Me Thinks

What a book! What an adventure! What leadership!

"For thirteen days they had suffered through almost ceaseless gales, then finally a huge rogue sea.  They had been underdog, fit only to endure the punishment inflicted on them.  But sufficiently provoked, there is hardly a creature on God's earth that ultimately won't turn and attempt to fight, regardless of the odds.  In an unspoken sense, that was much the way they felt now.  They were possessed by an angry determination to see the journey through--no matter what.  They felt that they had earned it.  For thirteen days they had absorbed everything that the Drake Passage could throw at them,-- and now, by God, they deserved to make it" 

(pg. 303).

(In reference to Shackleton) "He wanted to appear familiar with the men.  He even worked at it, insisting on having exactly the same treatment, food, and clothing.  He went out of his way to demonstrate his willingness to do the menial chores. But it was inescapable.  He was the boss. The others might rest, or find escape by the device of living for the moment.  But for Shackleton there was little rest and no escape. The responsibility was entirely his, and a man could not be in his presence without feeling this" (pg. 107).

"In all the world there is no desolation more complete than the polar night.  It is a return to the Ice Age--no warmth, no life, no movement.  Only those who have experienced it can fully appreciate what it means to be without the sun day after day and week after week.  Few men unaccustomed to it can fight off its effects altogether, and it has driven some men mad" (pg. 47).