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| Free sample form the on-line edition of Think in English Magazine. |
Hopefully, I'm not the only one to ask myself about how difficult it must have been to leave your family behind, to say good bye to friends, relatives and acquaintances, and travel the seven seas...Please, don't let me be misunderstood: this is no trivial matter, and - of course - I have no intention to trivialize such a feat. What I mean to imply is that the farther away one moves back into the past, the closer to legend and myth History seems to draw. For how else is Ernest Shackleton's life to be viewed against the backdrop of his lifetime?
Take a few minutes to find some information about his expedition(s), and ask yourself some questions. Then join the forum and give your own answers to my, or your colleagues', questions:
- What made Shackleton so arduous in his endeavour? Was it because he grew up in The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration?
- Was he the only one?
- But what, or who, gave impetus to exploration in the 19th Century?
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| Nimrod Expedition: Wild, Shackleton, | Marshall and Adams |
Mind you, I haven't asked why - because that much is clear: as far as human inquisitiveness is concerned, the sky's the limit! Wouldn't it be the perfect true story to help us understand Man's freedom of choice?
I am not sure how to use that... I will try to answer some questions...
ReplyDelete1 . He was the first one who tried to cross on foot de Antartic continent, but the disaster stuck his expedition when the ship ,Endurance, was trapped fast in the ice pack. There followed a sequence of exploits for 20 months in the time of the First World War ... Finally all the expedition was rescued with no lives lost
I guess he could do that because he had the experience, the knowledge and the value of this men from The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
2 - No, he was not... normally was more famous Scott- Amundsen. I guess that it was like a race... in the same way when in the 1960s the man came to the moon
I don't know if i'm right but...........
ReplyDelete1- In my opinion he needed to be the first one. If you're the first one in any achievement you'll de remembered otherwise you'll be forgotten.
2- He wasn't the only one. There were explorers from eight different countries.
3- The Sixth International Geographical Congress aimed the Antarctic regions as a great target to be undertaken. Moreover the limited of the natural resources available and the wish of glory were other motivations.
Ana
An important announcement from Wikipedia
ReplyDelete"Please note:in less than eight hours the English Wikipedia will be blacked out globally to protest SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act from the US House of Representatives) and PIPA (the Protect IP Act from the US Senate) which, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet - including Wikipedia."
This IS living History in the making.
I´d would like to add a different point of view to respond all these questions, imagining this story would happen nowadays (and not a century ago):
ReplyDeleteWhat made Shackleton so arduous in his endeavour? Was it because he grew up in The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration? Was he the only one? He is the first one for a long time that doesn´t use any internet website neither to prepare the trip nor to know other opinions from people had visited the Antarctic before. He prefered to go in search of a real adventure, without using GPS´s, precooked foods, etc. He wanted to copy the trip made for his grandfather.
But what, or who, gave impetus to exploration in the 19th Century? I think this was a way used by the main countries to sell a image of strength to the rest of the world.
Nobody can deny that there was some national pride involved - that is as valid today as it was back there at the turn of the 19th Century; but there was also this spirit of the pioneers, eager to go where nobody else had gone before...
DeleteOf course there were no such things as electronic devices: they drew their inspiration from other seafarers - the Vikings - who had sailed the ocean long before their Era and hadn't even had maps!