Abstract
THE sudden death of Sir Ernest Shackleton on board the Quest at South Georgia on January 5 stopped the career of the most brilliant of Anta.ctic explorers just on the threshold of the South Polar regions which he was entering for the fifth time with his third expedition. That such a courageous and indomitable explorer should die a natural death after a lifetime of hair-breadth escapes from perils of ice, of starvation, of shipwreck, and of war is a grim stroke of Nature's irony. Great as his loss is to geographical exploration, we cannot but recognise his end as happy, for his life was arrested in the full course of the enthusiastic pursuit of a great and crowning adventure. The sympathy of all who appreciate highhearted deeds will flow towards his wife, to whose co-operation much of his success was due; towards his shipmates, who have nobly resolved to carry on the voyage; and towards Mr. John Q. Rowett, whose friendship for Shackleton made him undertake the main financial burden of the expedition.
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MILL, H. Sir Ernest Shackleton, C.V.O. Nature 109, 143–145 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109143a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109143a0