Peter Rhodes on Shackleton's ship, limited unlimitedness and phoning the truth into Putin's Russia

Our changing language. A private healthcare company offers me “up to unlimited medical expenses.” My interest in this offer is also “up to unlimited.” Or to put it another way, limited.

The healthcare mailshot arrived in the same post as a brochure from Pure Cremation. Just in case the “up to unlimited” treatment doesn't work.

Russian speakers in Britain are joining the Call Russia project, phoning Russian numbers at random to tell ordinary Russians the truth about the war in Ukraine. It sounds like an intelligent, peaceful way to overcome the daily lies pumped out by the Kremlin. But it's up against the almost fanatical desire of his people to believe everything Putin tells them.

Russians seem convinced, for instance, that their army would never target civilians. So when they are presented with reports or images of women and children being killed, they automatically assume this is Western propaganda, or worse. A maternity hospital in Ukraine is blown up? Then the Ukrainian army must have done it, to pin the blame on Russia. Random phone calls may influence one or two Russian minds but, tragically, the real mind-changer will be Russian soldiers coming home in body bags.

The discovery of Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance two miles down in the Weddell Sea naturally focuses attention on the magnificent wreck and the modern technology that found it. But the most important and incredible part of Shackleton's 1914-17 expedition is what happened after Endurance was crushed in the ice and sank.

Shackleton led his men to safe ground and converted a 22ft lifeboat into a small sailing boat, the James Caird. He and five others sailed 800 miles over 16 days through freezing gales to get help in South Georgia. From the depths of despair, Shackleton miraculously brought all his expedition members safely home to Britain.

Endurance was a magnificent vessel and is an awesome wreck. Images of her in stately repose on the seabed have gone round the world. But as you admire this great ship, spare a moment to look at online images of the little James Caird, now preserved in London's Dulwich College, and reflect on her epic, and ironic, voyage. The mighty Endurance, 144 feet long and weighing 350 tons, took Shackleton and his men into danger but a 22 ft sailing boat saved their bacon.