A Farewell to Oars*
Ernst Shackleton and Shore’s Greatest Sport
H. A. G. Longstaff
ERNEST SHACKLETON’S NOW FAMOUS ADVERTISEMENT for men to join him on his 1914 Antarctic expedition was unconventional (see image above).
It was the heroic age of polar exploration when this represented mankind’s final frontier, say, equivalent to space today. There was no shortage of chancers and dreamers whose eyes and hearts were focused on fame and fortune, ignoring the extraordinary challenges of the expedition.
What Shackleton knew was that such men would fail. He wanted realists with resilience and the right motivation. His advertisement did this and attracted the right men for one of the most arduous journeys ever undertaken.
As the clock ticks down on Head of the River 2024, perhaps the final race of my schoolboy rowing career, I am reflecting on the lessons participating in this Sport has taught me.
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said:
“Nothing worthwhile is ever easy”.
Rowing is hard. With the greatest of respect to the boys of rugby packing into a scrum, the cricketers spending hours in the nets or the cross-country runners pounding the paths, I don’t think there is a harder Sport at Shore than rowing. Very early mornings. Lactic acid causing your muscles to scream out in pain in the last 500m (not that I do any of the hard stuff as a Cox).
But in this hardship, there are fabulous moments.
The glassy waters of Hen and Chicken Bay at 5:30am with oars slicing perfectly into the sea. The esprit-de-corps of a united purpose and shared suffering. That success is only achieved not through individual brilliance, but through synchronicity and teamwork.
As my father says:
“No-one ever tells stories about when it was easy”.
My rowing crews and I have a shared experience that we will never forget. We have been pushed, mentally and physically, further than we ever felt was possible. We have set seemingly impossible goals, and found we can achieve them. We have learned that through effort comes results.
This is my version of Shackleton’s advertisement. I encourage boys to take the harder yet more rewarding road and think about rowing. Go and see Mr Bates and say you want to row in the First VIII one day, that you want to conquer a real achievement. You won’t regret it.
Oh, and what happened to Shackleton? His trip was a very successful failure. The Endurance was trapped in sea ice for 11 months before being crushed and sinking. They then spent five months on an iceberg before sailing small boats first to the uninhabited Elephant Island, and then with five men, Shackleton sailed a 1,500 km voyage across the world’s roughest ocean in an open seven metre lifeboat ‘James Caird’ to South Georgia. But he landed on the wrong side of the island and had to climb an icy mountain range to reach the isolated whaling station that was their salvation. All of Shackleton’s crew survived. It has become one of the greatest stories of courage, resilience and leadership ever told.
*With apologies to Ernest Hemingway.
