Courageous, resilient, and an incredible leader. Ernest Shackleton was an Antarctic explorer who never gave up in the face of adversity.
In this episode, we'll be talking about the Endurance expedition, the challenges he and his crew faced, and their extraordinary feats of survival in one of the harshest environments on Earth.
[00:00:00] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about an explorer called Ernest Shackleton and his quest to cross Antarctica.
[00:00:30] It is one of history’s greatest stories of exploration, resilience, courage, and leadership, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.
[00:00:38] It's also a member request, so Daniel from Spain, thank you for this excellent suggestion; this one's for you. OK then, Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic Explorer.
[00:00:52] On April the 23rd 1916, a 42-year-old man picked up a pencil, his hands shaking in the sub zero temperatures.
[00:01:04] He managed to write the following words to his right-hand man, Frank Wild.
[00:01:10] Dear Sir,
[00:01:11] In the event of my not surviving the boat journey to South Georgia you will do your best for the rescue of the party. You are in full command from the time the boat leaves this island. You can convey my love to my people and say I tried my best.
[00:01:30] This man had spent the past five months floating on the freezing ice, literally going with the flow, trapped in one of the most hostile climates on Earth and with no way of communicating with the outside world.
[00:01:47] The following morning he and five companions would clamber into a small open boat and attempt a 1,300 kilometre journey across one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world.
[00:02:03] The man with the pencil was Ernest Shackleton, and although he failed in his original mission, and would never claim the title of Antarctic record holder, he will forever be remembered as one of the greatest, if not the greatest explorers.
[00:02:22] Before we get into his story specifically, let me give you some background about the period in which Shackleton lived and explored.
[00:02:32] This would be dubbed “The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”, and the title does a pretty good job of describing what it was all about. This period took place from 1897 to 1922, and involved 16 major expeditions with parties from 8 different countries.
[00:02:54] By the end of the 19th century, much of the world had been charted, mapped, explorers had been there, put down flags and claimed territory for their country.
[00:03:06] But there were two sizable areas of the world that hadn’t been explored: the North and South Poles. Astronomers and mathematicians had known about their existence, they had known of the magnetic north and south poles, but nobody had ever been there.
[00:03:27] A famous Norwegian explorer called Roald Amundsen dreamed of being the first person to travel to the North Pole, and started making preparations for an epic voyage in 1909.
[00:03:40] His plans were thwarted, however, when he discovered that a pair of American explorers, Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had claimed to have reached the North Pole. There was no glory in being the second explorer to get there, so he changed his plans.
[00:03:59] His crew had been told that they were going to the North Pole, but when they were about to leave the port of Madeira, off Portugal, thinking that they were heading north, he informed them that they were going somewhere else.
[00:04:13] He turned the ship southwards, and headed for Antarctica, looking to claim the South Pole for himself.
[00:04:21] At the same time as this, a rival British party led by a man called Captain Robert Falcon Scott was also heading to Antarctica, and this would be a competition the newspapers dubbed “The Race to The Pole”.
[00:04:36] Now, this is a story for another day, but to keep it brief, Amundsen won the race, and at around 3 pm on the 14th of December 1911, Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole and raised the Norwegian flag.
[00:04:54] Scott and the British would reach the pole 23 days afterwards, and would be distraught to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegians.
[00:05:04] And tragically, all five members of the British expedition died as they attempted to trace their path back.
[00:05:13] This wasn’t, of course, the first attempt to reach The South Pole.
[00:05:17] In fact, the subject of this episode, Ernest Shackleton had attempted to do this in 1909.
[00:05:26] He managed to get within 150 kilometres of the South Pole, but ultimately had to turn around as his party ran out of supplies. Had they continued to the South Pole, Shackleton knew that his men would all have perished of starvation on their return, so he made the decision to abandon the expedition.
[00:05:48] He did make some very useful geographical discoveries though, and these would be used by Amundsen and Scott a couple of years later.
[00:05:57] And, amazingly enough, there is even a real recording of Shackleton talking about this expedition. He made it on the Edison phonograph recorder, and it’s from 1910, so that explains the quality, but here is a clip from a real-life recording of Ernest Shackleton:
[00:06:17] We reached a point within 97 geographical miles of the South Pole. The only thing that stopped us from reaching the actual point was the lack of 50 pounds of food. Another party reached for the first time the south magnetic pole.
[00:06:39] Another party reached the summit of a great act of volcano, Mount Erebus.
[00:06:44] I Ernest Shackleton have today March the 30th dictated this record.
[00:06:53] Wonderful, right?
[00:06:56] Now, we must move on a few years to 1913. Both the North and South Poles have been claimed, and Shackleton is itchy for his own adventure. One thing that nobody has yet done is cross the Antarctic. Amundsen reached the South Pole, but he turned back and pretty much traced his footsteps, taking the same route back.
[00:07:22] Shackleton decides that he wants to get his own record, and starts preparing for what he would call “the last great Polar journey”. He estimates that he will need to raise £50,000 for the trip, which is around five million Euros in today’s money.
[00:07:41] Amongst other things, he needs men, so he puts out a job advert, which reportedly read "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."
[00:08:03] I should say that no evidence of this original advert exists today, but whatever the text did say, it clearly had the intended effect.
[00:08:12] Shackleton received 5,000 applicants. 56 men were chosen.
[00:08:18] “The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition” was born.
[00:08:23] His plan went as follows. The party would be split into two groups, and approach Antarctica from different sides.
