|
Ernest Shackleton
Factfile |
 Ernest Shackleton and HMS Endurance |
 |
The Voyage
The voyage to Buenos Aires was uneventful and from there on the 26th October Shackleton set sail for the Antarctic. Although their original intention had been to sail through the pack ice during the Antarctic summer months, as Endurance fought her way through the pack ice towards the continent, it became clear that the ship was trapped. On February 24th, 1915 Shackleton was forced to declare Endurance their winter quarters. `The ship can’t live in this’, wrote Shackleton. `It may be a few months, and it may be a question of weeks, or even days…but what the ice gets the ice keeps’.
As the Antarctic winter began, Shackleton and his crew faced impossible conditions. Records from the expedition show a temperature of -23° F on the 11th July, while a blizzard recorded on the evening of the 13th July, mentions the wind reaching a speed of 70 miles per hour and the kennels of the expedition dogs being buried under five feet of snow by the following morning.
By the end of September, it became clear that Endurance was not going to escape the rapidly approaching ice and on October 23rd, the crushing process started - forcing the crew to abandon ship and set up "Ocean Camp" on a thick, heavy ice floe about a mile and a half from Endurance. Finally, on November 21st, Endurance sunk beneath the Wendell Sea after being locked in ice for 281 days.
Although Shackleton and his crew had managed to retrieve supplies, equipment and three lifeboats from Endurance, they had no means of communication or getting help – a truly frightening experience. As the days dragged on, for food they were forced to kill and eat the expedition dogs, as not only were their rations decreasing, when the ice melted they knew there would not be enough room in the lifeboats for the crew and the dogs.
On April 9th, 1916, after being
trapped in the ice for 16 months, Shackleton and his
crew launched their boats and reached Elephant Island,
south of the Falkland Islands on the 12th April, the
first land any of them had touched in over a year. Then,
Shackleton and five of his crew went in search of South
Georgia, some 800 miles away, in the James Caird, a
rowing boat with little way of charting the correct
course and without seeing the sun. Travelling at about
3mph, that sail through freezing gales is now remembered
as one of the greatest boat journeys in history.
Miraculously they survived and arrived on South Georgia
on May 10th.
 Unfortunately, they were 17 miles from the island's remote whaling station and now faced a trek over mountains and glaciers - an effort no one had accomplished before. Leaving three of his crew behind due to extreme exhaustion, Shackleton and his remaining companions climbed over glaciers and snowfields until they reached the whaling factory. From there they organised the rescue of the three exhausted men who were waiting under the upturned James Caird and eventually, with help from the Chilean Government Shackleton was able to rescue his men from Elephant Island - even after 105 days, they had all survived. Not only did Shackleton put the life of his men above everything else, but also whatever the challenge, he refused to give in.
That was not to be the end of Shackleton’s expeditions. He set out again for the South Pole in 1921, but on the 5th January 1922 Shackleton suffered a heart attack and died. He was 47. He was laid to rest in South Georgia and ever since his death his story has become associated with exceptional bravery and leadership.
Photographs courtesy of the Scott Polar Research Institute
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
