New Expedition Recreates Shackleton's Legendary Voyage

Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry: Shackleton’s ship the “Endurance” sinking in the ice of the Weddell Sea, 1915 [Photograph]. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Library Edition. Retrieved 31 January 2013, from http://library.eb.com.au/eb/art-163513

A British-Australian expedition is recreating the last leg of one of the most gruelling voyages of the 20^th century. In 1914, Ernest Shackleton and his crew sailed for Antarctica, with the intention of being the first to cross Antarctica from coast to coast. In 1915, their ship – the Endurance – became trapped in pack ice and sunk. Michael McCurdy (Proquest, 1999) paints a stark picture of the crew’s situation:

They were stranded hundreds of miles from land in frozen waters. They had no radios on which they could call for help. There were no airplanes to airlift supplies and food. They had no high-tech clothing and tents to block out the cold. How could they possibly survive?

Mounting their life boats on sledges, the crew spent months pulling their boats across the ice to reach open water. After tackling heavy seas, the crew landed on Elephant Island. Leaving 22 men on the island, Shackleton and five other crew members rowed 780 miles (1280 km) from Antarctica to South Georgia, and then trekked 52 km across the island’s mountainous interior to seek help. Miraculously, all of the crew survived. To read more about Shackleton’s voyage or the new expedition, login to Proquest, from home or in the library, using your library card’s barcode.

References

McCurdy, M. (1999), Trapped by the ice! Sir Ernest Shackleton’s amazing Antarctic adventure. Storyworks, 7,12-18. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213393124?accountid=49617

Rayyan