"a characteristic speech"

Dump Camp, October 27, 1915

This is one of Shackleton's outstanding leadership moments as described by Worsley in his 1931 book, Endurance.

After abandoning the ship, "Shackleton made a characteristic speech to hearten our party, the sort of speech that only he could make. Simpley and in brief sentences he told the men not to be alarmed at the loss of the vessel, and assured them that by hard effort, clean work, and loyal co-operation, they could make their way to land. This speech had an immediate effect: our spirits rose, and we were inclined to take a more cheerful view of a situation that, actually, had not one element in it to warrant the alteration. We had food only for four weeks. We had nothing to keep out the biting cold save linen so thin that when there chanced to be a moon we could easily see it through the material. And we had to sleep on the ice, on a covering that was not water-proof, so that such warmth as there was in our bodies would melt the ice and cause us to lie in pools of water. We knew that we had to face all this. But there was no point in admitting it even to ourselves, let alone to one another. And therefore we bucked up.

I remember one of the crew [ed. note: notoriously gloomy as a group], with typical Cockney humour, remarking to the man next to him: "Damn, we'll have to pack our portmantles!" [ed note: meaning suitcases] and I can still hear the laugh that went up.

We all caught the spirit. We began to laugh, to joke, to buck each other up."