ABSTRACT
Th e Antarctic expedition of 1914-1917 led by Ernest Shackleton became one of the most amazing feats of adventure and leadership in the 20th century. Shackleton was an Irishman born in 1874 who sailed as a naval lieutenant on Robert Scott’s fi rst expedition to the South Pole in 1902. Shackleton became ill early in the Scott expedition and was forced to return to England. Shackleton later led the Nimrod expedition to the Antarctic in 1908 but was forced to turn back for lack of food. Undeterred, he organized a third expedition in 1914 with the goal of crossing the Antarctic continent from one coast to the other via the South Pole. Although this expedition also failed, Shackleton’s determined leadership and dedication to the welfare of his crew became the focus of an incredible story of survival and rescue under the harshest conditions imaginable.
