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Hail Columbia!
© 2003 Boaz Rauchwerger
The tragedy of the
space shuttle Columbia, as it disintegrated
in the sky above Texas in February of 2003, brought home the
fact that exploring new worlds takes courage, great courage.
As a U.S. citizen, who was born in Israel, I was shocked by
this event in which six Americans and one Israeli gave their
lives doing something in which they believed passionately.
They are all courageous heroes.
Courage is something we all have.
Some express it more dramatically. I’d like to take
you back 88 years to share one particular story of courage
in the name of exploration.
His name was Sir Ernest Shackleton.
At the age of forty, on an August day in 1914, he launched
an independent voyage to make an 1,800-mile crossing of Antarctica
on foot. This was considered at the time the last
great expedition left on earth.
The expedition ship, named the “Endurance,”
set sail from England. It was the dawn of World War I as the
ship headed to Buenos Aires (almost seven thousand miles),
to South Georgia island (about a thousand miles east of Cape
Horn), and eventually to the Antarctic Circle.
The distance between South Georgia
and Vahsel Bay, the expedition’s destination on Antarctica,
was a thousand miles of plowing through ice-encrusted waters.
Many journeys through life have their
challenges and diversions. Victories are often not determined
by what happens to us, but rather by how we react.
Just one day’s sail from the
Vahsel Bay destination, the “Endurance” got stuck
in the polar ice of the Weddell Sea.
This incredible adventure turned into Sir
Ernest Shackleton’s greatest failure. It’s detailed
in a fascinating book entitled “Shackleton’s
Way – Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer,”
by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell. A friend named
Tyler gave me the book.
According to the book, Shackleton "lost
his ship before even touching Antarctica. But he reached a
new pinnacle in leadership when he successfully led all the
members of his crew to safety after a harrowing two-year fight
for their lives."
So, as the story goes, when the ship
got stuck in the polar ice, “The men were stranded on
an ice floe more than twelve hundred miles from the farthest
outposts of civilization. Whenever it seemed the situation
couldn’t possibly get worse, it did. The pack ice precariously
dragged the ship north for ten months.”
What happened next was terrifying.
“Then, the ‘Endurance’ was crushed and the
men were forced to camp on the ice. They watched in horror
one month later as their vessel sank to the bottom of the
sea. No one knew anything had happened to them. All they had
to rely on were three rickety lifeboats salvaged from the
ship. Shackleton allowed each crew member to carry only a
few items necessary for survival. The first things tossed:
gold coins and a Bible; saved were personal diaries and a
banjo.”
Continuing to quote from this fascinating
book: “When the weather was its most brutal, the men
endured temperatures that were so low they could hear the
water freeze. The bitter cold froze their garments solid and
burned their hands and feet. They slept in tents so flimsy
they could see the moon through them. They spent nearly four
months in the frigid darkness of the long polar night. When
the Antarctic summer finally brought warmer temperatures and
the promise of some relief, the men awoke every morning in
cold puddles of water as their body heat melted the icy floor
of their tents. They subsided on a diet of mostly penguin,
seal, and sometimes dog, fare that left them feeling weak
and blubbery.”
“Eventually, when the ice began
shattering beneath them, the men took to their three small
lifeboats. After more than four months of mind-numbing boredom,
they suddenly were pitched into an intense battle for survival
that brought them to the limits of human capabilities. They
fought the sea for nearly a week, making their way to land.
They were cold, hungry, exhausted, and so thirsty their tongues
swelled in their mouths. Whey they finally reached Elephant
Island, they found it a stinking spit of land constantly ravaged
by storms. Most of the crew spent the last months of their
ordeal huddled under two overturned lifeboats.”
As the book continues, the leader
of the expedition was relentless in his courage and determination:
“In the end, Shackleton took five men and sailed eight
hundred miles in a lifeboat over tumultuous seas to reach
the inhabited islands of South Georgia in the remote South
Atlantic. When by some miracle they made their destination,
they found they had to cross a nearly impassable frozen mountain
range to reach civilization: a whaling station. The whalers,
who had seen so much in their own hard lives, were in awe
of the invincibility of the men, horribly ravaged by the elements.
Immediately, Shackleton turned around and led an effort to
rescue the rest of the crew on Elephant Island. Amazingly,
every single one had survived.”
“According to Napoleon, ‘a
leader is a dealer in hope.’ Shackleton knew
how to keep hope in plentiful supply. When it was preposterous
to think they could get out alive, he convinced his men that
only a fool would say they wouldn’t.”
Want to learn some great lessons about courage,
faith and leadership? Want to put some perspective on your
problems? Read this book and you may be able to put some of
your biggest challenges on ice. Allow your courage to show
itself. The astronauts and Shackleton certainly did.
A
Daily Affirmation of Courage
I am a leader. I move through challenges
with confidence and courage. I am a Champion!
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