Endurance

• Date: 02.12.2007
• Book: South: The Endurance Expedition
• Author: Caractacus

Review

In early 1914, Ernest Shackleton and his crew set out on their ship Endurance to become the first men ever to cross the Antarctic Continent.

They never even made landfall. Their ship was caught in pack ice and crushed. Only the three small life boats were saved.

The crew spent the winter on the floating ice and in spring boarded their boats and sailed several hundred miles to Elephant Island. A tiny dot in the South Atlantic Ocean. Once there they were stuck. Most of the men were now too ill to travel and the Island was uninhabited. Shackleton chose 5 men and took the largest boat - the James Caird. From Elephant Island, they made their way to the whaling station on the island of South Georgia. A thousand miles in the most treacherous sea in the world. Again, a difficult journey in a ship. All but impossible in a dinghy relying on just the stars and dead reckoning. Yet Shackleton did it.

The six men reached South Georgia. Three of them were now so broken they could barely climb out of the boat. Yet again there was an obstacle. They were the wrong side of the island to the Whaling station. In between them and civilisation were giant mountains covered in glaciers that had never before been crossed because of the treacherous ice. Shackleton and the two men who were left had nothing but frostbitten hands and feet. They climbed the mountains. Crossed the Glaciers and at the very last, when all hope was gone, put their faith in God for their very lives in the greatest act of faith I have ever heard of.

They reached civilisation.

Soon Shackleton had ships and not long after, he had rescued every man under his command. Not one man perished.

And then he went home and wrote a book about it.

This is the greatest adventure ever told. There is not one moment from the time the Endurance is crushed to the very last page where the expedition was not out of danger. They spent two years fighting for survival and every man mentioned in this book is a hero.

Once all had returned home, some were called up to fight in the war, where they died. Shackleton died on a return to South georgia and is buried there. His achievement will never be forgotten.

Seriously. Read this book. Nothing you ever go through will be equal to what these men suffered and survived.