[00:08:32] One group, led by Shackleton, would sail through the Weddell Sea, which is the freezing sea close to the tip of South America.
[00:08:42] They would land on Antarctica, and Shackleton and a group of 6 men would make the almost 3,000 kilometre journey on foot first to the South Pole and then continue to the other side of the continent, opposite New Zealand.
[00:08:59] Meanwhile the other half of the expedition would have set sail from New Zealand, landed on the other side of Antarctica and left supplies for the group that had made the crossing.
[00:09:12] Remember, the reason that Shackleton had to turn back in 1909, after he got so close, was because he knew he would have run out of supplies and his men would have starved. He didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
[00:09:27] Shackleton set off from England in a ship appropriately called Endurance on August 1st, 1914. It would take them almost two months to get to their first “pit stop”, the island of south Georgia, the relatively large island about one and a half thousand kilometres away from the tip of Antarctica. Shackleton and his crew stopped at the island for several days to make their last preparations before continuing their journey to the bottom of the world.
[00:09:58] They were advised to wait a little longer; the whalers on the island told him that it was particularly bad weather, and thick ice flows were blocking the sea.
[00:10:10] This advice was not heeded; it was ignored.
[00:10:15] And on December 5th 1914, the ship set off, with Antarctica in its sights.
[00:10:24] Now, Antarctica is “only” one and a half thousand kilometres away from the island of South Georgia. But the part of Antarctica that Shackleton was aiming for was significantly further than this; it was more like two and a half thousand kilometres away.
[00:10:40] Shackleton’s idea was to sail for as far as he could, so that he and his men would minimise the part of the journey they needed to make on foot.
[00:10:50] It was a good idea in theory, but this theory soon came up against reality.
[00:10:58] The whalers were right.
[00:11:00] Just two days after setting sail, the crew of the Endurance looked ahead of them and saw that the sea was covered in pack ice, pieces of thick ice that blocked its path.
[00:11:15] The ship continued southwards, but progress was painfully slow. The ice blocked them at every path, and what’s more, it was closing in around them. By mid February the ship was essentially stuck in the ice, unable to move. Shackleton had ordered his men off the ship with their pickaxes and shovels in an attempt to break through, but their efforts proved futile. The Endurance was stuck, now at the mercy of the flows of the seas, only able to move with the pack ice.
[00:11:53] And winter was rapidly approaching. As a reminder, May to September are the coldest months in Antarctica, and Shackleton and The Endurance were facing down the possibility of an Antarctic winter trapped, alone, on the icy sea.
[00:12:13] Now, it’s worth spending a minute to talk about what the Endurance was, and what it had on it, because this really gives you some sense of what Shackleton and his crew had to live through.
[00:12:25] The Endurance itself was a sailing boat made out of wood. Yes, it was magnificent, and designed for these kinds of expeditions. And yes it did have an engine, but this was a basic coal-powered engine that was intended as a backup, rather than its main power source. It was a wooden sailing boat, essentially.
[00:12:48] The team did have a wireless system, a radio, but by the time they were stuck in the ice, they were too far out of range for it to be used.
[00:12:59] And alongside the crew, there were 69 dogs, two sledges, and enough food, drink and fuel to keep them going for a year or so.
[00:13:09] They were well-supplied, but they were trapped, helpless, unable to do anything.
[00:13:16] What’s more, as the temperature continued to drop and the ice continued to tighten around them, it seemed like they might have bigger problems to contend with.
[00:13:28] On July 14th, in the depths of winter, the crew heard an almighty crack coming from the bottom of the ship. Shackleton, already keenly aware that his crew’s morale was lagging, tried to pass it off as a whale.
[00:13:46] But on closer inspection, it was clear that the thick pack ice was crushing the ship, and freezing water started to seep into her hull, into the body of the ship.
[00:14:00] It took a while, but by October, after having managed to keep his crew alive through the entire Antarctic winter, Shackleton realised that the ship needed to be abandoned. It had been crushed so badly that it was a matter of time before it sank to the bottom.
[00:14:20] On October 27th 1915, the crew bid farewell to the Endurance; they abandoned the ship, and took their chances with the floating pack ice. They would later recall that they gathered together to eat their last meal in complete silence, as they contemplated what they were about to do.
[00:14:42] They now realised that they would need to call the ice home until it melted and there was a passage out, which was only likely to happen in several months' time.
[00:14:52] Still, they were better off on the ice than on the Endurance, which they watched slowly sink on November 21st, less than a month after abandoning it.
[00:15:04] The men would spend the rest of the year on the ice, and it wasn’t until April the following year, April 1916, that the ice started to melt sufficiently for there to be enough space for a boat to pass.
[00:15:19] The men set out in a small lifeboat on April 9th, aiming for the nearest land. It took a week, but they did arrive on “Elephant Island”, a remote ice-covered island just off the coast of Antarctica. It would be the first time that they had been on land for 497 days.
[00:15:42] They found a completely uninhabited island, well, uninhabited apart from the penguins. It was better than being stuck on the ice in the middle of the sea, but they were far from any form of human civilization. What’s more, Elephant Island wasn’t the kind of place that a ship would pass.
[00:16:03] Shackleton realised that if he wanted to get his men home alive, drastic measures would need to be taken.
[00:16:11] And so it was, on April 24th of 1916, that he decided to take five crew members and try to find help.
