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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128713.Endurance?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Endurance" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1171967258m/128713.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128713.Endurance?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Endurance</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29034.Alfred_Lansing">Alfred Lansing</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10985716?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars My father was one of the earliest amateur radio operators to have an American license to use certain portions of the airwaves. His hobby was contacting others like himself - originally by Morse code and later by voice. Without any question this was a loose social network that sounds a lot like today's web. Everybody on the air who contacted a new operator in a new geographical location exchanged confirming postcards. Obviously there was more excitement in reaching a rare and distant station. Where am I going with this longwinded old story? Well, one night my dad woke me up at about 3 A.M. - on a school night too - telling me to come along to the little room where he had his station. On the air waiting to talk to me was an American naval officer at the U.S. base in Antarctica - the single most difficult radio station in all the world to reach. So an excited little ginnie and the distant father of another little girl talked back and forth for a whole hour while other amateurs sat unnoticed at their microphones around the globe. Months later a wonderful letter arrived from Little America Station, South Pole for me! It was the beginning of a lifelong interest in the continent located in the great south. I even have a mountain named after me in the Vinson Massif - a small size one, Mount Virginia, but hey! And it was the beginning of building a lifetime collection of books about Antarctica. Unlike many who idolized Robert Falcon Scott MY hero was Ernest Shakleton who got every single one of his men out of a frozen sea alive.
 
 Endurance is a great book that will make you feel as though any hardship you have ever encountered is really not so bad when you think about what these men endured. Imagine being cold, wet, hungry, tired for basically two years while in the back of your mind you know that the chances of ever seeing the civilized world is remote at best. This is an amazing story of leadership, and man's ability to persevere under extraordinary circumstances. It is really unbelievable. I was staggered by the odds these men overcame and their determination to press on.
 
 Shackleton is always calm. He is resourceful and undaunted. He is not always right, many times he is just absolutely wrong. But his courage is simply breathtaking.
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/354189?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Ginnie's review
rating:
bookshelves: polar-exploration-and-expeditions, treasure

My father was one of the earliest amateur radio operators to have an American license to use certain portions of the airwaves. His hobby was contacting others like himself - originally by Morse code and later by voice. Without any question this was a loose social network that sounds a lot like today's web. Everybody on the air who contacted a new operator in a new geographical location exchanged confirming postcards. Obviously there was more excitement in reaching a rare and distant station. Where am I going with this longwinded old story? Well, one night my dad woke me up at about 3 A.M. - on a school night too - telling me to come along to the little room where he had his station. On the air waiting to talk to me was an American naval officer at the U.S. base in Antarctica - the single most difficult radio station in all the world to reach. So an excited little ginnie and the distant father of another little girl talked back and forth for a whole hour while other amateurs sa...more My father was one of the earliest amateur radio operators to have an American license to use certain portions of the airwaves. His hobby was contacting others like himself - originally by Morse code and later by voice. Without any question this was a loose social network that sounds a lot like today's web. Everybody on the air who contacted a new operator in a new geographical location exchanged confirming postcards. Obviously there was more excitement in reaching a rare and distant station. Where am I going with this longwinded old story? Well, one night my dad woke me up at about 3 A.M. - on a school night too - telling me to come along to the little room where he had his station. On the air waiting to talk to me was an American naval officer at the U.S. base in Antarctica - the single most difficult radio station in all the world to reach. So an excited little ginnie and the distant father of another little girl talked back and forth for a whole hour while other amateurs sat unnoticed at their microphones around the globe. Months later a wonderful letter arrived from Little America Station, South Pole for me! It was the beginning of a lifelong interest in the continent located in the great south. I even have a mountain named after me in the Vinson Massif - a small size one, Mount Virginia, but hey! And it was the beginning of building a lifetime collection of books about Antarctica. Unlike many who idolized Robert Falcon Scott MY hero was Ernest Shakleton who got every single one of his men out of a frozen sea alive.

Endurance is a great book that will make you feel as though any hardship you have ever encountered is really not so bad when you think about what these men endured. Imagine being cold, wet, hungry, tired for basically two years while in the back of your mind you know that the chances of ever seeing the civilized world is remote at best. This is an amazing story of leadership, and man's ability to persevere under extraordinary circumstances. It is really unbelievable. I was staggered by the odds these men overcame and their determination to press on.

Shackleton is always calm. He is resourceful and undaunted. He is not always right, many times he is just absolutely wrong. But his courage is simply breathtaking.
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message 1: by Robert

12/25/2007 10:00PM

Hi Ginnie. I'm Robert. Thank you for this story. A perfect one for today: a girl, her father and a mountain.
Always thought there was some sublime innocence to exploration. A pure extention from when a baby first discovers his toes.
Happy everything.

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message 3: by Ginnie

01/24/2008 09:14PM

Toni,
I do not know anything about about you except that you are new on Goodreads (0 - books, 0 - reviews) but you asked a serious and interesting question. To give you some of the legend that grew up around Sir. Ernest, it is widely believed that he posted this ad in The Times in December 1901: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of winter. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success."

1914–1916 Endurance Expedition
Shackleton's most famous expedition was planned to be an attempt to cross Antarctica from the Weddell Sea south of the Atlantic, to the Ross Sea south of the Pacific, by way of the Pole. He set out from London on 1 August 1914, and reached the Weddell Sea on January 10, 1915, where the pack ice closed in on the Endurance. The ship was broken by the ice on 27 October 1915. The 28 crew members managed to flee to Elephant Island, bringing three small boats with them. Shackleton and five other men managed to reach the southern coast of South Georgia in one of the small boats. Shackleton managed to rescue all of the stranded crew from Elephant Island without loss in the Chilean's navy seagoing steam tug Yelcho, on August 30, 1916, in the middle of the Antarctic winter.

After his legendary ordeal in the Weddell Sea sector, Ernest Shackleton arrived in New Zealand during December 1916. He was advised that his supply team the Ross Sea Party was stranded in Antarctica. By that time the Aurora had been repaired and after discussion with the Aurora's captain, Shackleton immediately sailed to Ross Island to bring his men home. On 10 January 1917, the ship pulled alongside the pack ice near Cape Royds and worked its way to Cape Evans. One week later, Shackleton and the Ross Sea Party survivors were headed back to Wellington, New Zealand. He returned to England with a seriously damaged heart and all his men alive.

I still think the Lansing book is the best but in addition to a 2-part TV series starring Kenneth Branaugh as Shackleton which is available on DVD, NOVA did a fine program with excellent notes and photographs. Here is the link:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/s...

Last factoids.

The boat that he sailed to South Georgia is in the entry foyer at Dulwich College, South London.

Shackleton Crater lies at the south pole of the Moon.

In recent years there has been a revival of interest in Shackleton and he has become an icon of successful leadership for some modern business writers with several books extolling his leadership style.

Let me know if this helped.