"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness.
Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in event of success." This is the ad that
allegedly appeared in the Times when Sir Ernest Shackleton decided to build a crew for his
famous Antarctic expedition. Even though the ad might just be a myth, the journey itself
became one of the greatest survival stories of all time.
Sir Ernest Shackleton didn’t really need any advertisement at all. He was already a
legend among British seamen and explorers alike. In 1908, he led the British Antarctic
expedition and claimed a Victoria Land plateau region of Antarctica for the crown. In the
same expedition, people from Shackleton’s party became the first to reach the top of
Mount Erebus – Antarctica’s second largest volcano.
His new daring idea for a ‘hazardous journey’ gained so much attention from newspapers,
that soon Sir Shackleton had a crowd of volunteers knocking at his door. He carefully selected
only 27 of them, and oh boy, did he chose wisely. They were men of steel, no doubt,
knowing what a huge goal they set for themselves. With those men, Ernest Shackleton intended
to reach Antarctica and cross the whole continent via the South Pole – not exactly a walk
in the park if you ask me. On December 5th, 1914, they left the shores
of South Georgia in a ship called Endurance. Endurance was one of the best ships of its
time to deal with ice. She had a sturdy hull, an 85-inch-thick (2,200 mm) keel and a 350
horsepower steam engine. With all that might, she could ram and break tons of ice with ease!
But still she had one crucial weakness – she was designed to crush the ice, but not to
sustain being trapped in it. If she would ever get caught by ice building up around
her and pushing with all its weight, she would be crushed by the immense pressure. And guess
what, that’s exactly what happened. This was a bad year for crossing the icy waters
of Weddell sea. At first, Endurance was managing the drifting ice easily, but on January 18th,
it finally overcame her. Huge slabs of drifting ice, called pack ice, have an unpredictable
nature. It comes and goes, and can turn into a small iceberg in just several days. So this
ice is one of the most dangerous kinds imaginable. The initial hope of Sir Shackleton and his
crew was that the ice wouldn’t build up around the ship too much, but by the 24th
of January, it was obvious that the pressure on the ship’s hull would only get worse.
The next few days, the crew tirelessly crushed and sawed off the ice around Endurance with
their own hands. Not to free the ship completely – that would be impossible, but to push
Endurance back and leave the rest of the ice to her engine and keel. This idea was promising,
but eventually fell short. The ice in front of the ship was just too strong and the progress
was too small. The only hope for Endurance was if it could
stay undamaged until spring. Passing the winter on a ship trapped in ice is no joke. The pressure
on the ship’s hull was rising, just like the pressure on the seamen’s will. If not
for Sir Shackleton’s skill of managing his crew, this story might have ended right here.
But they believed in their captain, who they referred to simply as “Boss”. He sustained
discipline on his ship by implementing a stable routine for each and every crew member. Everyone
stayed busy, brightening each day with some kind of fulfillment. They even found a way
to play soccer on the ice around the ship! Everyone on the ship knew that their one hope
in such a dire situation was Sir Shackleton’s command; so their spirit remained untouched
Despite all the effort of shoveling new ice and snow building around the ship, the pressure
on the ship only rose. Spring didn’t bring the much-needed relief for the Endurance.
From time to time the crew would hear unpleasant crackles and shock sounds. At first Shackleton
said it was whales passing by underneath the ice, but everybody knew that the ship may
soon start to crumble. Summer came and went, only to bring more young ice. On October 27th,
Shackleton ordered his men to abandon ship, which was already heavily damaged. He promised
the crew that he would bring them home, saying it in the most simple and encouraging way
he could: “We’re going home.”, but notes in his diary reveal his uncertainty: “The
task is to reach land with all the members of the Expedition. It’s hard to write how
I feel.” The camp was settled about a mile away from
the ship. The crew still had some supplies and three lifeboats, but the resources were
limited and they were isolated from the world, drifting on ice across the Weddell sea with
no means to get more food. On November 21st, 1915, Endurance is finally crushed and buried
under the ice; much like the hope of fulfilling the goal of the expedition. On December 20th,
Shackleton decides that they’ll head towards what he thought was the nearest land – Paulet
Island. What they didn’t realize is that the ice they were marching through was drifting
toward the east, and Paulet Island was on the west. By the end of their journey through
the icy fields, they were even further from land than when they began. Still, this march
was not completely pointless. At the end of it, Shackleton and his men spotted another
island – Elephant Island. Stepping on solid ground felt like euphoria
for 28 tired seamen. Their first days on land were spent refilling food supplies with wildlife;
it was their first warm meal in months! But their joy was overshadowed by one terrible
truth: Elephant Island was not much better than a drifting ice slab. They had no way
to send a message and no ships would ever be coming their way. There would be no rescue.
But Sir Shackleton wasn’t one to surrender and leave his men to certain demise. Instead,
he took one lifeboat and only 5 men, and went off to find help. Yes, he knew what they were
facing: their destination was back to South Georgia - 800 miles (1.287 km) away. And they
would have to cross the stormiest part of the ocean with waves more than 50ft (15 m)
high. Shackleton left command with his righteous
right hand – Frank Wild. Allegedly, they were so close, they could finish each other’s
sentences. It was Wild who helped keep the crew safe: they were cold, and didn’t have
much food, but still, he managed to hold them together well and even built a hut for them
from the two remaining lifeboats. Meanwhile, Sir Shackleton and the 5 other
men started their journey on the 24th of April, 1916. Behind their back, another field of
pack ice came and closed off the island from them. There was no turning back. The most
fearsome enemy of seamen in the cold is the water itself. If your clothes get wet, there’s
almost no way to get warm again. Imagine what happened to those men in the little lifeboat
going through the huge waves. Ice was building up on the boards of the boat, increasing its
weight drastically, along with its chances of sinking. One time Shackleton thought he
saw a line of white skies; a crack in the storm clouds. But he soon realized it was
the top of a gigantic wave. This was the inexplicable horror they dealt with as they inched slowly
toward South Georgia. During this month-long journey, they witnessed storms unlike any
of them had ever seen. They had to fight, not only for their own lives, but for the
lives of their 22 friends still waiting on Elephant Island to be rescued. Maybe that’s
what drove them to succeed after all. On May 10th, they finally reached the shores
of South Georgia. Not welcoming shores with warm beds and a good meal, be assured. It
was rocky cliffs, with absolutely no place to land. It took a whole day to manage the
landing and even when they stepped on the ground – it wasn’t the victory they already
well deserved. They had to climb the cliffs and cross several mountain ridges to get to
civilization. And their sheer exhaustion only left them a little time to do so. On their
way, Shackleton even restricted himself and his men from sleeping for more than 5 minutes
at a time in fear that they wouldn’t wake up. When they reached the last ridge, they
were at their limit, but suddenly, a familiar sound brought back their energy – a whistle,
that’s used to wake up whalers in the morning. The whalers knew Shackleton, but at this point,
it was pretty hard to recognize him. His bad condition alarmed the whalers, and in no time
they were helping to rescue their friends on Elephant Island and – what a miracle!
– they were all alive and well! They survived! As Shackleton recalls, he and his 5 comrades
were thrilled to find the whaler village; not because they knew they were safe, but
because they knew their friends would be saved. And this is how the story of the most miraculous
survival ended. Sir Shackleton may have never reached his goals of crossing the Antarctic
continent from shore to shore, but his name will always be remembered in the history of
Antarctic exploration. What is your favorite story about explorers
or fearless seaman in general? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something
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