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Quick Facts
- NAME: Ernest Shackleton
- OCCUPATION: Explorer
- BIRTH DATE: February 15, 1874
- DEATH DATE: January 05, 1922
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland
- PLACE OF DEATH: Grytviken, Georgia
- AKA: Ernest Shackleton
Best Known For
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Irish-born British explorer who was a principal figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
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Play NowSir Ernest Henry Shackleton. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:45, Jun 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-shackleton-9480091.
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-shackleton-9480091 [Accessed 19 Jun 2013].
"Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Jun 19 2013, 01:45 http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-shackleton-9480091.
"Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-shackleton-9480091 [accessed Jun 19, 2013].
"Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-shackleton-9480091 (accessed Jun 19, 2013).
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 Jun 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-shackleton-9480091.
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-shackleton-9480091 (last visited Jun 19, 2013).
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-shackleton-9480091. Accessed Jun 19, 2013.
Seeing that his men were on the precipice of disaster, Shackleton led a team of five others out on the water again. They boarded a 22-foot lifeboat and navigated their way toward South Georgia. Sixteen days after setting out, the crew reached the island, where Shackleton trekked to a whaling station to organize an rescue effort.
On August 25, 1916, Shackleton returned to Elephant Island to rescue the remaining members of his crew. Astonishingly,
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not a single member of his 28-men team died during the nearly two years they were stranded.
Later Years
In 1919 Shackleton published South, his detailed account of the journey and its miraculous ending. Shackleton, however, was not through with expeditions. In late 1921 he set off on a fourth mission to the South Pole. His goal was to circumnavigate the Antarctic. But on January 5, 1922, Shackleton suffered a heart attack on his ship and died. He was buried in South Georgia.
Reverence for Shackleton's heroism and leadership didn't immediately follow. But over the last half-century, as his story became the subject of more historical research, the account of the Endurance and how Shackleton averted total disaster has elevated his standing and made him a principal figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Proof of this came in September 2011, when a biscuit Shackleton had given to a starving traveler on one of his early expeditions sold at auction for nearly $2,000.
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