Shakelton: Don't be fooled.

Photo of Skakelton, Wordsley and crew launching The James Caird for Prince George Island.

I Just finished reading "Endurance" the story of Antarctic Explorer Ernest Shackleton's amazing story of striking out to be the first person to cross Antarctica, only to become hopelessly stuck in the Weddell Sea ice pack, and to somehow emerge over 18months later, against all odds, to mount a desperate rescue party for remaining members of his original expedition.

OK, OK, that's the hype.

For the first 2/3rds of this book, I was less than impressed. Shackleton's predicament didn't seem any more dire than a kid stuck in the house during a rainstorm. Sure he was stuck, in the ice, unable to move. BUT, he had dogs, men, supplies, sleeping chambers, and food enough to last for a year or two, not to mention the 1,000 or so penguins, 1,000 or so seals, sea lions and fish that they pulled up from the ice... So what's the problem?

In addition to this, while sitting in the ice, the Weddell Sea went about it's business, which entail twirling in a clockwise fashion, such that even though Shackleton and his crew were stuck in the ice, they were moving in precisely the direction they needed to go, to break free. And break free, is what they were definitely destined to do.

So what gives? A week or so before starting this book, I read the story of the Whale ship Essex.. now THERE'S an adventure. Stuck in the South Pacific, rammed by a derange sperm whale. left in three rickety lifeboats, with no modern equipment (especially since these were the days when Longitude was virtually impossible to ascertain without a noted land mass to orient oneself too.), and trying to move, against all hope, in an Easterly direction, against the wind, tides, current and virtually everything else.

These men survived for almost 100 days, with hardly any water, only flour and water "biscuits" called 'hard tack' and the Captain was on his first voyage as a captain. These men were faced with hardship virtually from the second they entered the water. They resorted to cannibalism in order to survive, and less than half of the men lived to tell the tale, which overtime, became legend and part of the American school curriculum in standard "reader" compilations.

So, you must understand, almost 100 years later, on the cusp of the modern age, with all the supplies, equipment and preparation of Shackleton, I just didn't see his predicament as all that remarkable. During the first 1/2 of the book, it seemed more of a well anticipated occupational hazard.

Now, the story gets really interesting, once they break out of the pack ice and somehow struggle onto Elephant Island. Shackleton immediately launches a 20 foot lifeboat, The James Caird, into the most treacherous seas known to man, for the near impossible destination of Prince George Island. Having read the story of the Whale ship Essex and how it took them nearly 3 weeks of driving into a virtual endless hurricane, which constitutes the normal disposition of the South Atlantic Sea, I KNEW, that the greatness of this story was soon to become unleashed.

Shackleton and his crew sailed into the teeth of the storm, in constant 30 feet seas and rollers which Charles Darwin described as being such a monstrosity that it would strike the fear of death into a man for a week, if he were even to glimpse these swells from a safe perch on the mainland.

Shackleton's adventure, at least the last 1/3rd of it, was so remarkable, and so fraught with danger and near death experiences, only to be saved in the last possible second, that I lost count. I have never before read a story where I felt that one was at the same time so fortunate and blessed, while at the same time, completely, totally and utterly doomed and damned.

And to think that at the end of the ordeal, once Shackleton and his men landed at Prince George Island, he had to undertake an overland journey, over one of the most storm infested islands in the world to get to the whaling port on the other side of the island. This feat in itself was remarkable, in that the route they took, to this day, has never been successfully traversed. An explorer 40 years later, with the most modern equipment, crossed this same island, taking a much easier path and once he was done, he said that the island was very nearly impossible to traverse. he said, "the only way I can imagine Shackleton doing it, is because he had to." not only that, but after having been mired in the ice for a year, making it to Elephant Island, Crossing the South Atlantic Sea in one of the world's acknowledged most incredible sea journey's ever taken, and traversing this island, Shackleton immediately mounted a rescue and for the next 3 months in 3 separate voyages, successfully rescued the rest of his crew.

Well, this story was one incredible story. The Human Animal, is truly amazing. And after reading this book, it renewed my faith, that cross ocean journeys had probably been done, at least several times, if not dozens of times in the history of man prior to the birth of Christ.

A remarkable story and an excellent read.