“THE BOSS"

Hokitika Guardian, 19 November 1921, Page 4

“THE BOSS"

AN INTIMATE Hl'Tl'ltE OF I’ll!’! QUEST'S SKII’RER. ( V ,\V. in Daily Mail). |,i (1,, wardroom of tlq, Quest they address him as “Ross” with an affectionate infection of the vm - - w'i; h sheds this uglv word of all its ha r .sh significance. For Shael.lcton, wlijm the good wishes oi the whole of the Empire accompany on his departure today mi his arduous adventure, is • >t only a lender of men by virtue of tho driving iorro within him. He does not dominate their wills lie captures their hearts os well, se that, not only do they follow him. if needs he, to the end, but they love to follow Him. The men who have sailed with hint before ill the high adventures with which his life has been starred know that “The Ross” has never asked them and will never ask them, to do, what he would not himself endure, or to go where he would not venture. Shackleton’s rule of life in these expeditions of his are share and share alike. To darkness and loneliness of the eternal ice 1„. has lour til to know the true democracy of hardship and danger. In selecting the seventeen companions for his lalest enterprise his perpetual care was that liis choice might fall on those whose mental outlook would not keep them outside this democracy of the pioneers of the wild places of the earth. Two men meet and are blended in Shnckleton.

Tho man is a Celt, with a rare Tri«h twinkle in his eye, and all tho imagina 'tion. the intuitive sense, and the magnetism which Celtic birth bestows. Rut follow him from the ward-room where he has been spouting Kipling ('some of whose versos adorn tlie bridge of the Quest ) to the deck, where i» sudden emergency Ims arisen, and in an instant tho poet, and visionary has taken flight and given place to the man of action.

Tlicr,, is no poetry (and no repetition) when from the bridge of his ship ‘The Ross” speaks his mind to some offending seafarer. He is intensely vital, and while easygoing to a point, iron-willed, when that point is passed. If they call him

“Ross” in the ward-room its “Sir” on the bridge, and when he gives an order tlioy “jump to it,” as tho drill-sergeant would say. He is a qualified master mariner, and 1 believe it is no exaggeration to say that there is nothing about the sea which he does not know. One of Shao.kleton’s most delightful gifts is a sense of humour. Tn all his adventurous life, from those, early days when lie ran away from Dulwich College, he has always kept, his weather eye open for the ludicrous side. And new that massive figure clear of eve anil square of iaw, the embodiment of resolution, is turning bis face to the South again. The good wishes of a host or friends in all: quarters of the L ,lobo will follow him as the little Quest breasts the broad Atlantic on her search for fresh adventures.