Leadership
Those who have survived perilous group situations in
Antarctica and elsewhere stress that the first order of
business upon being stranded is to appoint a leader and a
second-in-command and then doggedly follow their orders. On
the
Endurance expedition,
Shackleton
held absolute if fatherly control over his men throughout the
ordeal, while Frank
Wild
was very much his right-hand man. According to Alexander
Macklin, Wild was "always calm, cool, or collected, in open lanes or
in tight corners he was just the same; but when he did tell a
man to jump, that man jumped pretty quick." Many historians
would agree that Shackleton's success in returning himself and
every one of his 27 crew members to safety was due in great
part to his and Wild's quiet, cooperative authority.
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