The author of Scott and Amundsen now turns his attention to Robert
Scott's junior officer Ernest Shackleton. After being invalided out
of Scott's first polar expedition, Shackleton went on to become his
former superior's chief rival in British Antarctic exploration. His
story is filled with seething jealousies, unimaginable ineptitude,
chicanery and, as Huntford notes, a kind of "witless valour." With
its larger-than-life protagonist, globe-straddling action and
colorful cast of subsidiary' characters, this reads like a splendid
Victorian novel. Shackleton himself was a curious blend of bravery,
bellicosity and bunkum. If he was a rogue, as Scott insisted,
Shackelton's expedition of 1907-09 turned him into a national hero.
(He and three companions came within 97 miles of the South Pole,
closer than anyone had come before.) He was knighted by Edward VII,
adored by the British public. When Amundsen finally achieved the
Pole in 1912, however, it seemed that Shackleton's days as an
Antarctic explorer were over; the ultimate goal had been reached.
But graceful retirement and obscurity held no charm for the man. At
40, he set off on an abortive attempt to cross Antarctica by
sledge. Self-promotion? Probably. Whatever its purpose, the project
ended in tragedy and Shackleton was never taken quite so seriously
again. There followed a diplomatic mission to Buenos Aires during
which "Shack" contrived to offend everyone in sight. Then, a bit of
wheeling and dealing in Murmansk during the Bolshevik Revolution -
another fiasco; Lenin and Trotsky had other plans, it seems. Back
in England, a book of reminiscences, lecture dates, a failing
marriage, too many drinks and too-often-told anecdotes filled his
days. In 1921, in one last lunge for glory, Shackleton announced
plans "to circumnavigate the Antarctic continent." He died en route
- of heart failure. He was 47 years old. One of the book's
pervasive themes is the arrogance and insularity of British thought
during the Edwardian era. If these qualifies were responsible, as
Huntford contends, for Scott's death and the debacle of the
Titanic, they also lend an ironic air of sadness to Shackleton's
exploits. On nearly every page of this spellbinding narrative, the
reader is aware of the great shadows gathering in the twilight of
an empire. (Kirkus Reviews)
Ernest Shackleton was the quintessential Edwardian hero. A
contemporary - and adversary - of Scott, he sailed on the
'Discovery' expedition of 1900, and went on to mount three
expeditions of his own. Like Scott, he was a social adventurer;
snow and ice held no particular attraction, but the pursuit of
wealth, fame and power did. Yet Shackleton, and Anglo-Irishman who
left school at 16, needed status to raise money for his own
expeditions. At various times he was involved in journalism,
politics, manufacturing and City fortune-hunting - none of them
very effectively. A frustrated poet, he was never to be successful
with money, but he did succeed in marrying it. At his height he was
feted as a national hero, knighted by Edward VII, and granted
GBP20,000 by the government for achievements which were, and
remain, the very stuff of legend. But the world to which he
returned in 1917 after the sensational 'Endurance' expedition did
not seem to welcome surviving heroes. Poverty-stricken by the end
of the war, he had to pay off his debts through writing and endless
lecturing. He finally obtained funds for another expedition, but
dies of a heart attack, aged only 47, at it reached South Georgia.
General
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