried the exploration of Coats Land farther 

 south than its discoverer, Bruce, or his German fol- 

 lower, Filchner; but just when a landmg _ was 

 almost in sight the ship was caught and drifted 

 northward fast in the ice step by step with the 

 Aurora on the other side of the world. 



The Endurance was crushed and sank, but 

 Shackleton and his party kept up their courage 

 through a dreadful year of inaction. Where reck- 

 less daring was the only course everyone knew that 

 he would dare all ; but it was a revelation to most of 

 us to find that when safety lay in caution he could 

 command the eager spirits of his companions to 

 patience. When a landing was made on Elephant 

 Island he at once decided to make for South Georgia, 

 800 miles away, in a little open boat with a few 

 volunteers, and seek help for the others, who 

 remained under the charge of Frank Wild. He 

 made the almost impossible voyage, well knowing 

 that if he survived and the party on Elephant Island 

 perished he would be charged with deserting them 

 and seeking his own safety, and to face this possi- 

 bility was a greater test of courage than the Southern 

 Ocean itself. He succeeded after three failures in 

 bringing every man who sailed in the Endurance 

 back alive to South America in August, 1916. 



Hurrying to New Zealand, he found that the 

 authorities who had repaired and equipped the 

 Aurora to rescue his Ross Island party refused to 

 allow him to take charge of his own ship to look for 

 his own men ; but he felt his responsibility so keenly 

 that with an almost unbelievable magnanimity he 

 accepted the situation and shipped as a common 

 sailor on the relief voyage. Never was a case where 

 failure was so nobly retrieved, and the failure had 

 occurred only because the forces of Nature are 

 stronger than the resources of the most heroic man. 



For two years Shackleton served in the army as 

 officer in charge of the supplies for the British force 

 (^erating in the White Sea and Northern Russia. 

 Then for another feverish spell he threw all his 

 energies into lecturing on his last expedition to enable 



