Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

by Alfred Lansing

Sir Ernest Shackleton leader Frank Wild second-in-command Frank Worsley captain Lionel Greenstreet first officer Hubert T. Hudson navigator Thomas Crean second officer Alfred Cheetham third officer Louis Rickinson first engineer A. J. Kerr second engineer Dr. Alexander H. Macklin surgeon Dr. James A. McIlroy surgeon James M. Wordie geologist Leonard D. A. Hussey meteorologist Reginald W. James physicist Robert S. Clark biologist James Francis (Frank) Hurley official photographer George E. Marston official artist Thomas H. Orde-Lees motor expert (later storekeeper) Harry McNeish carpenter Charles J. Green cook Walter How able seaman William Bakewell able seaman Timothy McCarthy able seaman Thomas McLeod able seaman John Vincent able seaman Ernest Holness fireman William Stevenson fireman Perce Blackboro stowaway (later steward)

Sir Ernest Shackleton leader Frank Wild second-in-command Frank Worsley captain Lionel Greenstreet first officer Hubert T. Hudson navigator Thomas Crean second officer Alfred Cheetham third officer Louis Rickinson first engineer A. J. Kerr second engineer Dr. Alexander H. Macklin surgeon Dr. James A. McIlroy surgeon James M. Wordie geologist Leonard D. A. Hussey meteorologist Reginald W. James physicist Robert S. Clark biologist James Francis (Frank) Hurley official photographer George E. Marston official artist Thomas H. Orde-Lees motor expert (later storekeeper) Harry McNeish carpenter Charles J. Green cook Walter How able seaman William Bakewell able seaman Timothy McCarthy able seaman Thomas McLeod able seaman John Vincent able seaman Ernest Holness fireman William Stevenson fireman Perce Blackboro stowaway (later steward)

He had gone first in 1901 as a member of the National Antarctic Expedition led by Robert F. Scott, the famed British explorer, which drove to 82°15´ South latitude, 745 miles from the Pole—the deepest penetration of the continent at that time.

in 1907, Shackleton led the first expedition actually to declare the Pole as its goal. With three companions, Shackleton struggled to within 97 miles of their destination

The sense of loss was compounded by the fact that the British, whose record for exploration had been perhaps unparalleled among the nations of the earth, had to take a humiliating second best to Norway.

Shackleton played heavily on this matter of prestige, making it his primary argument for such an expedition.

we have been beaten at the conquest of the North Pole and beaten at the first conquest of the South Pole. There now remains the largest and most striking of all journeys—the crossing of the Continent.”

He was, above all, an explorer in the classic mold—utterly self-reliant, romantic, and just a little swashbuckling.

He was now forty years old, of medium height and thick of neck, with broad, heavy shoulders a trifle stooped, and dark brown hair parted in the center. He had a wide, sensuous but expressive mouth that could curl into a laugh or tighten into a thin fixed line with equal facility. His jaw was like iron. His gray-blue eyes, like his mouth, could come alight with fun or darken into a steely and frightening gaze. His face was handsome, though it often wore a brooding expression—as if his thoughts were somewhere else—which gave him at times a kind of darkling look. He had small hands, but his grip was strong and confident. He spoke softly and somewhat slowly in an indefinite baritone, with just the recollection of a brogue from his County Kildare birth. Whatever his mood—whether it was gay and breezy, or dark with rage—he had one pervading characteristic: he was purposeful.

Cynics might justifiably contend that Shackleton’s fundamental purpose in undertaking the expedition was simply the greater glory of Ernest Shackleton—a...

He felt that success here—some marvelous stroke of daring, a deed which would capture the world’s imagination—would open the door to fame, then riches.

Shackleton’s unwillingness to succumb to the demands of everyday life and his insatiable excitement with unrealistic ventures left him open to the accusation of being basically immature and irresponsible. And very possibly he was—by conventional standards.

Shackleton’s tremendous capacity for boldness and daring found almost nothing worthy of its pulling power; he was a Percheron draft horse harnessed to a child’s wagon cart.

Fortitudine vincimus—“By endurance we conquer.”

Shackleton, whose interest in science could hardly be compared with his love of exploration, went out of his way to play up this side of the undertaking. This was hypocrisy in a sense. Nevertheless, a capable staff of researchers was to go with the expedition.

Almost without exception, these volunteers were motivated solely by the spirit of adventure, for the salaries offered were little more than token payments for the services expected. They ranged from about $240 a year for an able seaman to $750 a year for the most experienced scientists.

The top post as second-in-command went to Frank Wild,

Wild was a soft-spoken and easy-going individual on the surface, but he had a kind of inner toughness.

second officer aboard the Endurance was given to Thomas Crean,

Alfred Cheetham, who shipped aboard as third officer,

George Marston, the expedition’s thirty-two-year-old artist.

Thomas McLeod, a member of the 1907–1909 expedition, was signed on the Endurance as a seaman.

Leonard Hussey, an irrepressible, peppery little individual, was signed on as meteorologist even though he had practically no qualifications

Hussey immediately took an intensive course in meteorology and later proved to be very proficient.

Sending of missionaries not prepared; the Lord equips those sent, does not send only the "equipped” By strictly human measures, still seemingly imprudent beyond reliance in profound (“whimsical”) hope

Dr. Alexander Macklin,

Reginald James was signed on as physicist

Archduke Ferdinand of Austria had been assassinated on June 28, and exactly one month later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The powder trail was lighted. While the Endurance lay anchored at the mouth of the Thames River, Germany declared war on France.

he felt very strongly about doing his part in the war.

He mustered the crew and explained that he wanted their approval to telegraph the Admiralty, placing the entire expedition at the disposal of the government. All hands agreed, and the wire was sent. The reply was a one-word telegram: “Proceed.”

