LATE SIR E. SHACKLETON.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1922, Page 5

LATE SIR E. SHACKLETON.

“HERO WHOM ALL LOVED.” TWO AND A-HALF YEARS' COMRADESHIP. (Written for the Sydney Sun by Captain Frank Hurley, who accompanied Sir Ernest Shackleton, as photographer, on his last Antarctic voyage.) It was my privilege to have served two and a-half years under Sir Ernest Shackleton on his last expedition, when, from being just the photographer of the party, I eventually became a deep and loyal friend, i

Tn times of stress, when the lives of the party were in imminent danger, I formed one of the council of three which guided the expedition’s destiny and formed plans for the future. Perhaps T was thus more intimately connected with Sir Ernest Shackleton than any other member of the expedition, for after the destruction of our vessel in the lieart of the Weddell Sea, during the six months of our terrible drift on the ice floes, we lived together in the same tiny tent. Here I learnt the inmost nature of the man, and came to regard him as a hero whom all had learnt to love. Sir. Ernest had a remarkably magnetic personality. His orders were obeyed not from reasons of dogmatic discipline, but because his very presence seemed to command. The small tent which we shared was barely large enough for two, so we slept side by side in our sleeping-bags. During the night .Shackleton would frequently start from his sleep, wide awake with some apprehension, of some imaginary peril that might overtake his party. Then he would awake me, and the incubus that was haunting his mind would hate to be discussed, and new plans formulated, so as to guard his little band against all sorts of dangers. The whole time the lives of the men in his charge were uppermost in his mind, and eating, sleeping, or working, he was thinking of them. When the ice broke up, and we were eventually able to take to the sea in the small boats, no man but one of the greatest ability and seamanship could have brought the vessels through the perilous ice-strewn seas to Elephant Island. During this voyage of six days and nights in the small open boats the party suffered untold privations, but the leader had to endure great mental agonies as well. He was always alert to the pains of those around him. On one occasion my hands were badly frostbitten. He took off his own gloves, 1 refused, whereupon his. final order was to take them or he would throw them into the sea.

One of the seamen was almost overcome with the extreme coldness, his clothes having been saturated with seawater. Shackleton stripped off his own underclothing and gave it to the man. Throughout the whole expedition he kept on doing these little acts of generous self-sacrifice.

But the culmination of all his great Polar achievements was undoubtedly that remarkable voyage made for 750 miles in a small open boat to bring relief to the marooned men on Elephant Island. This journey, made in winter with five seamen across the most tempestuous ocean in the world, south of Cape Horn, ranks as one of the greatest in the annals of polar exploration. Sir Ernest was not u rigid disciplinarian. He joined in the joys and sorrows of his men, and indeed was a comrade. more than a leader. Physical 1 y. he always seemed to me to be 'extremely healthy and robust.