Large Fierce Mammal

A True Leader, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874 – 1922) turned the failure of his Antarctic expedition into a resounding success by bringing every one of his stranded men home alive. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In his 9 December 2014 article, How Ernest Shackleton can help world address climate change, Paul Kennedy wrote:

A hundred years ago, Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton failed — in absolutely spectacular fashion. But some believe the way he turned failure into a historic triumph is inspiration for world leaders dealing with the crisis of climate change.

“Shackleton inspires us to look deep inside ourselves to see if we have the right, bright stuff to navigate the risks of climate disruption,” says Dr. Joe MacInnis.

The physician is an expert on leadership in high-risk environments, and a deep-sea explorer — he was the first person to dive under the North Pole and he accompanied James Cameron on his mission to plumb the depths of the Mariana Trench. Dr. MacInnis visited Shackleton’s grave recently on a pilgrimage to South Georgia Island aboard the National Geographic ship Explorer, along with a group of botanists, ecologists and scientists from around the world. ~ Paul Kennedy, How Ernest Shackleton can help world address climate change

Of Shackleton and his Leadership methods, he goes on to say:

Five thousand British adventurers applied to be part of the expedition. Those who went were selected based on somewhat unorthodox criteria. Meteorologist Leonard Hussey was known to play a mean banjo, for example. Physicist Reginald James was chosen partly because he could sing.

Choosing a team with diverse skills to meet unexpected challenges and pressures was part of the brilliance of Shackleton’s leadership.

On Jan. 19, 1915, those skills were called into play when their ship, Endurance, became trapped by ice. Ten months later, the ice crushed the wooden hull of the vessel and the men watched as it sank into the frozen ocean.

Under Shackleton’s guidance, the men built a camp and spent the next five months drifting on the ice of the Weddell Sea. Finally, they made their way to Elephant Island.

Knowing they had to find help, Shackleton came up with an audacious plan. He refitted a lifeboat and set out with a handful of specially selected men in a desperate attempt to reach a whaling station on South Georgia Island, more than 1,000 km away across one of the world’s roughest stretches of ocean.

For 15 days they faced the ugliest of weather and violent seas in a tiny boat. A 500-tonne steamer, bound from Buenos Aires for South Georgia, went down in the same hurricane-force winds.

Miraculously, Shackleton and his men made it. They found tiny South Georgia Island, a feat in itself, and walked 56 kilometres across its uncharted mountains and glaciers to reach the station.

Shackleton commandeered a whaling vessel to pick up the rest of his expedition from Elephant Island in Antarctica. He ultimately turned the dismal failure of losing his ship into a resounding success by rescuing every one of his stranded men.

As this series goes forward, I will have more to say about the Leadership lessons taught by the Goode Sir Ernest, but in the mean time, invite you all to listen to the CBC Ideas Broadcast, Shackleton’s Grave. Oh, and keep notes, because Nature may be administering a test when, or possibly before, we’re done here.

So waste no time settling back and clicking here to soak it all in.