heading south: intrepid explorer wanted to follow in shackleton's footsteps
Descendants of the Kilkea-born Ernest Shackleton are trying to recruit a final explorer to help them replicate their ancestor's journey to the South Pole.
Shackleton is reported to have recruited his expedition members with an ad promising "small wages", "constant danger" and a "doubtful safe return".
A century later, the new team wants someone with a "relentless passion to succeed" and a supply of "good jokes". They will also have to be fit and their cup must always be "half-full".
The Antarctic explorer, best known for leading the Endurance expedition of 1914-1916, never made it to the South Pole. But he came close to being the first to do so on his 1908-09 Nimrod mission, after which he was knighted for his achievement in establishing a record furthest south latitude from the South Pole.
Shackleton died of a heart attack off the Atlantic island of South Georgia in 1922.
Aiming to finish the task, the 21st-Century expedition is being led by Lt-Col Henry Worsley (47), a relative of Frank Worsley, the skipper on Endurance. Their 80-day trek leaves in October -- exactly 100 years after the Nimrod expedition.
They will follow the same 900-mile route as their predecessors, and will face temperatures of -35C.
"The type of person we will be looking for is a strong team player who sees this as a lifetime opportunity," Lt-Col Worsley said. "Above all else we want a candidate with a relentless passion to succeed whatever the adversity."
- - JAMES WRIGHT
