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Updated: May 11, 2012 added a music video
by Rocket Kirchner
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February 15, 2012
Ernest Shackleton went to Antarctica in 1901, 1908, 1914, and 1922, when that was the last place anyone would ever want to go.
He was a British explorer that insisted on going there at the start of WWI. When he was seeking to raise money for that journey to hope to be the first man to reach the South Pole, the response from the powers that be were, “You can’t be serious! We are on the brink of a world war and you want to go back to the oblivion of Antarctica? Why?” Shack said, “There will always be periods of war and peace, but there is only one Antarctica”. “But there is nothing there”, they said. “So why even go there?” “Because it’s there,” answered Shack. And so he did.
Shackleton never reached the South Pole because of the Endurance (his ship) got shipwrecked, but he saved all his men. He said to them in their fright, “I will not let you die!” Shack hated the way the British Royal Navy treated their men as if they were expendable. He was the counter leader to all of that. He was the counter leader to war. He said that we fight, “The great white war,” referring to trying to get to the South Pole amidst avalanches, scurry, 88 below zero, madness, frostbite, you name it. And Shack in all his trips to that weird world of white never lost a man. He never made it to the Pole. But he paved the way for others to do that.
Ironically, during WW1 even the enemies of the British Empire that were fighting them to the death were rooting for Shack and his men to make it to the Pole. He was a universal man… a peacemaker who valued life. He was a man, a man’s man with enormous conviction that vowed to never lose a man. In a word, he was a leader. The kind you don’t see many today, but the kind that we need.
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Bybybry on Jan 3, 2011
A documentary on the Endurance expedition
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tediousoldfools on Sep 17, 2008
Short clip from Shackleton.
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Updated
May 11, 2012 by pflvtmh
SHACKLETON Written and performed by Rocket Kirchner.
see
Encounters at the End of the World (must-see)
Scramble For World Resources: Battle For Antarctica by Rick Rozoff
Filed under: Dandelion Salad Featured Writers, Dandelion Salad Posts News Politics and-or Videos 2, Dandelion Salad Videos, History, Music, Musicians - Bands, Politics, Updated Posts on Dandelion Salad Tagged: | Antarctica, Ernest Shackleton, Kirchner-Rocket, Music-Musicians-Bands on Dandelion Salad, South Pole
Oh , i forgot to mention Roland Huntsford’s thick book called Shackleton. i read it about 10 years ago and have been into him ever since. it almost reads like fiction. so exciting. but this really happened. anyone interested in getting into Shack, this is the book to read!