Sailing South

Shackleton’s party was not as prepared as he had hoped. They had plenty of dogs, but the only experienced dog driver had dropped out at the last minute. Though their overland trek required an average of 15 miles a day, only one person on the entire crew knew how to ski. They sailed to Buenos Aries, in South America, bought some more supplies, and hired a few more people, including the photographer, James Hurley. They also had an unwelcome visitor onboard, a stowaway named Pierce Blackboro. They then sailed for South Georgia, the last port before going to Antarctica. When they got there, they heard word of the worst ice conditions in the memory of the whalers at the port. They decided to wait a few months, and then, even though they were warned not to, sailed for Antarctica anyway. They spent the next six weeks dodging and weaving through the pack ice, sometimes ramming through it. One of the dogs onboard had given birth to three puppies.

Civilization After Over Two Years of Isolation

For the first time in two years, Shackleton, Worsley, and Crean had hot baths, new clothes, shaves, and all the food they could eat. They sent a boat called the Samson to pick up the people they had left on the other side of the island, while Shackleton and the commander of the whaling station, Sorrle, discussed how to rescue the rest of the crew at Elephant Island. They sent a ship called the Yelcho, an old whaler. The crew had been expecting a ship to come for them for months, and they went to a lookout point every day, but they had more-or-less lost hope of any ship appearing on the horizon. One day, Marston came sprinting down the path from the lookout point to the campsite. Everyone looked at him, wondering why he was late for lunch and why he was so out of breath. “Don’t you think we should light a signal fire?” He asked nonchalantly. It took a few seconds for them to process his words, but when they did, they dropped everything and sprinted to the seashore to see the ship. They were picked up by a rowboat and taken to the ship, taking nothing with them. Back in Britain, they made the headlines. No one had expected that Shackleton's crew would still be alive. They were made national heroes.

South Georgia

They had aimed for the east side of the island, with the knowledge that the western-aimed currents would help them hit the island even if they would have missed. The western side was the one with the whaling station, and on the east side there was nothing. That meant that they would have to traverse the huge mountains between them and people. Shackleton ordered Vincent, McCarthy, and McNiesh to stay behind because they were too weak to make the trip. That left he, Worsley, and Crean. They had nothing worthwhile to take with them except food, some rope, and an axe. They waited a few days for a snowstorm to pass, and then set off. The snow was so deep it sometimes went to their knees. They slogged on for miles, reaching 5000 feet above sea level. Then they started down. It was even harder than going up, and they didn't get very far before Shackleton decided “We’ll slide.” It was a completely mad idea, but if they didn't get down fast they would freeze to death. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Imagine sledding down a gigantic mountain 1,500 feet with no sled, and no idea when you might hit a rock, going incredibly fast. The whole thing only lasted three minutes, and they had a soft landing. They still had to keep going, and after a few hours they recognized the familiar landmarks of Stromness Bay, with a whaling station and a small village. Civilization.

The Voyage of the James Caird

They sailed for sixteen days - the worst, most torturous sixteen days in the entire trip. They first encountered pack ice, but they soon found a way through, finding open water. Every day they were soaked, and too seasick to eat much of anything. There were gales for ten out of the sixteen days.They got next to no sleep, because it got to be so cold that the spray that came up onto the ship froze solid. One day, a terrible stench led the men to find out that their deerskin sleeping bags were rotting. They had to throw the worst two over the side of the ship. They were constantly bailing out water, but it hardly made a difference. It was dark from six at night to seven in the morning, and they had almost no light. Their navigation books were almost ruined, and the maps were almost impossible to read. One day, they awoke to find that every soaking rope, canvas, and piece of wood on that ship had frozen solid, and the ice was working as a deadweight, dragging the ship down into the water. They worked ceaselessly for hours, chipping the ice off. Shackleton once thought he saw a clear sky ahead, but it turned out to be a gigantic wave. Finally, after going through days and days of torture, they spotted land. South Georgia.

Elephant Island

Elephant Island was an incredibly harsh island, with high cliffs and rocky beaches, but it was land nonetheless. For the first two days, they did nothing but eat and sleep. They were half mad with sleep deprivation and starvation. They then started to make a shelter from the waves and weather. They made a circular wall of stones and put one of the boats on top. There was hardly enough room for all the men to lie down in. During the boat trip, Perce Blackboro had gotten hypothermia on his feet and he had to have all of his toes taken off. Shackleton knew that if they did not find civilization soon, they would all die, so he chose four of the best men and took the best of the supplies the men had, and set off on the James Caird to sail to South Georgia. He set sail on April 24.

Into the boats

They sailed for a while, then camped on a berg they deemed safe. Later that night, a huge crack shot through the iceberg, sending one of the firemen tumbling into the icy water, still in his sleeping bag. They didn't get any more sleep that night, and at 6:00 they started off again. They rowed with difficulty through some ice floes; the boats were big and bulky and kept ramming into the ice. They got through it, to find open water ahead. It was too dangerous for them to try sailing through it, because the waves were gigantic, unfettered by the pack ice. They reluctantly turned toward King George Island. For the next several days, a huge gale swept through the waters. They could not tell where they were. When the weather cleared, they expected that the readings would tell them they had covered many miles. The results were awful. They had not covered an inch of ground. In fact, they had gone backward, sixty miles south and about thirty miles east. This news eliminated all possibilities except for one: Elephant Island. It was over a hundred miles away. They sailed for three days, weathering storms and avoiding pack ice, with virtually no rest and almost no food at all. They were freezing inside their clothes, they were all soaked. Most of them had frostbite. Finally, one day, they spotted it as a black spot in the distance. Elephant Island.

Ocean Camp and Patience Camp

They knew that that was as far south as they would ever go. There was no chance of completing the expedition now; they had drifted over 600 miles. They planned to get to Snow Hill or Robertson Island, some 200 miles northwest. Moving anywhere carrying all of their supplies meant dragging two bulky lifeboats, plus all their food and equipment. It was backbreaking work, and they stopped after going just under a mile. They camped on a big ice floe to await the breakup of the ice. They named their camp Ocean Camp. They had to get rid of anything that consumed their valuable food and was unable to pull its own weight. They shot three of the puppies and a tabby cat they had kept onboard. For the next several days, salvage teams ferried back and forth between the wreckage of the ship and the camp, gaining wood, canvas, rope, and food. They removed the entire wheelhouse to use as storage. They hacked a hole in the deck to the storage room beneath it, and many crates of food floated up. Hurley bravely rescued his negatives by hacking through the refrigerator he was keeping them in, stripping down, and diving down four feet through mushy ice water. He chose the best 120 to resoulder, and dumped over 400 others. After weeks of waiting for the ice to open up, they decided to move west. It was a terrible idea. The ice was dangerous and they were moving painfully slow. After eight hours of toil, they had covered a little more than a mile. It went on that way for days, and they were never entirely rested, never totally full. Shackleton had planned for them to go 60 miles, but he saw that it was impossible. He decided to stop the march for a few days, because the ice ahead not only required them to stop, it required them to retreat half a mile. They camped on a sturdy looking floe. A week of labor had gained them eight miles. They had abandoned additional food, clothing, books, and a stove. A blizzard drove their berg through the Antarctic circle and into more familiar waters. Ironically, a few days later, the floe with Ocean Camp drifted within five miles of where they were, and they could go get all the items they had left behind. They shot the remaining dogs. Their floe was drifting with alarming speed in the direction they wanted to go, and they could soon see Clarence Island and Elephant Island in the distance. Their floe began to crack and they decided it was time to launch the boats.