[00:16:21] The chosen destination was South Georgia, the island they had stopped off at on their outbound journey.
[00:16:28] But it was 1,300 kilometres away across an icy and incredibly dangerous sea.
[00:16:36] The vessel for this hazardous trip would be a lifeboat only 7 metres long.
[00:16:43] Shackleton ordered his men to pack supplies for only four weeks, reasoning that if they hadn’t found South Georgia in four weeks, well that would mean that they had died on the way. And besides, there were the men they left behind on Elephant Island to consider; they needed to eat too.
[00:17:03] As you heard at the start of the episode in the letter he wrote, he clearly thought it was unlikely he would succeed. Certainly, the odds were against him. It was very unlikely that anyone would survive that journey.
[00:17:17] The journey took 14 days. and was as difficult and hellish as you might have imagined. Huge waves, ferocious winds, minimal food, and the constant fear of being thrown into the icy water, which would result in almost-certain death.
[00:17:36] But they made it. They landed in South Georgia, however they landed on the uninhabited south side of the island. The whaling stations, where they could find other human beings who could help them, were all on the north side.
[00:17:54] By this time, three of the men were in terrible condition, incredibly ill.
[00:18:00] Shackleton told these three to stay put, to stay on the south side, while he and two of the crew would attempt the 40 kilometre trip on foot, over mountains, glaciers and frozen waterfalls.
[00:18:16] At 7am in the morning, after walking for 36 hours straight, they realised that they had made it. They made contact with a group of whalers, who didn’t initially recognise this trio of frostbitten, bearded and barely alive men.
[00:18:33] Yet there was no time to celebrate or relax; Shackleton's attention turned to saving the rest of his crew, which was split between the three sick men on the other side of South Georgia, and the majority of the crew which was still stuck 1,300 kilometres away on Elephant Island.
[00:18:52] On Elephant Island, with no sign of Shackleton, morale had reached an all-time low. The men had been eating penguins, but the penguins had gotten wise to this, and stopped coming ashore. What’s more, the pack ice was starting to close in around the island, and it looked like no ship would be able to reach them even if it tried.
[00:19:18] And then, as if by magic, on August 30th of 1916, a large ship appeared. It was Shackleton returning to save his crew.
[00:19:29] Miraculously, all of his men survived.
[00:19:34] The group on the other side of Antarctica, however, the group that had been tasked with leaving supplies for the explorers after they had reached the South Pole, they weren’t so lucky, losing three of their men. And this was all for nothing, essentially, as Shackleton’s crew never actually set foot on the Antarctic, in this expedition at least.
[00:19:56] Now, Shackleton ultimately failed to achieve his goal of crossing the Antarctic, and he would never reattempt it. But this expedition has gone down in history as one of the greatest, with Shackleton as a great explorer. He was calm under pressure, able to lead and inspire his crew under the most hellish of conditions.
[00:20:20] He was also incredibly loyal to his men. Not only did he always put himself in the greatest of danger, but he always prioritised the wellbeing of his crew. While some might have wanted to rest after spending 500 days trapped on the ice, Shackleton’s first priority was heading back out to sea to save his crew.
[00:20:44] He might not have claimed any Antarctic records for himself, but he will forever go down in history as one of the Antarctic’s greatest explorers.
[00:20:56] OK then, that is it for today's episode on this fantastic explorer, Ernest Shackleton.
[00:21:04] I should add that if you would like to learn more about this amazing journey, there are so many wonderful anecdotes and stories that we didn’t have the time to listen to today. He kept fantastic diary entries, so go and read up about it, it’s absolutely fascinating.
[00:21:19] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:21:23] Have you heard of Ernest Shackleton before?
[00:21:25] How does he rank on the charts of world’s greatest explorers?
[00:21:29] What other stories of exploration would you like to hear?
[00:21:33] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:21:36] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:21:44] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:21:49] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:00] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about an explorer called Ernest Shackleton and his quest to cross Antarctica.
[00:00:30] It is one of history’s greatest stories of exploration, resilience, courage, and leadership, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.
[00:00:38] It's also a member request, so Daniel from Spain, thank you for this excellent suggestion; this one's for you. OK then, Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic Explorer.
[00:00:52] On April the 23rd 1916, a 42-year-old man picked up a pencil, his hands shaking in the sub zero temperatures.
[00:01:04] He managed to write the following words to his right-hand man, Frank Wild.
[00:01:10] Dear Sir,
[00:01:11] In the event of my not surviving the boat journey to South Georgia you will do your best for the rescue of the party. You are in full command from the time the boat leaves this island. You can convey my love to my people and say I tried my best.
[00:01:30] This man had spent the past five months floating on the freezing ice, literally going with the flow, trapped in one of the most hostile climates on Earth and with no way of communicating with the outside world.
[00:01:47] The following morning he and five companions would clamber into a small open boat and attempt a 1,300 kilometre journey across one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world.
[00:02:03] The man with the pencil was Ernest Shackleton, and although he failed in his original mission, and would never claim the title of Antarctic record holder, he will forever be remembered as one of the greatest, if not the greatest explorers.
[00:02:22] Before we get into his story specifically, let me give you some background about the period in which Shackleton lived and explored.
[00:02:32] This would be dubbed “The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”, and the title does a pretty good job of describing what it was all about. This period took place from 1897 to 1922, and involved 16 major expeditions with parties from 8 different countries.
[00:02:54] By the end of the 19th century, much of the world had been charted, mapped, explorers had been there, put down flags and claimed territory for their country.
