NavList:

Frank Reed you wrote: Dale Lichtblau, you wrote:
"Kudos to Worsley are hardly exaggerated."

Sorry, but I don't agree. He has become an object of affection, an icon of the polar explorer-hero with a dash of geeky "engineer salt" on top. He is no longer a historical human being.

I think that in assessing Frank Worsley’s contribution to the safe return of the 1914-17 Shackleton expedition you must look further than his ranking amongst the navigators of his day or the number of sextant sights he was able to take in the trying conditions of the voyage in the James Caird.  We must also look at his effect upon the morale of each individual crew member and from that the morale of the entire expedition.

It seems to me that by the way he conducted himself between leaving London to sighting South Georgia from the James Caird he engendered sufficient confidence in each crew member that whichever disaster might befall them next, it wouldn’t be down to the navigation of Frank Worsley, and that is important.  The same can be said of the leadership style of Sir Ernest Shackleton.  DaveP