Shackleton's Journey: 1

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On 16 September 1921, Shackleton recorded a farewell address on a sound-on-film system created by Harry Grindell Matthews, who claimed it was the first "talking picture" ever made. Facing hunger, loneliness, near-mutiny and what has come to be known as the greatest small-boat journey in history, this is their story.

The Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter offers a course on Shackleton, who also features in the management education programmes of several American universities. Within a few years, he was thoroughly overtaken in public esteem by Shackleton, whose popularity surged while that of his erstwhile rival declined.Shackleton published details of his new expedition, grandly titled the "Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition", early in 1914. As the ship moved southward navigating in ice, first-year ice was encountered, which slowed progress. On 9 January 1909, Shackleton and three companions—Wild, Eric Marshall and Jameson Adams—reached a new Farthest South latitude of 88°23'S, a point only 112 miles (180km) from the Pole.

Endurance had left South Georgia for Antarctica on December 5, 1914, carrying 27 men (plus one stowaway, who became the ship’s steward), 69 dogs, and a tomcat erroneously dubbed Mrs.This group, despite many hardships, had carried out its depot-laying mission to the full, but three lives had been lost, including that of its commander, Aeneas Mackintosh. He was then offered, and accepted, the secretaryship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS), a post which he took up on 11 January 1904. A photograph of the departure of the James Caird in April was doctored by photographer Frank Hurley to create this image. Even as they were within touching distance of their goal, the elements hurled their worst at them: “The wind simply shrieked as it tore the tops off the waves,” Shackleton wrote.