The expeditions of Ernest Shackleton pushed the limits of human endurance to their peak.
Ernest Henry Shackleton was born on February 15, 1874, in County Kildare, Ireland, where his father was a doctor.
Instead of following in his father’s footsteps, Shackleton joined the merchant navy at 16-years-old.
1901 – The First Expedition
In 1901, Shackleton was chosen to go on the Antarctic expedition led by British naval officer Robert Falcon Scott – Britain’s other Antarctic hero – on the ship Discovery.
Shackleton and Scott trekked towards the South Pole, which had yet to be reached by humans, in extremely difficult conditions.
They got closer than anyone had come before, but Shackleton fell seriously ill and had to return home.
Although he’d been sent home from the trip due to ill health, Shackleton vowed to return to the Antarctic and prove himself as a polar explorer.
1908 – The Second Expedition
In 1908, Shackleton returned to the Antarctic, leading his own expedition on the ship Nimrod, thanks to the backing of various wealthy sponsors.
The expedition made many important scientific discoveries and set a record by coming even closer to the South Pole than before.
The success of the expedition earned Shackleton a knighthood on his return to Britain.
1914 – The Third Expedition
Shackleton made his third trip to the Antarctic with the Endurance in 1914, an expedition that has acquired epic status.
The plan was to cross Antarctica via the South Pole but in 1915, Endurance became trapped in the ice (and eventually sank in November 1915).
Before it sank, the ship sat atop the ice, while Shackleton and his crew of 27 men camped beside it for months, before escaping to Elephant Island.
In April 1916, smaller reinforced lifeboats called the Stancomb Wills and the Dudley Docker set sail for Elephant Island, an ice-covered mountainous outpost.
From there, six crew members including Shackleton and the captain of the Endurance, Frank Worsley, planned to sail to South Georgia to get help.
They used a lifeboat named the James Caird which they adapted for the 800 mile journey across the treacherous seas of the South Atlantic.
While they managed to reach the island – despite a generous margin for error – they were forced to abandon the boat and trek to the main town to get help.
In August 1916, Sir Ernest rescued the remaining 22 men left on Elephant Island – it had been 24 months and 22 days since leaving England.
1922 – The Fourth Expedition
Once World War I was over, Shackleton organised another expedition, which aimed to circumnavigate the Antarctic continent.
On January 4, 1922, Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Quest, finally reached South Georgia, an ice-capped island in the South Atlantic Ocean.
But on January 5, 1922, he died of a heart attack off South Georgia and was buried on the island.
