Sir Ernest Shackleton is one of Britain's most famous and widely
respected explorers. The aim of the Nimrod Expedition was to be
the first to make a successful journey to the South Pole. With
nineteenth-century technology, and the Antarctic still almost
completely unknown territory, his was an undertaking equivalent
to a modern-day moon-landing. Shackleton failed. Yet the
expedition successfully achieved the first ascent of Mount
Erebus, which was the first ascent of any peak in the Antarctic.
They were the first team to reach the Magnetic South Pole, and
the first team to reach the plateau above the Transantarctic
Mountains. Shackleton, Adams, Wild and Marshall got to within 97
miles of the Pole on January 9th, 1909 before "The Boss" made
the pragmatic decision to turn back to base. By declining what
would have been a suicidal race to glory, and choosing instead
to preserve the lives of his men, Shackleton not only survived
to carry out future exploits but proved himself a leader that
the same men would glad