"Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing (ISBN 0-88184-178-1)
A story of survival from the early days of Antarctic exploration.
The February 1963 issue of the National Geographic Magazine included a wonderful map of Antarctica with a wealth of historical notes about early explorations. One, in the Weddell Sea, reads:
"Shackleton, leading a British expedition, penetrated the ice pack to this point in January, 1915, where his ship 'Endurance' was frozen in. Drifting to 69 Degrees South, the ship was crushed; the crew transferred stores and equipment to an ice floe, together with the ship's three boats. Arriving at Elephant Island in the South Shetlands, Shackleton left 22 men and with a crew of five, sailed for help 800 miles through the stormy Scotia Sea to South Georgia, arriving May 10, 1916. His entire party was rescued."
I remember reading this at the time and thinking this was either a mistake or one of the most incredible survival stories of all time. If I had known that Alfred Lansing had told that story in this 1959 book, I would have gone out and found a copy many years ago.
The note on the map gives an outline of the story but Lansing tells the story of the men and their journey in great enough detail to pull you into their situation. When Lancing was researching this book in the late 1950's, he was able to interview 9 members of the crew who were still living. The result, is the narrative of a group in one of the most dire situations I can imagine and their determination to prevail.
Lancing rightly starts with a sketch of the organizer and leader of the expedition, Ernest Shackleton. He was determined to achieve fame and fortune by achieving what he saw as the last great exploration of the Antarctic. The expedition was primarily funded by private contributions along with the sale of photo and lecture rights in advance of the departure. Shackleton chose his crew on the basis of his intuition about them after a 5 minute interview! Now here was a man with confidence in his own abilities who was willing to back it up by putting his life on the line.
The ship, Endurance, is described in some detail. She was designed and built for the Arctic seas, and so was, perhaps, the strongest sailing ship ever built. Shackleton intended to sail her to the Antarctic coast and land a party to cross the continent by way of the South Pole. The ship, however, got caught in the pack ice and was eventually crushed by the brute force of the ice.
At this point the entire crew is left on the ice with what they can salvage from the ship and utterly isolated from the rest of humanity. They have no radio communications and no hope of rescue by airplane. They have only their skills and each other to rely on. The pack ice, however, moves and they decide to wait till the whims of wind and current carry them nearer to land. After several unsuccessful attempts to travel over the ice they take to their boats and make their way to Elephant Island at the tip of the Palmer peninsula; that finger like strip of land that stretches toward the tip of South America from Antarctica. They had not been on land for 497 days.
Elephant Island, is barren, uninhabited and unvisited so Shackleton and five others took one of the boats to attempt to reach South Georgia Island where there is a whaling station. By the time they reach the whaling station, everyone has long since given them up for dead. Shackleton then organizes and leads several attempts to rescue the men he left on Elephant Island, finally making contact on the fourth rescue voyage. In the end all 28 men returned to England.
The book is best read with a map of Antarctica available and suffers a bit from not having one included. (Later editions DO have a map.) A glossary of nautical and Antarctic terms would also have been appreciated. These are minor complaints that are easily remedied. In all, a fine piece of reporting on a fascinating and truly incredible voyage.
JGD
| - Home - | - Contact - | - Web Sites - | - MS Info - | - Book Reviews - | - Curiosities - |