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January 2011 (historical note )www.sname.org/sname/mt By the late 19th century, there was not much left to dis- cover on this earth in terms of geography. Only the polar regions remained somewhat of a geographic mystery. In 1913, two expeditions were planned: one going south and the other going north. Although there were similarities, the two expeditions had dierent leadership styles and distinctively dier- ent outcomes. In both cases, ships were lost early in the endeavors; in one, all survived while the other lost a signicant number of mem- bers; and one failed to achieve any of its objectives while the other was successful in its primary objective. Shackleton and Stefansson e Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was organized and led by Ernest Shackleton. He was a trained mariner who organized the expedition to sail to the Antarctic and trek across the south- ern continent. He bought a new ship that had recently been built in Norway as the rst arctic tourist and expedition ship to take hunters into the Arctic to hunt polar bears. at venture fell apart when the partners split up, and Shackelton bought the ship and named her Endurance .e Canadian Arctic Expedition was organized by an Icelandic Canadian, Vilhjalmur Stefansson. His aim was to chart the unknown lands in what we know today as the western part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. His ship, Karluk , was built in Benicia, California in 1888 as a sup- port ship for shing and sealing in the Aleutian Islands. Karluk had subsequently been used for whaling in the western Arctic for a num- ber of years before being purchased by the Canadian government for Stefanssons expedition. e story of Shackleton is well known: the loss of Endurance , trapped in the pack ice, crushed, and sunk; his heroic voyage in a small boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia; his trek across the moun- tains of that island to the whaling station; and his subsequent return to Elephant Island to rescue his entire crew. Shackletons expedition failed to achieve any of its stated objectives, but he received a well- deserved heros welcome when he returned to England. e Karluk story is less well known and had a more somber out- come. Karluk was trapped in the pack ice close to Herschel Island near the Alaska-Canada border. e expedition leader, Stefansson, left the ship and took supplies, dogs, and Eskimo hunters with him to continue his exploration on foot. Karluk , with its crew aboard, drifted to the west and eventually was overwhelmed by the ice and sank near Herald Island, o the Siberian coast. Several of the crew were lost as they attempted to make land and several more were lost on Wrangell Island where they eventually set up camp. e ships captain, Robert Bartlett, a Newfoundlander and expe- rienced ice navigator, was the hero of this expedition in that he made an over-ice journey from Wrangell island to the Siberian coast with an Eskimo woman. He then traveled along the coast until he found some Russian settlements, eventually making it to Alaska where he organized the eorts that resulted in the rescue of the survivors on Wrangell Island. More exploration After abandoning his ship and crew to their fate, Stefansson went on to explore the western Arctic for two years and discovered new islands which had not previously been charted, thus achieving his expeditions primary objective. When he returned from his arctic travels, Stefansson denounced Bartlett and claimed that it had been Bartletts fault that the ship had become beset in the ice. Stefansson became a professor at Dartmouth College, although he remained a controversial gure. He died several years later on another expedition and was buried in South Georgia. e real hero of the Karluk expedition, Robert Bartlett, continued his arctic career and was the captain who supported Commander Robert Pearys expedition to the North Pole. Two poles. Two ships. Two leaders. And two very dierent outcomes. MTPeter Noble is a chief naval architect at ConocoPhillips, and is a member of the editorial board of (mt) magazine. BY PETER NOBLE FURTHER READING | To learn more about the Endurance and Karluk expeditions, check out the following works. Endurance: Shackletons Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure , by Frank Worsley South with Endurance: Shackletons Antarctic Expedition 1914- 1917 , by Frank Hurley Shackletons Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer , by Stephanie Capparell and Margot Morrel The Last Voyage of the Karluk , by Robert Bartlett and Ralph Hale Karluk: The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration , by William Laird McKinlay The Friendly Arctic , by Vilhjalmur Stefansson The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk and the Miraculous Rescue of her Survivors , by Jennifer Niven Bartlett: The Great Canadian Explorer, by Harold Horwood Poles Apart A tale of two early 20th century expeditions to the ends of the earth