SHACKLETON’S TERRIBLE MOMENT.

Shannon News, 10 November 1922, Page 3

SHACKLETON’S TERRIBLE MOMENT.

HIS GREATEST THRILL. London, September 22. The return of the .Quest from its tragic Antarctic voyage has brought to the mind of Mr Frederick Ross, of the Sussex Motor Yacht Club, a touching story of the fortitude and self-sacri-iice related to him by the late Sir Ernest Shackleton. In 1920, in the Road Club smoking-room, he asked Sir Ernest Shackleton to tell him what he thought was the most terrible moment he had experienced, the explorer then related the following incident:—.

“It was during the late expedition that on one occasion he was stranded, owing to stress of weather, with a few of iiis companions, many miles from the base, and apparently with only a few biscuits each between them and starvation. They were all dozing in the emergency hut—he lying, half wakeful, somewhat apart from the others. Presently he noticed one of the party bending nearer to his younger sleeping companion, and then, to his (horror, he saw him stealthily stretch out his hand and secure the other’s biscuit bag. Said Shackleton, 'That was the most terrible moment I have ever had, as I loved the man as a brother, and it looked as though my great trust was to be cruelly shattered. I still watched, and then a glorious thing happened. The purloiner gently broke off half of one of his own biscuits, placed it in the bag, and as stealthily, placed it back to the side of the sleeper.’ ’’

Concluding his letter, Mr Ross says: ‘Shackleton asked me most earnestly not to ‘give away’ the name of the man, for, as he quaintly put it, ‘he evidently thought it was a little intimacy between himself and God.’ However, I do not consider it any breach of confidence to mention that this great soul is one of those now ‘carrying on’ in the Quest.”