When It All Went Wrong

As they dodged through the ice, it got closer and more compact than ever, making progress south even harder. They eventually found an open lane of water, but after sailing 124 miles they came to a halt in front of some extremely dense pack ice, probably held in place by some huge ice cliffs nearby. However, an easterly gale started up. The pack ice eventually dispersed, and they continued sailing, but only for 24 miles before encountering some more harsh pack ice. They were stuck until some north-easterly wind could blow the ice away. They were only 80 miles, a day’s worth of sailing, from their intended start point, Vahsel Bay. That night, the pack ice closed in even tighter. There was no open water in sight. Still, they were not afraid of getting frozen in, because the temperature was still mild, only 28 degrees Fahrenheit. They were extremely bored with the monotony of waiting for the pack ice to open up. They entertained themselves by playing with the dogs and playing football on the ice. They tried to further break through the ice, but they soon became exhausted. They could only watch helplessly as their ship drifted farther and farther away from land. As it drifted away from land, the pressure on the ice increased, and thus the pressure on the ship when the ice closed in. It became subject to “pressure attacks” - short time periods of extreme pressure against the ship. This terrified the men. One day, the ship was caught between three separate pressure ridges. The sternpost was wrenched out and the ship was leaking dangerously; the ship bowled up over the ice and tilted 30 degrees. They tried to pump out the water, but soon saw that the pump could not cope with the inrush of liquid. McNish worked on building a cofferdam while the other men gathered the dogs, food, supplies, and maps they needed. The rest would be left behind. The cofferdam was put in place, and things started to seem a little more hopeful, but the ice started to bend her like a bow, and she started leaking badly again. The pressure got worse and worse. The Endurance was knocked stern up, and while she was moving, an iceberg ripped off the rudder and sternpost. It was over. The decks were beginning to break upward, and water was flowing in where the keel was ripped out. Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship. They sadly left the Endurance in ruins.

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 Aires 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. He hid onboard for a few weeks before being caught. Shackleton was hopping mad but gave him a job in the galley, saying, "If we run out of food and are forced to start eating each other, you'll be the first." 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.

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.

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Shackleton set his sights on another expedition, this one with higher sights than any expedition before him. The others had set out to reach the South Pole; he planned to cross the whole continent. It took him a while, but he managed to get together enough money for his adventure. Many people donated money, and he received money other ways, too, like selling movie rights to studios, and turning the Nimrod into a museum with charged admission. Shackleton bought a ship from Norway, named Polaris, but she had never sailed before. He renamed her Endurance, based on his family motto, “Fortiduine Vincimus” or, “By Endurance We Conquer”. In fact, he needed two vessels to complete his journey. While he would be making his trip overland from the Weddell Sea, he would have a different set of people depositing caches of food and supplies along the route he planned to take starting from the other side. He purchased the Aurora, a sealer that had belonged to his friend, Douglas Mawson. He hired some of his crew in Britain, hiring the rest in Buenos Aires. While the Endurance Expedition had been of quite keen interest to the British, the launch was overshadowed by the breakout of World War I, and Shackleton volunteered his ship to the war efforts. The Admiralty, however, sent him a telegram telling him to go ahead with the expedition.

Shackleton's Crew

Sir Ernest Shackleton - Leader

Frank Wild - Second in command

Frank Worsley - Captain

Lionel Greenstreet - First Officer

Hubert T. Hudson - Navigator

Thomas Crean - Second Officer

Alfred Cheetham - Third Officer

Louis Rickinson - First Engineer

A.J. Kerr - Second Engineer

Alexander H. Macklin - Surgeon

James A. McIlroy - Surgeon

James M. Wordie - Geologist

Leonard D. A. Hussey - Meteorologist

Reginald W. James - Physicist

Robert S. Clark - Biologist

James Hurley - Photographer

George E. Marston - Artist

Thomas Orde-Lees - Motor expert/Storekeeper

Harry McNiesh - Carpenter

Charles Green - Cook

Walter How - Sailor

Will Bakewell - Sailor

Tim McCarthy - Sailor

Tom McLeod - Sailor

John Vincent - Sailor

Ernest Holness - Fireman

William Stevenson - Fireman

Perce Blackboro - stowaway

Shackleton's Past Experiences:

Sir Ernest Shackleton of Britain had been on two previous expeditions to the Antarctic. The first one had commenced in 1901, when Captain R. Scott sailed the Discovery with two other men and had set out to reach the South Pole. It had been poorly planned, and it failed disastrously. They suffered from starvation and scurvy; all their dogs dropped dead along the way. Shackleton almost died. He returned home a hero and built on his lesson from the Discovery and tried again with a different expedition, this one led by him. He had decided not to let himself be put under the command of anyone else again. He sailed the Nimrod to the Antarctic with ten Manchurian ponies and nine dogs, even though ponies had been shown to be totally inadequate. He hadn't learned to ski, and he did not have enough equipment. Surprisingly, they got far closer to the pole than the Discovery expedition, within 100 miles before deciding to turn back. He and four other men made a mad dash to the campsite where the rest of their men were supposed to be waiting. Instead, it was deserted. The sailors had left, and later returned to winter over and search for their bodies. When he returned, he was deemed a national hero and knighted.

Intro

This is the story of a journey to places where men should not be able to survive. The men in Shackleton’s crew suffered trials beyond comprehension. At one point or another, they were close to death from exhaustion, starvation, and sub-zero temperatures with inadequate clothing. They were forced to abandon all but the uttermost essentials in their trek across the arctic. None but the most dedicated could have survived.