Shackleton Leadership in Crisis
Leadership in Crisis
Ernest Shackleton and the Epic Voyage of the Endurance
aFriendInNeed
Situation Overview:
Shackleton sailed with 27 men from South Georgia Island on a British Polar expedition into South Atlantic aboard the ship called Endurance. The south pole had been recently reached in 1911. The goal of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was to become the first explorers to land on the Antarctic continent as well as cross it. The original plan was to sail Endurance through the Weddell Sea and then use dogs and sledges to support the crew of six men to march on the opposite side of Antarctica.
However, their ship became trapped in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea, before they could reach the Antarctic coast. For more than eight months, they drifted helplessly with the ocean currents that carried them to over 670 miles north. Attempts were made to free the ship at times when cracks appeared in the ice nearby, but it was of no avail. The ice around the ship was thick and solid. The wooden timbers of the Endurance, unable to withstand the pressure from the ice, eventually gave up, and massive plates of ice crushed it. Shackleton ordered his members of the expedition to take shelter on the ice floes surrounding the ship. They were able to retrieve three lifeboats and as many provisions and supplies as they could from the ship wreckage before it sank.
For the next six months, the floating ice became the crew's home. They were now isolated on the drifting pack ice with limited supplies. They were miles away from land, without any ship or mode of communication with the outside world. With food supplies dwindling, the men hunted seals and penguins for fresh meat. They had initially hoped that the ocean currents would carry the ice floe towards land, but as soon as spring started, the ice started to break up. Shackleton realized that they would have to attempt to reach one of the nearby small islands off the Antarctic coast. They battled
Ernest Shackleton and the Epic Voyage of the Endurance
aFriendInNeed
Situation Overview:
Shackleton sailed with 27 men from South Georgia Island on a British Polar expedition into South Atlantic aboard the ship called Endurance. The south pole had been recently reached in 1911. The goal of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was to become the first explorers to land on the Antarctic continent as well as cross it. The original plan was to sail Endurance through the Weddell Sea and then use dogs and sledges to support the crew of six men to march on the opposite side of Antarctica.
However, their ship became trapped in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea, before they could reach the Antarctic coast. For more than eight months, they drifted helplessly with the ocean currents that carried them to over 670 miles north. Attempts were made to free the ship at times when cracks appeared in the ice nearby, but it was of no avail. The ice around the ship was thick and solid. The wooden timbers of the Endurance, unable to withstand the pressure from the ice, eventually gave up, and massive plates of ice crushed it. Shackleton ordered his members of the expedition to take shelter on the ice floes surrounding the ship. They were able to retrieve three lifeboats and as many provisions and supplies as they could from the ship wreckage before it sank.
For the next six months, the floating ice became the crew's home. They were now isolated on the drifting pack ice with limited supplies. They were miles away from land, without any ship or mode of communication with the outside world. With food supplies dwindling, the men hunted seals and penguins for fresh meat. They had initially hoped that the ocean currents would carry the ice floe towards land, but as soon as spring started, the ice started to break up. Shackleton realized that they would have to attempt to reach one of the nearby small islands off the Antarctic coast. They battled