Tending Sir Ernest´s Legacy: An Interview with Alexandra Shackleton

Shackleton: Not to sound like a broken record, but his greatest strength lay
in the way he viewed his relationship to his men as his number-one priority.
Sometimes I´m asked why is he of such interest nowadays, and I answer that I
think there is a yearning for what I call raw leadership, by which I mean
leadership growing naturally out of the sort of person one is, not as a
learned, self-conscious skill. And to Ernest Shackleton what was natural was
to put his men first.


NOVA: Did he have any weaknesses?


Shackleton: It sounds terrible, but I can´t think of that many weaknesses he
had as a leader. I think he is the leader that we all would have wanted. The
ultimate gift a leader can give is to inspire confidence. During the
agonizing boat journey to South Georgia, Worsley wrote in his diary, "however
bad things were, he somehow inspired us with the feeling that he could make
things better."


That said, I wouldn´t say Ernest Shackleton was a perfect leader. He took too
long to realize the advantages of skiing and dogs, for instance.


NOVA: Why did your grandfather hide his heart problem from the crew?

Shackleton: He must have had doubts about his health. For instance, during
the boat journey to South Georgia, he had agonizing sciatica, and he had
episodes of what he called suppressed flu, but he must have wondered if it
was a heart problem. Since he always refused to let the ships´ doctors
examine him, however, he couldn´t have been sure. In retrospect, it looks as
if he was afraid at what they might find, afraid of what they might forbid
him to do.


NOVA: Are there any anecdotes handed down to you that shed light on his
character whilst at home?


Shackleton: Well, he was a great practical joker. Once when he was out with
his three children on the beach at Eastbourne with my grandmother, the
children implored her to bathe, and she wouldn´t let them. So he walked into
the sea fully dressed and said, "Oh, why is everything all wet?" The children
were delighted and rushed in, too, and then they had to walk back to the
house, sopping wet, stared at by everybody. I think my grandmother was very
embarrassed.


I think during his last leave before he went on the Quest Expedition, my
grandfather helped to prepare a picnic. There was a mysterious basket and
inside was a stuffed penguin with a knife and fork. (The Quest Expedition was
Shackleton´s ill-defined 1921-22 journey to South Georgia, where he died of a
heart attack at age 47.)