Both were energetic, imaginative, romantic men who thirsted for adventure. But while Shackleton’s nature drove him always to be the leader, Worsley had no such inclinations. He was fundamentally light-hearted, given to bursts of excitement and unpredictable enthusiasms. The mantle of leadership which fell to him on the trip across the Atlantic did not rest too comfortably on his shoulders.

Worsley had never seen polar pack ice before, and he was tremendously impressed by it, especially the excitement of dodging large floes.

Often during this period, the phenomenon of an “ice shower,” caused by the moisture in the air freezing and settling to earth, lent a fairyland atmosphere to the scene. Millions of delicate crystals, frequently thin and needlelike in shape, descended in sparkling beauty through the twilight air.

And though the pack in every direction appeared to stretch in endless desolation, it abounded with life. Finner, humpback, and huge blue whales, some of them a hundred feet long, surfaced and sported in the leads of open water between the floes. There were killer whales, too, who thrust their ugly, pointed snouts above the surface of the ice to look for whatever prey they might upset into the water. Overhead, giant albatross, and several species of petrels, fulmars, and terns wheeled and dipped. On the ice itself, Weddell and crabeater seals were a common sight as they lay sleeping. And there were penguins, of course. Formal, stiff-necked emperors, who watched in dignified silence as the ship sailed past them. But there was nothing dignified about the little Adélies. They were so friendly they would flop down on their bellies and toboggan along, pushing with their feet and croaking

In spite of the disappointing progress, they celebrated Christmas festively. The wardroom was decorated with bunting, and they had an excellent dinner of soup, herring, jugged hare, plum pudding, and sweets, washed down with stout and rum.

They set a course of south by east and ran at full speed for 100 carefree miles through open water with whales sporting and blowing on all sides.

Almost immediately they realized that this was a different sort of ice from anything encountered before. The floes were thick but very soft, and consisted mostly of snow. They floated in a soupy sea of mushy brash ice composed of ground-up floes and lumps of snow. The mass of it closed in around the ship like pudding.

The Endurance was beset. As Orde-Lees, the storekeeper, put it, “frozen, like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar.”

Nobody on board the Endurance expected very much of it, and they were neither surprised nor disappointed when their expectations were realized.

Even frail Charlie Green, the cook, hurried through his bread-making to join his shipmates trying to saw the ship clear.

Greenstreet, always plain-spoken and never one to dodge the issue, summed up the general feeling in his diary that night.

Approached quietly, the seals rarely attempted to get away. Like the penguins, they were devoid of fear when on the ice since the only enemies they knew—sea leopards and killer whales—were creatures of the sea.

In dealing with them, the only technique that seemed to work was a demonstration of physical superiority. On several occasions one dog might have killed another if somebody hadn’t stepped in and stopped the fight by a simple show of strength. Macklin, though a gentle individual by nature, developed a technique that was more effective than almost any amount of effort with a whip. He simply struck the aggressor dog a thudding uppercut under the jaw with his mittened fist. No harm was done, and the animal invariably was stunned into letting go its hold.

In all the world there is no desolation more complete than the polar night. It is a return to the Ice Age—no warmth, no life, no movement. Only those who have experienced it can fully appreciate what it means to be without the sun day after day and week after week. Few men unaccustomed to it can fight off its effects altogether, and it has driven some men mad.

One man died of a heart ailment brought on partly by his unreasoning terror of the darkness. Another was seized with the idea that the rest of the crew intended to kill him, and whenever he slept he squeezed himself into a tiny recess of the ship. Still another gave way to hysteria which left him temporarily deaf and dumb.

Blackboro was an extremely quiet individual but nonetheless quick-witted and well liked, a cheerful, willing shipmate, who helped Green in the galley.

Bobbie Clark, the biologist, to be a dour, hardworking, almost humorless Scot. But they knew also that he could be counted on to do his share and more whenever all hands were called to duty. He got excited only when the dredge he lowered through the ice each day fetched up a new species of creature for his collection of bottled specimens. The crew once tricked him into great excitement by placing some pieces of cooked spaghetti in one of his jars of formaldehyde. Clark kept his own counsel, and never mentioned to a single man anything about his personal life. Tom Crean—tall, almost gaunt—was exactly what he appeared to be—a heavy-handed sailorman, forthright and tactless, who spoke with a sailorman’s rough vocabulary. He was certainly not a very warm personality, but he knew the sea and he knew his job, and the others respected him for it. Shackleton was personally quite fond of Crean. He liked the big Irishman’s willingness. Shackleton also put a high value on discipline, and Crean, after years in the Royal Navy, regarded an order as something to be obeyed without question. Nor was Crean above giving Shackleton a bit o’ the blarney occasionally.

Nevertheless, he had his eye on the vacant post of boatswain, and he felt that the best way to get it was to demonstrate a capacity for tyranny. After a time the forecastle hands got fed up, and How, a soft-spoken, agreeable, and extremely competent little chap, went to Shackleton and complained. Shackleton immediately sent for Vincent. Though it is not known what Shackleton told him, Vincent’s attitude was considerably less domineering after that.

instead of getting on each other’s nerves, the entire party seemed to become more close-knit.

there were breathtaking displays of the aurora australis, the Antarctic equivalent of the northern lights. Incredible sunbursts of green and blue and silver shot up from the horizon into the blue-black sky, shimmering, iridescent colors that glinted off the rock-hard ice below.

just as it appears she can stand no more, the huge floe weighing possibly a million tons or more yields to our little ship by cracking across, ¼ of a mile, and so relieves the pressure. The behavior of our ship in the ice has been magnificent. Undoubtedly she is the finest little wooden vessel ever built. . . .”

broke free on October 14, and the Endurance lay in a small pool of open water—truly afloat for the first time since she was beset nine months before.