Just before the outbreak of...
Illustration
Just before the outbreak of World War I, a small ship named Endurance set sail
from Briton with a crew intent on being the first to cross the South Pole. The ship reached
Antarctica, but became icebound in the Weddle Sea. Soon they had to abandon their ship
and the 28-man crew took to their lifeboats. They were trapped on the ice for over a year.
A desperate decision was made to take four men in a twenty-foot lifeboat across the
roughest sea in the world to a whaling station on South Georgia Island some 800 miles
away. At the helm was a man named Worsely. All he had to guide them that 800 miles to
South Georgia Island was a map, a watch, a sexton, and a compass, but it was all he
needed, if he used them well. A mistake as minor as being off by only one degree would
have proved disastrous. The four men in that boat endured seas that raged higher than a
ten-story building. They were constantly cold and wet from the waves that continuously
drenched the boat. They had only the most meager of rations. The journey did not take
days, but two weeks. But Worsley, whose most sophisticated tool was a compass,
managed to get that lifeboat the 800 miles to South Georgia Island and eventually the
entire crew of the Endurance was saved. As a result, Worsley was a hero. The
whaling captains who sailed those waters considered him one of the wisest navigators in
the world. Worsley was brilliant, but all of his brilliance would have been worthless if he
had not used the compass. Worsley was wise because he used the compass to guide him.
The ancients believed that there are two types of people in the world: People who are
fools and people who are wise. Being wise is a matter of using the compass you've been
given to get where you need to go. Fools choose not to use the compass.