[00:03:06] But there were two sizable areas of the world that hadn’t been explored: the North and South Poles. Astronomers and mathematicians had known about their existence, they had known of the magnetic north and south poles, but nobody had ever been there.
[00:03:27] A famous Norwegian explorer called Roald Amundsen dreamed of being the first person to travel to the North Pole, and started making preparations for an epic voyage in 1909.
[00:03:40] His plans were thwarted, however, when he discovered that a pair of American explorers, Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had claimed to have reached the North Pole. There was no glory in being the second explorer to get there, so he changed his plans.
[00:03:59] His crew had been told that they were going to the North Pole, but when they were about to leave the port of Madeira, off Portugal, thinking that they were heading north, he informed them that they were going somewhere else.
[00:04:13] He turned the ship southwards, and headed for Antarctica, looking to claim the South Pole for himself.
[00:04:21] At the same time as this, a rival British party led by a man called Captain Robert Falcon Scott was also heading to Antarctica, and this would be a competition the newspapers dubbed “The Race to The Pole”.
[00:04:36] Now, this is a story for another day, but to keep it brief, Amundsen won the race, and at around 3 pm on the 14th of December 1911, Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole and raised the Norwegian flag.
[00:04:54] Scott and the British would reach the pole 23 days afterwards, and would be distraught to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegians.
[00:05:04] And tragically, all five members of the British expedition died as they attempted to trace their path back.
[00:05:13] This wasn’t, of course, the first attempt to reach The South Pole.
[00:05:17] In fact, the subject of this episode, Ernest Shackleton had attempted to do this in 1909.
[00:05:26] He managed to get within 150 kilometres of the South Pole, but ultimately had to turn around as his party ran out of supplies. Had they continued to the South Pole, Shackleton knew that his men would all have perished of starvation on their return, so he made the decision to abandon the expedition.
[00:05:48] He did make some very useful geographical discoveries though, and these would be used by Amundsen and Scott a couple of years later.
[00:05:57] And, amazingly enough, there is even a real recording of Shackleton talking about this expedition. He made it on the Edison phonograph recorder, and it’s from 1910, so that explains the quality, but here is a clip from a real-life recording of Ernest Shackleton:
[00:06:17] We reached a point within 97 geographical miles of the South Pole. The only thing that stopped us from reaching the actual point was the lack of 50 pounds of food. Another party reached for the first time the south magnetic pole.
[00:06:39] Another party reached the summit of a great act of volcano, Mount Erebus.
[00:06:44] I Ernest Shackleton have today March the 30th dictated this record.
[00:06:53] Wonderful, right?
[00:06:56] Now, we must move on a few years to 1913. Both the North and South Poles have been claimed, and Shackleton is itchy for his own adventure. One thing that nobody has yet done is cross the Antarctic. Amundsen reached the South Pole, but he turned back and pretty much traced his footsteps, taking the same route back.
[00:07:22] Shackleton decides that he wants to get his own record, and starts preparing for what he would call “the last great Polar journey”. He estimates that he will need to raise £50,000 for the trip, which is around five million Euros in today’s money.
[00:07:41] Amongst other things, he needs men, so he puts out a job advert, which reportedly read "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."
[00:08:03] I should say that no evidence of this original advert exists today, but whatever the text did say, it clearly had the intended effect.
[00:08:12] Shackleton received 5,000 applicants. 56 men were chosen.
[00:08:18] “The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition” was born.
[00:08:23] His plan went as follows. The party would be split into two groups, and approach Antarctica from different sides.
[00:08:32] One group, led by Shackleton, would sail through the Weddell Sea, which is the freezing sea close to the tip of South America.
[00:08:42] They would land on Antarctica, and Shackleton and a group of 6 men would make the almost 3,000 kilometre journey on foot first to the South Pole and then continue to the other side of the continent, opposite New Zealand.
[00:08:59] Meanwhile the other half of the expedition would have set sail from New Zealand, landed on the other side of Antarctica and left supplies for the group that had made the crossing.
[00:09:12] Remember, the reason that Shackleton had to turn back in 1909, after he got so close, was because he knew he would have run out of supplies and his men would have starved. He didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
[00:09:27] Shackleton set off from England in a ship appropriately called Endurance on August 1st, 1914. It would take them almost two months to get to their first “pit stop”, the island of south Georgia, the relatively large island about one and a half thousand kilometres away from the tip of Antarctica. Shackleton and his crew stopped at the island for several days to make their last preparations before continuing their journey to the bottom of the world.
[00:09:58] They were advised to wait a little longer; the whalers on the island told him that it was particularly bad weather, and thick ice flows were blocking the sea.
[00:10:10] This advice was not heeded; it was ignored.
[00:10:15] And on December 5th 1914, the ship set off, with Antarctica in its sights.
[00:10:24] Now, Antarctica is “only” one and a half thousand kilometres away from the island of South Georgia. But the part of Antarctica that Shackleton was aiming for was significantly further than this; it was more like two and a half thousand kilometres away.
[00:10:40] Shackleton’s idea was to sail for as far as he could, so that he and his men would minimise the part of the journey they needed to make on foot.
[00:10:50] It was a good idea in theory, but this theory soon came up against reality.
[00:10:58] The whalers were right.
[00:11:00] Just two days after setting sail, the crew of the Endurance looked ahead of them and saw that the sea was covered in pack ice, pieces of thick ice that blocked its path.
