«» Travel Notes 026: Endurance
Sir Ernest Shackleton and the greatest of all Antarctic adventures
HELLO. I’m Atom, and you’ve received my Travel Notes:
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I’ve been home the past week, pouring through the pages of Alfred Lansing’s Endurance, a recounting of the greatest of all Antarctic adventures.
The date was December 1914. The name of the ship was Endurance, and the goal of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, was to cross the Antarctic continent overland from west to east.
Yet, on January 1915, just one day’s sail away from their intended landfall, the Endurance became beset, frozen into heavy pack ice.
The Endurance stayed this way for 10 months, “frozen, like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar,” until on October 1915, after the Endurance suffered particularly heavy pressure from the pack ice, Shackleton ordered to abandon ship.
“They were for all practical purposes alone in the frozen Antarctic seas. It had been very nearly a year since they had last been in contact with civilization. Nobody in the outside world knew they were in trouble, much less where they were… If they were to get out—they had to get themselves out.”
The story of Shackleton and the 27-man crew of the Endurance is one of resilience, determination, survival, and hope. And, to me, a tremendous reminder of the beauty and richness of everyday life.
For 6 months after they abandoned the Endurance, Shackleton and his crew were stranded on the floes of the Wedell Sea, where they subsisted on penguins, seals, and what meager supplies they could save from their sunken ship.
During this period, multiple marches across the ice were made in an attempt to escape into the open sea. These were difficult marches, too, as the men had to drag their supplies along with their three safety boats along soft snow. Each time, progress made was small, and each time, they were forced to halt in the face of impassable ice. In the end, all they found they could do was wait for the ice to open up on its own because only by boat could they cover significant ground in the search for land. They were faced with total uncertainty.
“It is beginning to be an anxious time for us,” Macklin wrote on New Year’s Day, “for so far there is not much sign of any opening of the floe, and the broken mushy stuff is quite unnavigable for our boats. If we cannot get away very soon our position will be a very serious one, for where will we get food for the dogs and food for ourselves? The seals will have disappeared for the winter…”
Their trial came to a close in April when the winds and weather went in their favor; the ice opened up, and the crew managed to launch all three of their boats into the open sea. Although, maybe it would have been more accurate to say this was the true beginning of their trial.
“Never was there a worse night. As the darkness deepened, the wind increased and the temperature dropped ever lower… It was so cold that the seas that broke over them froze almost as soon as they hit… The boats, the men—everything was soaked, then frozen…
… To keep their feet from freezing, they worked their toes constantly inside their boots. They could only hope that the pain in their feet would continue, because comfort, much as they yearned for it, would mean that they were freezing.… Finally, for all the party, there was thirst… There had been nothing to drink since the previous morning, and the men were beginning to crave water desperately. Their mouths were dry and their half-frostbitten lips began to swell and crack. Some men, when they tried to eat, found it impossible to swallow, and their hunger brought on seasickness.
… Hour after hour hey rowed… They had had no sleep for almost eighty hours… It was pull or perish… ”
I have not forgotten these paragraphs since I read them, if for no other reason than to put my own suffering in context.
The open-sea search for land lasted for a grueling six days. The crew eventually made landfall at Elephant Island, the first time they had set foot on land since they set sail 497 days ago. And with suffering and hardship behind them, it seemed the crew became vastly more appreciative of the simple beauties that come with “solid, unsinkable, immovable, blessed land.”
“How delicious,” wrote Hurley, “to wake in one’s sleep and listen to the chanting of the penguins mingling with the music of the sea. To fall asleep and awaken again and feel this is real. We have reached the land!!”
Personally, it was infectious reading about the joy these men found despite their frostbitten limbs, damp sleeping bags, and desolate situation.
“But most of the day was spent simply enjoying life… It was a joy, for example, to watch the birds simply as birds and not for the significance they might have—whether they were a sign of good or evil, an opening of the pack or a gathering storm… “
I highlighted passages like these because I couldn’t help myself from feeling so much awe and appreciation for life. If these men could enjoy life in the most savage of islands, exposed to the full fury of the sub-Antarctic Ocean, then shouldn’t I be able to in my solid, unsinkable, immovable, and blessed home?
Until next week,
Atom
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Sources:
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Sir Ernest Shackleton, Endurance Voyage Timeline and Map