endurance shackleton's incredible voyage

Along the way, the group is splintered in three parts, as it just becomes impossible to transport so many men in the tiny lifeboats. The crew were forced to then drag the remaining life boats several miles to open water where they would then have to island-hop their way to civilization in some of the coldest and most choppy seas on earth. The last of the dogs were actually eaten by the crew. The crew were forced to shoot their sled dogs to save food rations. Before spring could come, however, The Endurance would be crushed by the ice. Shackleton made the decision to wait until the following spring when the ice would break up to resume the trip. About 100 miles from the coast, the boat became hopelessly stuck in pack ice. Nobody from this party ever set foot on the continent.

Ironically, the ship never even made it to Antacrtica before things went to hell. Shackleton actually offered to postpone his mission and donate his ship The Endurance to the war effort, but the government let him go, anyway. The crew were chosen and the boat was set to sail at the outset of WWI. However the chance of gaining acclaim for accomplishing such a feat was enough to get hundreds of men to sign up. The crew, an assortment of various sailors and craftsmen, were warned of the dangers and low pay of such a venture. He was simply looking for prominence in one of the last places one could find it at that time. Shackleton is described as a man who admittedly 'was not really good at anything'. The South Pole had already been discovered, but apparently that was not enough to stake a claim to the entire continent at that time. Their goal, once they got there, would be to walk across the continent and claim it for England.

He set out with 27 other adventurous young men (mostly from the UK) in a modest ship bound for the icy world of Antarctica. Shackelton was an adventurer looking for greatness in perhaps the last great uncharted portion of the earth at that time. The Endurance is a truly fascinating account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's failed Antarctic expedition of 1914-1916.

Endurance shackleton's incredible voyage