[00:11:15] The ship continued southwards, but progress was painfully slow. The ice blocked them at every path, and what’s more, it was closing in around them. By mid February the ship was essentially stuck in the ice, unable to move. Shackleton had ordered his men off the ship with their pickaxes and shovels in an attempt to break through, but their efforts proved futile. The Endurance was stuck, now at the mercy of the flows of the seas, only able to move with the pack ice.
[00:11:53] And winter was rapidly approaching. As a reminder, May to September are the coldest months in Antarctica, and Shackleton and The Endurance were facing down the possibility of an Antarctic winter trapped, alone, on the icy sea.
[00:12:13] Now, it’s worth spending a minute to talk about what the Endurance was, and what it had on it, because this really gives you some sense of what Shackleton and his crew had to live through.
[00:12:25] The Endurance itself was a sailing boat made out of wood. Yes, it was magnificent, and designed for these kinds of expeditions. And yes it did have an engine, but this was a basic coal-powered engine that was intended as a backup, rather than its main power source. It was a wooden sailing boat, essentially.
[00:12:48] The team did have a wireless system, a radio, but by the time they were stuck in the ice, they were too far out of range for it to be used.
[00:12:59] And alongside the crew, there were 69 dogs, two sledges, and enough food, drink and fuel to keep them going for a year or so.
[00:13:09] They were well-supplied, but they were trapped, helpless, unable to do anything.
[00:13:16] What’s more, as the temperature continued to drop and the ice continued to tighten around them, it seemed like they might have bigger problems to contend with.
[00:13:28] On July 14th, in the depths of winter, the crew heard an almighty crack coming from the bottom of the ship. Shackleton, already keenly aware that his crew’s morale was lagging, tried to pass it off as a whale.
[00:13:46] But on closer inspection, it was clear that the thick pack ice was crushing the ship, and freezing water started to seep into her hull, into the body of the ship.
[00:14:00] It took a while, but by October, after having managed to keep his crew alive through the entire Antarctic winter, Shackleton realised that the ship needed to be abandoned. It had been crushed so badly that it was a matter of time before it sank to the bottom.
[00:14:20] On October 27th 1915, the crew bid farewell to the Endurance; they abandoned the ship, and took their chances with the floating pack ice. They would later recall that they gathered together to eat their last meal in complete silence, as they contemplated what they were about to do.
[00:14:42] They now realised that they would need to call the ice home until it melted and there was a passage out, which was only likely to happen in several months' time.
[00:14:52] Still, they were better off on the ice than on the Endurance, which they watched slowly sink on November 21st, less than a month after abandoning it.
[00:15:04] The men would spend the rest of the year on the ice, and it wasn’t until April the following year, April 1916, that the ice started to melt sufficiently for there to be enough space for a boat to pass.
[00:15:19] The men set out in a small lifeboat on April 9th, aiming for the nearest land. It took a week, but they did arrive on “Elephant Island”, a remote ice-covered island just off the coast of Antarctica. It would be the first time that they had been on land for 497 days.
[00:15:42] They found a completely uninhabited island, well, uninhabited apart from the penguins. It was better than being stuck on the ice in the middle of the sea, but they were far from any form of human civilization. What’s more, Elephant Island wasn’t the kind of place that a ship would pass.
[00:16:03] Shackleton realised that if he wanted to get his men home alive, drastic measures would need to be taken.
[00:16:11] And so it was, on April 24th of 1916, that he decided to take five crew members and try to find help.
[00:16:21] The chosen destination was South Georgia, the island they had stopped off at on their outbound journey.
[00:16:28] But it was 1,300 kilometres away across an icy and incredibly dangerous sea.
[00:16:36] The vessel for this hazardous trip would be a lifeboat only 7 metres long.
[00:16:43] Shackleton ordered his men to pack supplies for only four weeks, reasoning that if they hadn’t found South Georgia in four weeks, well that would mean that they had died on the way. And besides, there were the men they left behind on Elephant Island to consider; they needed to eat too.
[00:17:03] As you heard at the start of the episode in the letter he wrote, he clearly thought it was unlikely he would succeed. Certainly, the odds were against him. It was very unlikely that anyone would survive that journey.
[00:17:17] The journey took 14 days. and was as difficult and hellish as you might have imagined. Huge waves, ferocious winds, minimal food, and the constant fear of being thrown into the icy water, which would result in almost-certain death.
[00:17:36] But they made it. They landed in South Georgia, however they landed on the uninhabited south side of the island. The whaling stations, where they could find other human beings who could help them, were all on the north side.
[00:17:54] By this time, three of the men were in terrible condition, incredibly ill.
[00:18:00] Shackleton told these three to stay put, to stay on the south side, while he and two of the crew would attempt the 40 kilometre trip on foot, over mountains, glaciers and frozen waterfalls.
[00:18:16] At 7am in the morning, after walking for 36 hours straight, they realised that they had made it. They made contact with a group of whalers, who didn’t initially recognise this trio of frostbitten, bearded and barely alive men.
[00:18:33] Yet there was no time to celebrate or relax; Shackleton's attention turned to saving the rest of his crew, which was split between the three sick men on the other side of South Georgia, and the majority of the crew which was still stuck 1,300 kilometres away on Elephant Island.
