SIR EARNEST SHACKLETON
Sir Ernest Shackleton – February 15th 1874 to 5th January 1922.

Simply known as Shackleton

The great southern explorer who is best known for his great escape in leading his expedition to safety after their ship the Endurance was crushed in the wedded sea.

He led three expeditions to Antarctica during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. During the Nimrod expedition, his second of 1907 to 1909 he and his three companions got to within 112 statute miles of the pole before being forced back.

He was most famous for leading the Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition of 1914 – 1917, It was not a success in the traditional sense and yet it really was – in real terms.  After trying to penetrate further into heavy pack ice, the endurance was crushed forcing the explorers onto the ice where they drifted for months,  before being able to take to the ships whaleboats and making Elephant Island. Shackleton and four other explorers then outfitted one of the open whaleboats, and made the incredible crossing of the southern ocean to South Georgia,  where they made landfall on the south of the island.

Unfortunately the vessels rudder was damaged and it was decided it would be safer to cross the island on foot. Tom Crean, Frank Worsley and Shackleton made the crossing of the windswept mountains to the whaling station of Stromness and safety. The following three attempts to reach the remaining men at Elephant Island were unsuccessful due to sea ice,  and it was only after the Chilean government was contacted and the naval tug Yecho was employed, along with the British whaler Southern Sky, where they finally successful in rescuing the last of the stranded explorers.  Shackleton lost none of his men during the difficulties.

Shackleton Died on a later expedition to the south of a heart attack at the age of Forty seven and at his wife request was buried at South Georgia.

The book South by Ernest Shackleton covers the 1914-1917 expedition in  detail and is a Must read.

Find out more here  about Sir Ernest Shackleton

JAQUES YVES COUSTEAU

JAQUES COUSTEAU

When a young boy I can well remember sitting enthralled before the television watching the exploits of Jaques Yves Cousteau and his aquanauts aboard the Calypso.
They explored treasure laden wrecks, underwater caverns, sunken aircraft, vast rivers and brought with clarity this foreign underwater world known up till then by only a few, right into the living room.       Underwater exploration film making for popular viewing was a first brought to the world by His team
That was not by any means the only ground that they broke.
Cousteau was Co Inventor of the demand valve which allowed compressed air to be supplied from a tank as you inhaled. For the first time this freed up the diver from his umbilical and allowed a much greater freedom underwater hitherto only dreamed of, and it is still the principal means of diving today.
He pioneered marine ocean conservation, and this cannot be understated and this was his greatest achievement in my view.
Until the 1950s the thought of marine conservation was almost heretic, the ocean was abundant and the species were to be harvested with no regard for the future, they would of course quickly regenerate and the interconnectivity of it all was not well understood.
Cousteau set us on another path which of course has been a rocky one, but now the worlds leaders are considering fishery conservation and management on a huge scale. There are many very notable societies which are actively fighting to change the way that we use the oceans, and the very survival of humanity probably depends on the outcome of conservation and pollution control.
For me though sitting before that television I only dreamed, one day I would also become a diver and experience first hand some of what I was seeing.  This turned, in fact to reality but never to the extent that Cousteau and his team managed to achieve over his life time.
On watching Cousteau’s films again after so many years I was struck by just how advanced his filmmaking was, the divers were both really good in the water and also bold.  The medium was film, not video or digital, the housings were large and cumbersome, things such as autofocus and auto settings were still far off into the future but they still were able to produce incredible results.
Cousteau was not afraid to try new things, far from it he was an innovator of the first order, the underwater scooter, the saucer submersible, the helicopter and flying boat were amongst those ideas his team employed and all the while that they explored they also were collecting valuable scientific data around the world with the teams of scientists they had aboard.
They also carried out three experiments in living underwater with the Con-shelf projects, the last one was in 100 meters of water and was one of the first examples of saturation diving, all of which were a complete success.                                                                                                Cousteau broke away from these projects, as it was the oil industry that were the main financial backers and he was more and more convinced of the need for a conservation stance.                                       This was a more difficult road than the lucrative funding of the oil industry that was doing saturation dive research for exploitation purposes.
He obviously was a very imaginative man whom used this gift to great ends, sadly though things did not always turn out so well.
His own son phillipe was killed in the Catalina flying boat that they used for filming when it hit a sand bar in the Tagus River in Portugal, Seven others aboard survived with some injuries but Phillipe was unable to get out of the aircraft, he was only 37, it must have been a terrible blow indeed.
The accomplishments were terrific, Cousteau inspired a whole generation to get out and explore the Oceans and rivers, he and his team were way ahead of their time and helped open the doors to the future.                                                                                                                                 Sadly we are also seeing the results of the over exploitation of the Oceans that he so warned of early on.
Jaques Yves Cousteau was born in Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac of the Gironde Province part of the Bordeaux wine region of France on the 11th of June 1910 He passed away on the 25th of June 1997.
He was a Visionary and true explorer.

 

GERRY CLARK

Gerald Stanley Clark MBE, 9th of May 1927 to June 1999

Gerry Clark MBE

Although he is not a household name, my jaw goes a little slack when I think of what he achieved, circumnavigating the Antarctic continent in the small 10 metre wooden vessel Totorore.
He explored the offshore Antarctic Islands, often anchoring on lee shores and in questionable conditions.
With crew or alone this journey took some three years.

He was an avid ornithologist and conservationist and a man of action whom was not content to remain in his armchair,  The purpose for the expedition was to count the Southern Ocean bird populations, documenting and photographing these for conservation purposes.
On the Marion Island to Australia leg of the Journey the Totorore was Rolled and dismasted several times, on a jury rig of a jury rig, with no working engine or electricity,  alone and in the great southern ocean, he was able to make Fremantle under sail and without assistance after weeks drifting in the South.

Some sixteen further expeditions to Catalogue bird populations followed
Sadly on a final expedition to the Southern ocean he and his crew member Roger Sale were lost when the Totorore was driven onto cliffs on Antipodes Island.

Gerry was a true explorer, and a Master mariner.  He was also  a  man of a truly humble nature.
The photographs of his book the Totorore expedition tell the story much better than words ever could.  Please find out more about Gerry’s incredible life here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Clark

MARK HENZE – WHITEWATER KAYAKER, EXPLORER

Californian Whitewater kayaker, Fire jumper and explorer who
Co wrote, Colombian whitewater with Aaron Rettig,  the only  kayaking guide for the South American Country of Colombia at that time.

When most people were visiting the nation to make use of cheap labor, girls or way more nefarious activities. The mountains were full of the Guerrilla groups such as the FARC or Autodefensas and it was therefore unwise to be wandering about as a foreigner,  Mark in the company of other adventurous kayakers were exploring the steep creeks and rivers of the place, helping to bring a new and exiting dimension to sport and Exploration to the people.
Sadly he passed away when the River Santo Domingo in Eastern Antioquia, that he and fellow kayaker Eneko Yarza were exploring rose 20 feet almost without warning in the middle of the night. Eneko scrambled to safety and Mark was swept away.  He was 37 years of age at the time of the accident.

Quiet spoken and calm of character He was a true Ambassador for his native USA.