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!
Article reproduced with permission from Boaz Rauchwerger. You may reprint any of these articles in any publication or Web site so long as you credit Boaz Rauchwerger as the author and include this Web site address, www.Boazpower.com.