[00:18:52] On Elephant Island, with no sign of Shackleton, morale had reached an all-time low. The men had been eating penguins, but the penguins had gotten wise to this, and stopped coming ashore. What’s more, the pack ice was starting to close in around the island, and it looked like no ship would be able to reach them even if it tried.
[00:19:18] And then, as if by magic, on August 30th of 1916, a large ship appeared. It was Shackleton returning to save his crew.
[00:19:29] Miraculously, all of his men survived.
[00:19:34] The group on the other side of Antarctica, however, the group that had been tasked with leaving supplies for the explorers after they had reached the South Pole, they weren’t so lucky, losing three of their men. And this was all for nothing, essentially, as Shackleton’s crew never actually set foot on the Antarctic, in this expedition at least.
[00:19:56] Now, Shackleton ultimately failed to achieve his goal of crossing the Antarctic, and he would never reattempt it. But this expedition has gone down in history as one of the greatest, with Shackleton as a great explorer. He was calm under pressure, able to lead and inspire his crew under the most hellish of conditions.
[00:20:20] He was also incredibly loyal to his men. Not only did he always put himself in the greatest of danger, but he always prioritised the wellbeing of his crew. While some might have wanted to rest after spending 500 days trapped on the ice, Shackleton’s first priority was heading back out to sea to save his crew.
[00:20:44] He might not have claimed any Antarctic records for himself, but he will forever go down in history as one of the Antarctic’s greatest explorers.
[00:20:56] OK then, that is it for today's episode on this fantastic explorer, Ernest Shackleton.
[00:21:04] I should add that if you would like to learn more about this amazing journey, there are so many wonderful anecdotes and stories that we didn’t have the time to listen to today. He kept fantastic diary entries, so go and read up about it, it’s absolutely fascinating.
[00:21:19] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:21:23] Have you heard of Ernest Shackleton before?
[00:21:25] How does he rank on the charts of world’s greatest explorers?
[00:21:29] What other stories of exploration would you like to hear?
[00:21:33] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:21:36] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:21:44] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:21:49] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:00] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about an explorer called Ernest Shackleton and his quest to cross Antarctica.
[00:00:30] It is one of history’s greatest stories of exploration, resilience, courage, and leadership, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.
[00:00:38] It's also a member request, so Daniel from Spain, thank you for this excellent suggestion; this one's for you. OK then, Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic Explorer.
[00:00:52] On April the 23rd 1916, a 42-year-old man picked up a pencil, his hands shaking in the sub zero temperatures.
[00:01:04] He managed to write the following words to his right-hand man, Frank Wild.
[00:01:10] Dear Sir,
[00:01:11] In the event of my not surviving the boat journey to South Georgia you will do your best for the rescue of the party. You are in full command from the time the boat leaves this island. You can convey my love to my people and say I tried my best.
[00:01:30] This man had spent the past five months floating on the freezing ice, literally going with the flow, trapped in one of the most hostile climates on Earth and with no way of communicating with the outside world.
[00:01:47] The following morning he and five companions would clamber into a small open boat and attempt a 1,300 kilometre journey across one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world.
[00:02:03] The man with the pencil was Ernest Shackleton, and although he failed in his original mission, and would never claim the title of Antarctic record holder, he will forever be remembered as one of the greatest, if not the greatest explorers.
[00:02:22] Before we get into his story specifically, let me give you some background about the period in which Shackleton lived and explored.
[00:02:32] This would be dubbed “The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”, and the title does a pretty good job of describing what it was all about. This period took place from 1897 to 1922, and involved 16 major expeditions with parties from 8 different countries.
[00:02:54] By the end of the 19th century, much of the world had been charted, mapped, explorers had been there, put down flags and claimed territory for their country.
[00:03:06] But there were two sizable areas of the world that hadn’t been explored: the North and South Poles. Astronomers and mathematicians had known about their existence, they had known of the magnetic north and south poles, but nobody had ever been there.
[00:03:27] A famous Norwegian explorer called Roald Amundsen dreamed of being the first person to travel to the North Pole, and started making preparations for an epic voyage in 1909.
[00:03:40] His plans were thwarted, however, when he discovered that a pair of American explorers, Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had claimed to have reached the North Pole. There was no glory in being the second explorer to get there, so he changed his plans.
[00:03:59] His crew had been told that they were going to the North Pole, but when they were about to leave the port of Madeira, off Portugal, thinking that they were heading north, he informed them that they were going somewhere else.
[00:04:13] He turned the ship southwards, and headed for Antarctica, looking to claim the South Pole for himself.
[00:04:21] At the same time as this, a rival British party led by a man called Captain Robert Falcon Scott was also heading to Antarctica, and this would be a competition the newspapers dubbed “The Race to The Pole”.
[00:04:36] Now, this is a story for another day, but to keep it brief, Amundsen won the race, and at around 3 pm on the 14th of December 1911, Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole and raised the Norwegian flag.
[00:04:54] Scott and the British would reach the pole 23 days afterwards, and would be distraught to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegians.
[00:05:04] And tragically, all five members of the British expedition died as they attempted to trace their path back.
[00:05:13] This wasn’t, of course, the first attempt to reach The South Pole.
[00:05:17] In fact, the subject of this episode, Ernest Shackleton had attempted to do this in 1909.
[00:05:26] He managed to get within 150 kilometres of the South Pole, but ultimately had to turn around as his party ran out of supplies. Had they continued to the South Pole, Shackleton knew that his men would all have perished of starvation on their return, so he made the decision to abandon the expedition.
