Margot Morrell
Dec 1, 20201 min
In the Introduction of Shackleton's Way (bottom of pg. 3 paperback), we mention the week the crew spent in the lifeboats - a horrific ordeal. They were hoping and struggling to get to the west - where there was a whaling station manned year round. After a few cloudy days, Worsley, in the Dudley Docker, finally got a sun-sight. Shackleton hopped from the James Caird to the Docker to confer with Worsley. They were 30 miles to the east of where they had started out.
Shackleton kept the bad news to himself rather than sharing it with his team. He simply told them, we didn't do as well as we hoped.
This incident has always stood out to me as characteristic of Shackleton-style leadership. Sometimes a leader has to keep bad news from the crew.