Pamela HarstadHave you worked towards your dream today? Alan Shepherd
About This Quote
Alan Shepherd was a British adventurer and the first person to reach the South Pole. As a child, Shepherd was fascinated by the world and the unknown. His father, a successful industrialist, bought him a plane at age ten and allowed him to fly in it. At twelve, he took his first plane ride in the African bush.
He studied engineering in college and began work as a test pilot for a major airline when he was only twenty-one years old. In spite of his success in aviation, when his mother died when he was twenty five, he struggled with depression and alcoholism that nearly cost him his life. In 1962, at age thirty-four, Alan Shepherd was ready for another adventure.
He had been to the North Pole twice before, but had never visited Antarctica. During 1959, he attempted to reach the South Pole by plane unsupported. Part of his plan was to fly over the pole and then turn back if he found himself unable to continue due to weather conditions or mechanical problems.
However, on January 4, 1961, while flying over Antarctica for about three hours he became stuck in the ice near 90º 1/2 S latitude (the South Pole). Unable to get off of his plane due to his lack of fuel, he tried every trick he knew but to no avail. Finally deciding that there was nothing else left to try, Alan jumped out of his plane into an 800 foot (240 meters) deep crevasse.
He then slid down several miles before reaching open water where his plane eventually crashed into an iceberg causing it to sink into the watery depths where it remains to this day. After several hours under the ice, Alan finally managed to attract someone’s attention by taking up an SOS message using one of his plane’s emergency beacons (he had not saved any other). The rescue party found Alan injured but alive about six miles away from where they found him floating in the ocean close to where his plane had sunk.
After recovering from his injuries Alan returned home safely with two broken legs, two broken ribs and multiple frostbite injuries on both of his feet but continued on with life just as if nothing had happened.
Source: Erins Mission
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