[00:05:48] He did make some very useful geographical discoveries though, and these would be used by Amundsen and Scott a couple of years later.
[00:05:57] And, amazingly enough, there is even a real recording of Shackleton talking about this expedition. He made it on the Edison phonograph recorder, and it’s from 1910, so that explains the quality, but here is a clip from a real-life recording of Ernest Shackleton:
[00:06:17] We reached a point within 97 geographical miles of the South Pole. The only thing that stopped us from reaching the actual point was the lack of 50 pounds of food. Another party reached for the first time the south magnetic pole.
[00:06:39] Another party reached the summit of a great act of volcano, Mount Erebus.
[00:06:44] I Ernest Shackleton have today March the 30th dictated this record.
[00:06:53] Wonderful, right?
[00:06:56] Now, we must move on a few years to 1913. Both the North and South Poles have been claimed, and Shackleton is itchy for his own adventure. One thing that nobody has yet done is cross the Antarctic. Amundsen reached the South Pole, but he turned back and pretty much traced his footsteps, taking the same route back.
[00:07:22] Shackleton decides that he wants to get his own record, and starts preparing for what he would call “the last great Polar journey”. He estimates that he will need to raise £50,000 for the trip, which is around five million Euros in today’s money.
[00:07:41] Amongst other things, he needs men, so he puts out a job advert, which reportedly read "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."
[00:08:03] I should say that no evidence of this original advert exists today, but whatever the text did say, it clearly had the intended effect.
[00:08:12] Shackleton received 5,000 applicants. 56 men were chosen.
[00:08:18] “The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition” was born.
[00:08:23] His plan went as follows. The party would be split into two groups, and approach Antarctica from different sides.
[00:08:32] One group, led by Shackleton, would sail through the Weddell Sea, which is the freezing sea close to the tip of South America.
[00:08:42] They would land on Antarctica, and Shackleton and a group of 6 men would make the almost 3,000 kilometre journey on foot first to the South Pole and then continue to the other side of the continent, opposite New Zealand.
[00:08:59] Meanwhile the other half of the expedition would have set sail from New Zealand, landed on the other side of Antarctica and left supplies for the group that had made the crossing.
[00:09:12] Remember, the reason that Shackleton had to turn back in 1909, after he got so close, was because he knew he would have run out of supplies and his men would have starved. He didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
[00:09:27] Shackleton set off from England in a ship appropriately called Endurance on August 1st, 1914. It would take them almost two months to get to their first “pit stop”, the island of south Georgia, the relatively large island about one and a half thousand kilometres away from the tip of Antarctica. Shackleton and his crew stopped at the island for several days to make their last preparations before continuing their journey to the bottom of the world.
[00:09:58] They were advised to wait a little longer; the whalers on the island told him that it was particularly bad weather, and thick ice flows were blocking the sea.
[00:10:10] This advice was not heeded; it was ignored.
[00:10:15] And on December 5th 1914, the ship set off, with Antarctica in its sights.
[00:10:24] Now, Antarctica is “only” one and a half thousand kilometres away from the island of South Georgia. But the part of Antarctica that Shackleton was aiming for was significantly further than this; it was more like two and a half thousand kilometres away.
[00:10:40] Shackleton’s idea was to sail for as far as he could, so that he and his men would minimise the part of the journey they needed to make on foot.
[00:10:50] It was a good idea in theory, but this theory soon came up against reality.
[00:10:58] The whalers were right.
[00:11:00] Just two days after setting sail, the crew of the Endurance looked ahead of them and saw that the sea was covered in pack ice, pieces of thick ice that blocked its path.
[00:11:15] The ship continued southwards, but progress was painfully slow. The ice blocked them at every path, and what’s more, it was closing in around them. By mid February the ship was essentially stuck in the ice, unable to move. Shackleton had ordered his men off the ship with their pickaxes and shovels in an attempt to break through, but their efforts proved futile. The Endurance was stuck, now at the mercy of the flows of the seas, only able to move with the pack ice.
[00:11:53] And winter was rapidly approaching. As a reminder, May to September are the coldest months in Antarctica, and Shackleton and The Endurance were facing down the possibility of an Antarctic winter trapped, alone, on the icy sea.
[00:12:13] Now, it’s worth spending a minute to talk about what the Endurance was, and what it had on it, because this really gives you some sense of what Shackleton and his crew had to live through.
[00:12:25] The Endurance itself was a sailing boat made out of wood. Yes, it was magnificent, and designed for these kinds of expeditions. And yes it did have an engine, but this was a basic coal-powered engine that was intended as a backup, rather than its main power source. It was a wooden sailing boat, essentially.
[00:12:48] The team did have a wireless system, a radio, but by the time they were stuck in the ice, they were too far out of range for it to be used.
[00:12:59] And alongside the crew, there were 69 dogs, two sledges, and enough food, drink and fuel to keep them going for a year or so.
[00:13:09] They were well-supplied, but they were trapped, helpless, unable to do anything.
[00:13:16] What’s more, as the temperature continued to drop and the ice continued to tighten around them, it seemed like they might have bigger problems to contend with.
[00:13:28] On July 14th, in the depths of winter, the crew heard an almighty crack coming from the bottom of the ship. Shackleton, already keenly aware that his crew’s morale was lagging, tried to pass it off as a whale.
[00:13:46] But on closer inspection, it was clear that the thick pack ice was crushing the ship, and freezing water started to seep into her hull, into the body of the ship.
