On October 29, 1915, a group of worn out Antarctic explorers gathered together on a frozen ice pack in the Antartic’s Weddell Sea. Their situation: desperate. Nine months earlier, their ship, Endurance, had been trapped, frozen in, immobilized in the ice, 350 miles from the sea. …They had seventy sled dogs, a substantial supply of food, three twenty-two foot lifeboats and (Sir) Ernest Shackleton, the Irish explorer, born in Kilkea, Co Kildare, the most indomitable polar leader of all time and one of the principal figures of the period known as the ‘Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.’

Ernest called the group together on the ice and told them that their only hope for survival was to drag the lifeboats over the ice pack some 350 miles and launch them into the sea. . He emphasized that they must travel light. Each man could keep the clothes on his back, two pairs of mittens, six pairs of socks, two pairs of boots, a sleeping bag, a pound of tobacco, and two pounds of personal gear.

In a dramatic end to the briefing, he reached into his clothes, took out his Bible (originally given to him by Queen Alexandria), tore out the Psalm 23, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ folded it carefully into his pocket, laid the Bible reverently in the snow and began their long trek.

All were deeply moved by his trust in God and the Bible

David Campbell