Shackleton was a famous south polar explorer who led three successful expeditions to Antarctica. On his fourth expedition, he died of a heart attack in his cabin while the ship was at anchor. This was in 1922. The ship itself stayed in service for various purposes until in 1962, it sank off the coast of Canada (the crew all survived). Now the wreck has been found, which is cool. But for those of us who only half remembered the Shackleton story, no it wasn't like Shackleton himself was aboard the ship when it sank. Shackleton had already been deceased for 40 years at that time.

This was the the age of exploration. Doing things first just because.

Shackleton may not have made the pole (a somewhat everyday accomplishment now). What he -did- do though will, I suggest never be repeated.

He (and 5 of his crew) crossed the southern ocean, from Elephant Island to South Georgia in an open life boat. A distance of 1500km in 16 days. Nothing comes close to this. Then, on arrival, he crosses South Georgia on foot with woeful equipment. This leg alone is a rare feat even today - usually done by well equipped special forces of planned expeditions.

His ocean crossing though stands alone. Nobody is lining up to repeat it - its almost certainly suicide.

The book of the expedition is public domain on kindle, and we'll worth a read. For the short version see https://nzaht.org/encourage/inspiring-explorers/crossing-sou...

I enjoyed “Endurance” by Alfred Lansing, and would recommend it if anyone wants to read a riveting and mostly accurate account of Shackleton’s famous voyage.

There's a great documentary about what became of his cabin on the ship:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26470327

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40659003

[flagged]