"Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised."
Apsley Cherry-Garrard
"Adventure is just bad planning"
Roald Amundsen
On the Continent itself:
“…whoever has resolution and perseverance to clear up
this point by proceeding farther than I have done, I shall
not envy him the honour of discovery, but I will be bold to
say that the world will not be benefited by it.”
Captain James Cook
Shackleton:
"...quickness of repartee was characteristic of
Shackleton and indeed a key to his character. His aptitude
for satire, for bantering his companions, could be
embarassing and sometimes annoying. However, it was always
done without malice. Shackleton was responsible for most of
the nicknames on board Discovery, some of them given for
reasons known only to himself"
Louis Bernacchi
Mate on the Discovery
“For scientific leadership, give me Scott, for swift and
efficient travel, Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless
situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your
knees and pray for Shackleton. Incomparable in adversity,
he was the miracle worker who would save your life against
all the odds and long after your number was up. The
greatest leader that ever came on God's earth, bar none.”
Sir Raymond Priestley
Member of the Nimrod expedition
1907-1909
"At all times he inspired men with a feeling, often
illogical, that, even if things got worse, he could devise
some means of easing their hardships"
Frank Worsley
Skipper of the Endurance
Scott:
"Honest and truthful himself, he was inclined at first
to take people at their own valuation, which led,
sometimes, to bad judging of men. But when he found out a
fraud, he was quite ruthless in his reaction. ... However,
he was very sensitive and highly strung, could not bear the
sight of blood was full of tender sympathy for pain in
animals and for the genuine troubles of his friends."
Louis Bernacchi
Mate on the Discovery
By Shackleton:
"Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour."