What Would Be The Limit Of Your Endurance?

PeterRS2 · July 26

You can read the title any way you wish 🤪 but I am referring to an article in today's Guardian. It has photos of what I have long regarded as the greatest feat of endurance and leadership of the last century.

With World War 1 on the horizon, one man set off from London in an attempt to gain the one unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: a land crossing of the Antarctic. In his ship The Endurance with a crew of 27 they reached the edge of the Antarctic Wedell Sea close to the point where they would disembark and set off by foot. But then the ship became trapped in the ice. They failed to release it and so for months they were stuck as over time the ice crushed the ship like matchwood. It gradually keeled over and sank within 10 months of arrival. Shakleton and his crew were stranded with no way of informing the world what was happening.

With the weather becoming warmer, six months later the ice on which they had pitched tents broke into ice floes. Shakleton then showed his courage and extraordinary leadership. The Endurance carried three small open boats. He and his men dragged them over the ice for weeks till they reached open water. With minimal navigation equipment, they then set out on those simple boats for the icy mountainous remote Elephant Island in freezing weather across some of the most treacherous seas anywhere some 60 miles away. They were aware the island was uninhabited but it was far better to make for land than sink in the ice. Once there, they had to find food. Using two of the boats, they erected a form of shelter and lived on seal and penguin meat.

Realising he had to find some way of reaching civilisation, Shakleton and five of his crew set out in one of the open boats named James Caird (who had been one of the sponsors of the expedition) to make for South Georgia where he knew there was a whaling station. But it was 800 miles away and once again he had to sail through some of the most tempestuous seas where waves of 40 feet high were not uncommon. The other men must have been somewhat taken aback when he told them at the outset, "I know nothing about sailing!"

Shakleton and his exceedingly brave men reached South Georgia after a full 17 days at sea. But then they realised they were on the wrong side of the island from the whaling station. So wearing only their thick, sea-sodden woollen clothing, they set about crossing the island's snow-covered mountain range. Two days later when the whalers heard Shakleton's story, they could not believe it. No one could cross that ocean in an open boat, they reckoned. However, Shakleton's priority was rescuing the men he had left behind on Elephant Island. 128 days since his departure and on the fourth attempt, he finally landed again at Elephant Island. His men were overjoyed to see him, all believing he must have been lost at sea. Even more remarkable is the fact that Shackleton was able to return to London with all his men, thanks in part by assistance from the Chilean government. Not one had been lost on this quite extraordinary voyage.

In ordinary times, Shakleton would have been hailed as a hero and awarded all manner of honours. If there is one sad ending it was that his return co-incided with the worst happenings in World War 1. Returning from a previous expedition in 1909 he had indeed been hailed a hero. This time, despite what is now regarded as one of the greatest acts of heroism of the century , his return was noted without fuss. He did attempt one more Antarctic Expedition but died of a fatal heart attack in South Georgia in 1922. He requested to be buried there.

Shakleton had had the foresight to take with him in his crew a superb photgrapher, Frank Hurley. His exploits on the Endurance are therefore extremely well documented. The Guardian prints some photos today. Among the dozens of books about the Expedition, I thoroughly recommend Carline Alexander's The Endurance: Shakleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition published in 1999, as much for the stunning photographs as for the writing. It is one of the few books on amazon I have noted with 5 stars. More details can be found in the link below.