PERSISTENCE AND ENDURANCE
For Shawn Shen (Year 12), Shackleton’s expedition provides instructive parallels to the solution of Mathematical problems
‘It was obvious that the climate was undergoing major change: a glacier that seven years ago was over 2km long had barely 300m of it left’
We continued further south towards the Le Maire channel, where mountains 900m high flanked our passage through this narrow gap just 200m wide. Beyond it lay the Iceberg Graveyard. The graveyard was littered with icebergs of all shapes and sizes, each exhibiting the most exotic and spectacular shades of green and blue. Wind had carved them into masterpieces and they all lay floating in perfect tranquillity in this sheltered bay. The majesty of Antarctica had begun to set in and would only continue to grow as the expedition went on. I was not only taken back by the beauty of my surroundings but also the wildlife that called this barren icy land home. All creatures, great and small, found our little group of people fascinating; every creature we came across was trying to determine what we were and this resulted in more than our fair share of close encounters. It amazed me to see just how abundant life was in this desolate landscape: not a single day went by where we didn’t see at least a whale and more than a dozen seals. This continued as we snaked our way up the Peninsula, stopping off at our various locations to further examine the wildlife or just to take in the sheer beauty of Antarctica. One my favourite parts of the expedition was the night where we camped out on the ice. We were thousands of miles away from any sort of light source and this allowed us to have the most spectacular view of the night sky. Never have I seen stars in such a number. The image will remain with me forever.
The final part of our voyage took us to the Weddell Sea, the stretch of sea that Shackleton himself travelled across 100 years ago. I had been past the James Caird thousands of times during my stint at the College but I had never really thought about what that little boat went through 100 years ago. It’s hard to put something that incredible into perspective. I was lucky enough to get into a zodiac landing craft to explore the waters further and during our little exploration we too were stuck in the ice flow and had to beat our way out using the paddles. Having now seen much of the peninsula, it was time for us to head back, minds buzzing with new information on Antarctica, its wildlife and climate change. One thing had been looming over us the entire trip and that was the knowledge that we would have to return to South America over the Drake yet again. There would be two more days of sea sickness. However, instead we were met with a very calm Drake and crossed in record time. Our arrival back at Cape Horn was heralded by the sighting of a huge bull Sperm Whale, which greeted us as we neared the Beagle Channel. It seemed as though our journey was coming to an end, but we realised this was not the case. To paraphrase Churchill: this is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is merely the end of the beginning. I now endeavour to spread the word about Antarctica and the world’s climate as this is an issue for which we are all responsible.
Pictured : Ernest Shackleton.
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