27 May 2016
On the centenary of Shackleton's epic 800 mile rescue mission, explorer and scientist Tim Jarvis shares his experience of recreating the journey.
Friday 20 May 2016 marked 100 years to the day since Sir Ernest Shackleton reached Stromness whaling station on the remote sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia to raise the alarm and enable the rescue of his remaining 22 crew members left stranded on Elephant Island, 800 nautical miles to the south.
In 2013, after completing the first authentic recreation of Shackleton’s “double” of sailing across the Southern Ocean in a 22-ft wooden lifeboat and climbing across South Georgia’s mountainous interior, adventurer and environmental scientist Tim Jarvis wrote:
“Walking into Stromness whaling station 97 years after Sir Ernest Shackleton meant that we achieved the ‘Shackleton double’ bringing with it a mix of emotions that are hard to describe. Certainly elation, relief and pride and a great sense of camaraderie amongst our team, but added to this an overwhelming sense of humility. Without doubt this relates to getting closer to understanding what Shackleton went through on his original journey a century ago. A journey described by Sir Edmund Hillary as ‘the greatest survival journey of all time’.The pain, fear, suffering and doubt that he and his men needed to overcome to achieve their incredible journey of survival as winter approached, the majority of his men remained behind on Elephant Island clinging to life and no backup existed is achievement enough. But all of this after enduring a year and a half on the crippled Endurance and the floating pack ice of the Weddell Sea. That we managed to emulate some of this story and get close to the kind of determination he needed to win through was a life-changing experience.”
100 years on from Shackleton’s extraordinary achievement, come and hear Tim Jarvis speak about his own journey – the first successful re-enactment of Shackleton’s journey and lessons learnt – on Wednesday 1st June 2016 at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
After almost two decades of polar travel and over twenty years working as an environmental scientist, Tim is a well-known public speaker, applying the lessons he has learned throughout his various expeditions to talk about leadership, problem solving, teamwork, change management and goal setting in an organisational context.