Shackleton’s Epic Journey, 1916

• Main Author: Reaney, Richard
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Antarctic; Elephant Island; Pacific; Shackleton; South Pole; The Antarctic; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Antarc*; South pole
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/14291

It is often claimed that there has never been a greater feat of seamanship than Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton's open boat voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia in 1916 after the loss of his ship Endurance. Ernest Shackleton was a member of Scott's first Antarctic expedition Of 1901-04. A few years later he came close to being the first man to reach the South Pole, when he sledged to within 97 miles Of it. He was a larger than life figure. The English "establishment" didn't approve of him because he was outspoken and unconventional, but those who sailed with him respected and loved him. He was a great natural leader of men and affectionately known to his men as the 'Boss.' Irish by birth, his family moved to England in 1884 and Shackleton attended school at Dulwich College, He joined the merchant navy in 1890 as a rating (Boy), on the Houghton Tower and so began his love for adventure and exploration. His Ship the Endurance was part Of an ambitious expedition, which in 1914 attempted to Cross the Antarctic Continent, via the South Pole. The plan was that one ship, the Aurora, should land men on the Pacific Ocean side of the continent, and these men would set up food depots along the McMurdo route to the pole. Meanwhile, at the same time, •another ship the Endurance, would land men on the opposing Weddell Sea side, and they would cross the continent, picking up the food depots left by the Aurora Expedition on the final stage of their journey. The Endurance arrived in the Weddell Sea late in 1914. It was a bad year for ice. While the ship was still a 100 miles from the coast she became ensnared. Trapped fast, without a hope Of escape through the thickening ice floes, Shackleton tried frantically to Cut and batter his way clear. "But the task," he wrote, "was beyond Our powers, and I realised we would have to spend the winter in the inhospitable arms Of the pack." Month after month, the Endurance drifted this way and that, at the mercy of the wind and Current, TO start with she was not in serious danger, but ...