3 ms·

I dispute the notion that Shackleton was an explorer. His career was marked by incredibly dangerous expeditions whose goals were primarily glory and fame. His a

by tootie 5y ago

I dispute the notion that Shackleton was an explorer. His career was marked by incredibly dangerous expeditions whose goals were primarily glory and fame. His ability to lead and inspire people to join his adventures is more akin to being a really good cult leader.

EdwardDiego 5y ago
I understand that, my two favourite New Zealand explorers (Charlie Douglas and George Dobson), are both very obscure but very admirable IMO - and they're obscure because they were the furthest from glory hounds that you can get. If you can get a hold of this book[0], it's a very interesting read (well, for me, anyway, being a Kiwi and all, especially the chapter where the editor collated Charlie Douglas' diary writings on our native birds, and what they were like for eating, which features some of our now rarest birds, he was quite fond of the flavour of kākāpō[1][2], which is critically endangered now). This article might be easier to access than an out of print book.[3] But, so many explorers that were contemporaries of Shackleton, like Amundsen, Nansen, Byrd, Scott, etc. _were_ glory hounds. Does that negate their exploration? I mean, it often meant that they took stupid risks to be "first", fully agree there. But if we eliminate the glory-hound polar explorers, there's precious few left. [0]: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/engage/cup/catalogue/books/mr-explorer-douglas-john-pascoes-new-zealand-classic.html https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/engage/cup/catalogue/books/mr-e... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kākāpō https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kākāpō [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vfsHYiKY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vfsHYiKY [3]: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/travels-with-mr-explorer-douglas/ https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/travels-with-mr-explorer-dougl...

3 ms·

I dispute the notion that Shackleton was an explorer. His career was marked by incredibly dangerous expeditions whose goals were primarily glory and fame. His a

by tootie 5y ago

EdwardDiego 5y ago
I understand that, my two favourite New Zealand explorers (Charlie Douglas and George Dobson), are both very obscure but very admirable IMO - and they're obscure because they were the furthest from glory hounds that you can get. If you can get a hold of this book[0], it's a very interesting read (well, for me, anyway, being a Kiwi and all, especially the chapter where the editor collated Charlie Douglas' diary writings on our native birds, and what they were like for eating, which features some of our now rarest birds, he was quite fond of the flavour of kākāpō[1][2], which is critically endangered now). This article might be easier to access than an out of print book.[3] But, so many explorers that were contemporaries of Shackleton, like Amundsen, Nansen, Byrd, Scott, etc. _were_ glory hounds. Does that negate their exploration? I mean, it often meant that they took stupid risks to be "first", fully agree there. But if we eliminate the glory-hound polar explorers, there's precious few left. [0]: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/engage/cup/catalogue/books/mr-explorer-douglas-john-pascoes-new-zealand-classic.html https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/engage/cup/catalogue/books/mr-e... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kākāpō https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kākāpō [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vfsHYiKY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vfsHYiKY [3]: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/travels-with-mr-explorer-douglas/ https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/travels-with-mr-explorer-dougl...