Monday, June 1, 2009
The Human Spirit's limitless bounds 2nd edition
Well, here is the second of three editions of the human spirit. Today I shall talk about the journey of Ernest Shackleton. Some of you may know him as the greatest explorer the world has ever known.
Born on 15th Feb 1874, he was the 2nd eldest of a family of ten. He gained his adventurous spirit after reading some imaginative stories. After a failed quest to reach the South Pole, being the ever optimist he was, he moved on to a greater goal, to cross the entire South Pole from sea to sea. He handpicked most of his crew for the journey using a poster bearing this message: 'Crew for dangerous expedition wanted, adventurous spirit required, safe return doubtful.' Under most circumstances, no one in their right mind would have thought that anyone would sign up but he believed and over 1000+ people singed up. Out of which only 26 were chosen. The journey began on board the ship Endurance. The crew after meeting Shackleton agreed that he was to be the boss being the most optimistic and the most empathetic. On route, the ship was caught in the fast freezing ice floe. The crew tried to dig their way out to no avail. Thus Shackleton ordered his men to stop all work and ordered the carpenter on board to fix the ship into living quarters. The idea was to wait for spring to arrive and let the ice melt. He calculated that they had enough rations to last a few months. In the mean time, he encouraged activities to save his men from boredom and worry. He was the man who always made sure that everyone is happy and safe with his optimistic approach. However, when spring came, the ice froze more and he gave the order to abandon ship as the ship was being crushed by the ice. He however, did bot lose hope and ordered them to set camp and wait. The crew was so infected by his strong determination and optimism that they all agreed instantly.
Long 2 months past before he finally gave order to let the row boats to take them out to sea. He was about to make an impossible journey. A harrowing row to the whaling station at South Georgia. After 5 long and hard days of rowing, Shackleton ordered his men to rest at Elephant Island seeing as how they were to tired. He however ask the carpenter, Harry McNish to strengthen their strongest row boat and enable it to be used as a mobile living quarters. He was about to attempt the impossible. He was going to row 800 miles to the Island of South Georgia on his own with 4 other men from his crew. After a long 2 weeks plus of hardship and obstacles, he finally spotted the coast of South Georgia. However, fierce hurricane winds prevented them from nearing the coast and the only hope was to ride out the storm and hope for the best. When the morning came, the landed on the beach but were on the wrong side of the island. Seeing his tired men, he ordered that they rest here and only Worsley and Crean to follow him on a treacherous trek across the uncharted and harsh interior of the island. Finally after 36 hours of non-stop trekking, the finally reached their destination to which Shackelton said : 'We finally made it!'
After resucing his crew on the other side of South Geogia, he made 3 failed attempts to save his crew on Elephant Island due to ice blockages. It was only on the fourth attempt did he succeed.
Throughout all these perils, Shackleton displayed enormous courage in decision making and displayed unbendable strong determination to keep his crew alive and to get out of the troubles. He also displayed a strong will to live on and a good sense of optimism that could infect all. He is a true case of the unshakable human spirit for how many can hold a crew together under the impossible conditions they face for a time of 18 months and enable all to come out alive? This is someone whom I think we all can take a lesson from. The moral I gather from this tale: Throughout all obstacles, be it possible or impossible, always look on the bright side and keep pushing to succeed and defy the odds!
Matthwe Lameketeer03 signing off: Are you a parking ticket? Cause I see 'fine' written al over you
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