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Leadership Lessons from Ernest Shackleton and The Endurance

By Dr. Andrew Corbett, May 22nd 2009, original writing from Legana, Tasmania, Australia; updated 25th September 2025, Melbourne, Australia.

Sometimes when the going gets tough, you just have to keep going. In fact, success in life – no matter how you define it – can only be achieved with endurance. Surely one of the greatest examples of endurance (if not the greatest) is the story of Ernest  Shackleton and his expedition to the Antarctic on the ship: The Endurance. While we ordinary mortals may never have a death defying adventure like Shackleton and his 28 men, we are already in the midst of our own great adventure called life!

Explorer, Ernest Shackleton

Some people want to live their lives by seeking their maximum comfort and avoiding all risks. But this is not the believer’ s lot. We are called to follow Christ- who even though He is entirely consistent in character, is somewhat unpredictable in his plans for His followers. The New Testament calls this “walking by faith” (2Corinthians 5:7). This is why for the believer, Life is the Greatest Adventure.

When was the last time you did something for Christ that required “great faith” (Matthew 15:28)?

When was the last time you wouldn’t do something for Christ because it was too hard or too difficult? For the believer, a God-pleasing life is actually shaped by enduring hardships (2Corinthians 6:4) but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities.

By your endurance you will gain your lives.
Luke 21:19

The Christian life calls for endurance, and endurance can only happen when there are difficulties in life!

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
Romans 5:3-4

The 28 men on board the Endurance

In1914, 28 me set out with Ernest Shackleton on an epic adventure to make history. Legend has it that Shackleton had placed a advert in a newspaper before the expedition: “Men wanted for a hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” He received more than 5,000 applications, many of them, no doubt, from men perhaps experiencing their own form of midlife crisis.

In 1909, Ernest Shackleton had accompanied Captain Scott on an unsuccessful attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole. He was actually sent home by Scott for his poor health. Robert Falcon Scott CVO (6 June 1868 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Naval officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901-04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910-13. During this second venture Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian party in an unsought “race for the Pole.” On their return journey Scott and his four comrades all perished because of a combination of exhaustion, hunger and extreme cold.

¶ Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Hebrews 12:3

The Christian life was pioneered by Someone who endured obstacles and setbacks.

Shackleton’s goal was to traverse the Antarctic from sea to sea through the South Pole.

Shackleton had already made 2 previous attempts.
On his last attempt he made it to within 150 miles of the Pole.

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2

Jesus had a goal: to save the world. His quest was a adventure which required many elements: preparation  of resources, faith, training men, handling public attention, giving and taking orders, but most importantly, as with any great enterprise, it mostly required: endurance. Whatever great adventure you are embarking on, whether its building a business, leading a organisation, or being a parent, endurance is mandatory.

When Shackleton interviewed the expedition applicants. He asked an unusual question: “Can you sing?” He knew that a journey of this magnitude would require the ability to work as a team and to be able to enjoy each others’ company.

¶ And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”
Mark 14:26

Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,
Ephesians 5:19

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16

Adventures often start out as fun and exciting…the fun of new relationships, a journey begun, the prospect of becoming rich and famous…adventurous journeys often start out being fun and exciting.

Shackleton named his ship after his family motto-
“FORTITUDINE VINCIMUS” – by endurance we conquer

By your endurance you will gain your lives.
Luke 21:19

If we are to successfully live the Christian life we must get about the rescue ship of Christ. It too may be well be called The Endurance.

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
Romans 5:3-4

But when The Endurance arrived in the Antarctic sea, it became trapped in pack ice. Sometimes the adventure of life doesn’t go the way you hoped.

The final moments of the Endurance before it was lost in the ice-pack

The Endurance became trapped inPack-ice and a photo of Shackleton after the Endurance was lost.

When the Endurance became locked in pack ice, Shackleton ordered the me to pursue every possible means of extricating the ship from the icy jaws of the Weddell Sea, including using ice picks and saws in attempts to reach leads sighted sometimes hundreds of yards away. While these labours were ultimately futile, it was useful to have the me experience this firsthand, so they would neither question their predicament of having to  “winter in the pack ” nor become bitter with “what ifs,” such as If we had only been allowed to cut our way out of the ice, we’d have reached the Antarctic continent by now.”
(Accessed from- http://main.wgbh.org/imax/Shackleton/Shackleton.html (on January 24th 2009)

Good leaders lead others…Great leaders care for others.

Shackleton’s calm and confidence in the more dire circumstances were heartening to his crew. Commenting on  Shackleton ‘s reaction to their inability to free the Endurance from the ice, Alexander Macklin, the ship’s doctor, said, “It was at this moment Shackleton…showed one of his sparks of real greatness. He did not show the slightest sign of disappointment. He told us simply and calmly that we would have to spend the winter in the pack.”
(Cited from- http://main.wgbh.org/imax/Shackleton/Shackleton.html

¶”Now before the Feast of the Passover,  when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
John 13:1

Great leaders take great risks for good reasons.

Shackleton made a decision after being marooned for 11 months on a floating ice-pack to launch The James Caird, a 3 tonne lifeboat, across 800 nautical miles of the world’s roughest ocean to reach a jutting rock: Elephant Island which would the put them within reach of South Georgia Island,  where there was a whaling station. The 17 day journey has gone down in history as one of the greatest sea voyages ever. Sometimes while on the journey of life’s great adventure we need to launch the lifeboats and get help.

“For scientific discovery, give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel, give me Amundsen, but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”
Polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard, 1922

Shackleton had one goal – to preserve his men.

Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,
Second Peter 2:9

¶ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
Jude 24

Proposing a toast to the explorer at a lunch give in Shackleton’s honour by the Royal Societies Club, Lord Halsbury, a former Lord Chancellor, said: “ When one remembers what he had gone through, one does not believe in the supposed degeneration of the British race. One does not believe that we have lost all sense of admiration for courage [and] endurance.”

Shackleton’s adventure is now remembered as one of the great stories of human endurance and true leadership. Perhaps as we enter into some of the darkest social and economic conditions the world has ever seen, God is looking for people who ca endure. Christian leadership is pelleted by heart-ache, setbacks, betrayals and disappointments, but the godly Spirit-filled leader endure such things. But that’s not all they do. They lead others. They don’t leave people behind. As Christian leaders stand up against the onslaught of moral breakdown – a spiralling divorce rate, a militant gay lobby, a shrill band of neo-atheists, and a economic reality check for the hordes of supporters of Word of Faith preachers (whose message of ‘sanctified greed’ has beguiled tens of thousands of sincere but gullible believers) it will require endurance. May God grant us this.

With the Endurance trapped in pack-ice, the crew played soccer on the ice. Photo by Frank Hurley

Frank Hurley, Australian photographer

The Endurance in Pack-ice

© May 22nd 2009, Dr. Andrew Corbett, original writing from Legana, Tasmania, Australia; updated 26th September 2025, Melbourne, Australia