Ernest Shackleton
1874–1922 · Antarctic explorer who brought his whole crew home after the Endurance was crushed by ice.
Ernest Shackleton was born in Ireland and grew up in London. He joined Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition to Antarctica in 1901. On his own Nimrod expedition in 1907–1909 he came within about a hundred miles of the South Pole before turning back to save his men's lives, and he was knighted. In 1914 he set out to cross Antarctica on foot. His ship, Endurance, was trapped in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea and slowly crushed, sinking in November 1915. The twenty-eight men camped on the drifting ice for months, then sailed three small boats to bleak Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others then sailed the twenty-three-foot lifeboat James Caird about eight hundred miles across the stormy Southern Ocean to South Georgia, and crossed its unmapped mountains on foot to reach a whaling station. After several attempts he rescued all the men on Elephant Island in August 1916. Not one of the Endurance crew died. Shackleton died of a heart attack on South Georgia in 1922 at the start of another expedition and was buried there.
Faith: From a family of Quaker descent; his adult beliefs are not well documented. Source: Wikipedia
Key dates
- 1907–1909 Nimrod expedition comes within 100 miles of the Pole
- 1914 Endurance expedition sets out
- 1915 Endurance sinks
- 1916 James Caird voyage; all men rescued
- 1922 Dies on South Georgia
Fun facts
- After his men's ship was crushed by ice, they camped on the sea ice and then sailed lifeboats to Elephant Island and on to South Georgia. (Source: Ernest Shackleton (Wikipedia))
- His only comment to his wife about not reaching the South Pole was: 'a live donkey is better than a dead lion, isn't it?' (Source: Ernest Shackleton (Wikipedia))
Record-breaker
Firsts and records, worded as the sources give them ("first known", "at the time").
- On the Nimrod Expedition of 1907–1909, he and three companions set a new record for the farthest south anyone had reached, 88°23′ S, only about 112 miles from the South Pole. (Source: Ernest Shackleton (Wikipedia))
Read about them
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As a Bookshop.org affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases, which also support independent bookstores.
Grades 6–8
- Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2000; ISBN 9780375810497)
Bookshop.org · Amazon
Grades 9–12
- Endurance by Alfred Lansing (Basic Books, 2014; ISBN 9780465062881)
Bookshop.org · Amazon
More lives
Roald Amundsen · Amelia Earhart · Matthew Henson · Charles Lindbergh