At Sea
These are the waters Shackleton sailed in the James Caird. Wind-riven and freezing, today they are flecked and streaked with foam white as new snow in the bright sunshine. Looking out over the deep troughs and breaking crests, we may try to imagine what those men felt, what terror moved them, what determination lay beneath their thoughts and deeds. But if we are honest, we must admit that those days are gone. Brine soaked wool has been replaced by feather-light fleece and breathable shells, sextants by GPS, fragile wooden ships and boats by steel-hulled icebreakers and tough, powerful Zodiacs.
This is a radical and unprecedented change, a genuine paradigm shift. James Cook, James Clark Ross, Nathaniel Palmer, Robert Falcon Scott, and Shackleton all would have understood each other’s daily challenges and privations easily in a way we simply cannot. But perhaps there is another level of their experience that we still can share: the simple joy of exploration, of going around the next bend and seeing something new.
Whether done in an open boat, a modern expedition vessel or a moon-lander, exploration is deep in our blood, rooted in the heart of our psyche, a part of our minds that grew ten thousand generations ago when we first moved out over the savanna. There is something in us that wants to know, what’s over there? What’s the view like from that peak? What lies hidden in those depths?
Today many of the goals toward which Shackleton and the other heroes of polar exploration set out are long since achieved; but other goals, new mysteries, have unfolded beyond them. There are the great, unending challenges like that of learning what might be called meta-exploration, exploring ourselves and our relationship with our world; and there are simple extensions and continuations of earlier journeys, like learning more of the rich and beautiful life of the seas Shackelton sailed. What would the Boss have to say if he could see our little ship, our digital photos and HD underwater video? I think he would understand, precisely.
These are the waters Shackleton sailed in the James Caird. Wind-riven and freezing, today they are flecked and streaked with foam white as new snow in the bright sunshine. Looking out over the deep troughs and breaking crests, we may try to imagine what those men felt, what terror moved them, what determination lay beneath their thoughts and deeds. But if we are honest, we must admit that those days are gone. Brine soaked wool has been replaced by feather-light fleece and breathable shells, sextants by GPS, fragile wooden ships and boats by steel-hulled icebreakers and tough, powerful Zodiacs.
This is a radical and unprecedented change, a genuine paradigm shift. James Cook, James Clark Ross, Nathaniel Palmer, Robert Falcon Scott, and Shackleton all would have understood each other’s daily challenges and privations easily in a way we simply cannot. But perhaps there is another level of their experience that we still can share: the simple joy of exploration, of going around the next bend and seeing something new.
Whether done in an open boat, a modern expedition vessel or a moon-lander, exploration is deep in our blood, rooted in the heart of our psyche, a part of our minds that grew ten thousand generations ago when we first moved out over the savanna. There is something in us that wants to know, what’s over there? What’s the view like from that peak? What lies hidden in those depths?
Today many of the goals toward which Shackleton and the other heroes of polar exploration set out are long since achieved; but other goals, new mysteries, have unfolded beyond them. There are the great, unending challenges like that of learning what might be called meta-exploration, exploring ourselves and our relationship with our world; and there are simple extensions and continuations of earlier journeys, like learning more of the rich and beautiful life of the seas Shackelton sailed. What would the Boss have to say if he could see our little ship, our digital photos and HD underwater video? I think he would understand, precisely.