[00:14:00] It took a while, but by October, after having managed to keep his crew alive through the entire Antarctic winter, Shackleton realised that the ship needed to be abandoned. It had been crushed so badly that it was a matter of time before it sank to the bottom.
[00:14:20] On October 27th 1915, the crew bid farewell to the Endurance; they abandoned the ship, and took their chances with the floating pack ice. They would later recall that they gathered together to eat their last meal in complete silence, as they contemplated what they were about to do.
[00:14:42] They now realised that they would need to call the ice home until it melted and there was a passage out, which was only likely to happen in several months' time.
[00:14:52] Still, they were better off on the ice than on the Endurance, which they watched slowly sink on November 21st, less than a month after abandoning it.
[00:15:04] The men would spend the rest of the year on the ice, and it wasn’t until April the following year, April 1916, that the ice started to melt sufficiently for there to be enough space for a boat to pass.
[00:15:19] The men set out in a small lifeboat on April 9th, aiming for the nearest land. It took a week, but they did arrive on “Elephant Island”, a remote ice-covered island just off the coast of Antarctica. It would be the first time that they had been on land for 497 days.
[00:15:42] They found a completely uninhabited island, well, uninhabited apart from the penguins. It was better than being stuck on the ice in the middle of the sea, but they were far from any form of human civilization. What’s more, Elephant Island wasn’t the kind of place that a ship would pass.
[00:16:03] Shackleton realised that if he wanted to get his men home alive, drastic measures would need to be taken.
[00:16:11] And so it was, on April 24th of 1916, that he decided to take five crew members and try to find help.
[00:16:21] The chosen destination was South Georgia, the island they had stopped off at on their outbound journey.
[00:16:28] But it was 1,300 kilometres away across an icy and incredibly dangerous sea.
[00:16:36] The vessel for this hazardous trip would be a lifeboat only 7 metres long.
[00:16:43] Shackleton ordered his men to pack supplies for only four weeks, reasoning that if they hadn’t found South Georgia in four weeks, well that would mean that they had died on the way. And besides, there were the men they left behind on Elephant Island to consider; they needed to eat too.
[00:17:03] As you heard at the start of the episode in the letter he wrote, he clearly thought it was unlikely he would succeed. Certainly, the odds were against him. It was very unlikely that anyone would survive that journey.
[00:17:17] The journey took 14 days. and was as difficult and hellish as you might have imagined. Huge waves, ferocious winds, minimal food, and the constant fear of being thrown into the icy water, which would result in almost-certain death.
[00:17:36] But they made it. They landed in South Georgia, however they landed on the uninhabited south side of the island. The whaling stations, where they could find other human beings who could help them, were all on the north side.
[00:17:54] By this time, three of the men were in terrible condition, incredibly ill.
[00:18:00] Shackleton told these three to stay put, to stay on the south side, while he and two of the crew would attempt the 40 kilometre trip on foot, over mountains, glaciers and frozen waterfalls.
[00:18:16] At 7am in the morning, after walking for 36 hours straight, they realised that they had made it. They made contact with a group of whalers, who didn’t initially recognise this trio of frostbitten, bearded and barely alive men.
[00:18:33] Yet there was no time to celebrate or relax; Shackleton's attention turned to saving the rest of his crew, which was split between the three sick men on the other side of South Georgia, and the majority of the crew which was still stuck 1,300 kilometres away on Elephant Island.
[00:18:52] On Elephant Island, with no sign of Shackleton, morale had reached an all-time low. The men had been eating penguins, but the penguins had gotten wise to this, and stopped coming ashore. What’s more, the pack ice was starting to close in around the island, and it looked like no ship would be able to reach them even if it tried.
[00:19:18] And then, as if by magic, on August 30th of 1916, a large ship appeared. It was Shackleton returning to save his crew.
[00:19:29] Miraculously, all of his men survived.
[00:19:34] The group on the other side of Antarctica, however, the group that had been tasked with leaving supplies for the explorers after they had reached the South Pole, they weren’t so lucky, losing three of their men. And this was all for nothing, essentially, as Shackleton’s crew never actually set foot on the Antarctic, in this expedition at least.
[00:19:56] Now, Shackleton ultimately failed to achieve his goal of crossing the Antarctic, and he would never reattempt it. But this expedition has gone down in history as one of the greatest, with Shackleton as a great explorer. He was calm under pressure, able to lead and inspire his crew under the most hellish of conditions.
[00:20:20] He was also incredibly loyal to his men. Not only did he always put himself in the greatest of danger, but he always prioritised the wellbeing of his crew. While some might have wanted to rest after spending 500 days trapped on the ice, Shackleton’s first priority was heading back out to sea to save his crew.
[00:20:44] He might not have claimed any Antarctic records for himself, but he will forever go down in history as one of the Antarctic’s greatest explorers.
[00:20:56] OK then, that is it for today's episode on this fantastic explorer, Ernest Shackleton.
[00:21:04] I should add that if you would like to learn more about this amazing journey, there are so many wonderful anecdotes and stories that we didn’t have the time to listen to today. He kept fantastic diary entries, so go and read up about it, it’s absolutely fascinating.
[00:21:19] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:21:23] Have you heard of Ernest Shackleton before?
[00:21:25] How does he rank on the charts of world’s greatest explorers?
[00:21:29] What other stories of exploration would you like to hear?
[00:21:33] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:21:36] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:21:44] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:21:49] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
