Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

After reading the book all the way through, you cannot help but admire the 26 men that took that expedition head on. They were aware of the challenges ahead of them before the journey, but I bet none of them could have guessed what had lied ahead of them. The courage and will power to survive was one to be admired. I think what impressed me the most, was the attitudes of them men. All the way through the journey, there was never a real sense of defeat among the men. They put trust into their leader and everyone did their jobs as best as they could despite the conditions. What I was surprised the most, was the fact that not one man was lost due to death during the dreadful years they spent barely surviving. The men initially took this journey for the spirit of adventure, but by the end of the journey they just wanted to survive the adventure. Shackleton used a lot of impulsive decisions and the men listened to him each and every time. The amount of trust they had in their leader made the difference between life and death. Survival meant that the men had to eat what they could get their hands on. The lectures mentions conditioned food preferences and the mere exposure effect. his means that repeated food-tastings increases the liking of that food. In the book, an example such as eating blubber. The men did not like it at first, but since they ate it so often, they grew a liking for the food. Not just a liking, but craved it because their hunger was that severe. All in all, the journey of Shackleton and his men was a great read.