Roland Huntford: Shackleton (Groot-Brittannië, 1985): 697 blz: Uitgeverij Hodder & Stoughton
Roland
Huntford heeft 3 prachtige biografieën geschreven over de waarschijnlijk vier beroemdste poolreizigers. In juni 2005 las ik achter elkaar
"Nansen" (1997), "Scott and Amundsen" (1979) en "Shackleton" (1985). De
biografie over Shackleton, die ik in 2021 deels heb herlezen (tot en met
hoofdstuk 25 "March or die" en bladzijde 292) en nu heb uitgelezen, beschouw ik als de beste
van deze 3 biografieën en tevens als mijn favoriete biografie die ik
ooit heb gelezen.
Roland
Huntford besteedt in deze biografie vooral aandacht aan waarom het gaat,
de 3 grote poolreizen die Shackleton heeft gemaakt.
Ernest
Shackeleton ging varen op relatief jonge leeftijd en had al jong de
ambitie om beroemd te worden en vooral ook rijk. Op 13 september 1900
meldde Shackleton zich aan als vrijwilliger voor de Zuidpoolexpeditie
onder leiding van Robert Falcon Scott.
Shackleton
werd door Scott uitgekozen om samen met hem en de arts Edward Wilson te
proberen om zover mogelijk naar het zuiden te reizen. Ze bereikten een
Zuiderbreedte van iets meer dan 82 graden, hetgeen als niet erg
indrukwekkend werd beschouwd. Shackleton werd ziek door scheurbuik en
vreemd genoeg hebben ze daardoor waarschijnlijk hun leven gered, Scott
dacht er niet over om terug te keren.
Na
deze expeditie was Scott een held en Shackleton een nobody die ziek
naar huis was gestuurd. Shackeleton zon op revanche en organiseerde een
tweede Zuidpoolexpeditie met als enige doel om als eerste op de Zuidpool
te zijn. Hij bereikte met zijn maten ruim 88 graden Zuiderbreedte en
moest op 97 mijlen afstand van de Zuidpool omdraaien om nog de tocht te
kunnen overleven. Het werd een race tegen de klok, maar met heel veel
geluk redden ze het.
"Shackleton"
is een prachtige biografie, mede doordat Huntford een enorme kennis
heeft over de poolreizen en daarnaast beschikt over een soepele
schrijfstijl en natuurlijk ook door het inspirerende levensverhaal van
Shackleton. Om van deze biografie optimaal te kunnen genieten moet je
Engels behoorlijk goed zijn.
Citaten:
-
Shackleton left the dogs behind, and harnessed himself and his
companions to the sledge instead. Turning themselves into beasts of
burden, they laboured across the snow on their own unaided feet.
It
was a tableau that would have stupefied the eight other expeditions, of
different nationalities, sharing the polar regions, north and south,
with them. "Polar exploration without ski is extremely awkward," in the
words of Otto Sverdup, the Norwegian explorer now entering his fourth
consecutive year in the Arctic, "without dogs it is impossible." Only on
Discovery were dogs and ski still considered doubtful innovations.
- The clash of personality has always been a danger more sinister than climate or terrain.
-
The science of nutrition was then in its infancy. With hindsight,
however, and also by the light of contemporary knowledge, the diet of
these men battling their way south had too little protein and fat and
too much carbohydrate for hard work at low temperatures. Since it was
devoid of vitamin C, the reappearance of scurvy was only a matter of
time; they themselves only knew that they carried with them the shadow
of a mysterious disease.
-
The British party, in contrast, had only the goal ahead, with nothing
but physical strenght and dogged persistence and self-punishment to
drive them on.
All this, repeated
for the next decade or so, has been romanticised as the "heroic age" of
British polar exploration. Like much heroism, it was wasteful and
unnecessary, and often only a cloak for incompetence. Shackleton and his
companions had, in short, made things difficult for themselves.
-
In after years Shackleton used to tell a story of hearing Wilson say to
Scott he did not expect him to last the night. That made him
determined, so he said, to pull through.
-
Among polar explorers, Shackleton was the only one who openly promoted
his expedition as a commercial venture. His aim was to be the first at
the South Pole. Money would flow from telling the story in books,
lectures, newspapers and the exciting innovation of the cinematograph.
- As Shackleton later rationalised it,
The
qualities ... necessary to the explorer are ... in ... order of
importance: first, optimism; second, patience; third, physical
endurance; fourth, idealism; fifth and last, courage ... Few men are
wanting in courage but optimism nullifies disappointment and makes one
more ready than ever to go on ... Impatience means disaster ... Physical
endurance ... will not compensate for the first two moral or
temperamental qualities.
Nadat Shackleton op 97 mijlen van de Zuidpool was omgedraaid:
-
Even so, it had taken courage of a special kind to turn, after coming
so far, and with the Pole almost within reach. It was arguably one of
the bravest acts in the history of exploration. Any fool can go on
blindly forward. It required insight and moral courage to turn back;
especially when it meant publicly admitting defeat and to a despised
rival.
-
They were living off pemmican and pony meat, with only four thin
biscuits each a day now. Underlining every word, Wild wrote on the last
day of January that Shackleton
privately
forced upon me his one breakfast biscuit, and would have given me
another tonight had I allowed him. I do not suppose that anyone else in
the world can thoroughly realise how much generosity and sympathy was
shown by this; I DO by GOD I shall never forget it. Thousands of pounds
would not have bought that one biscuit.
-
One day, while Shackleton and Wild were sharing a tent, Shackleton
suddenly asked Wild if he would return with him to make another attempt
on the Pole. The situation was grotesque. They were at the extremity of
starvation. It was so cold that, in his diary, Shackleton had been
unable to write more than a sentence or two. They were in the middle of
the Barrier, and survival was still no more than a chance. "This trip,"
as Wild had put it, when he was somewhere about 82 degrees S, in the
throes of dysentery, "has completely cured me of any desire for more
polar exploration." Nonetheless, in his own words, when Shackleton,
shivering in his sleeping bag, asked him to come back,
without
any hesitation I replied "yes"! We then went on to discuss details.
Shackleton was sure that he could raise sufficient funds in Australia to
return (this) year.
Lees verder in mijn bespreking van het tweede deel van "
Shackleton".
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