An expedition to Antarctica proves disastrous for 28 crewman and Sir Ernest Shackleton.
Imagine an expedition to the Antarctic in 1914. There is no GPS, no
world-reaching radio, and no satellite phone. Brutal conditions,
rationed food, tight living quarters. Sounds pretty bleak. Now imagine
that something goes horribly wrong. As days turn into weeks the
rationed food is exhausted. As weeks turn into months hope is all that
is left. When hope diminishes, all that is left is the will to live.
Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 voyage turned into a disaster just before
he and his crew of twenty-eight could reach Antarctica. Their ship The
Endurance was held up by ice for ten months and then crushed by it's
frozen, unforgiving force, and that is just the beginning of this
two-years long journey. It is amazing what he and his crew endure over
this time period just to survive.
This is an excerpt from a diary kept by crewman Thomas Orde-Lees that
recounts a very cold and desperate time some six months after the men
abandoned the crumpled, mangled wreckage of their ship on three
lifeboats.
"As the water splashed into the boats it froze instantly forming thick
incrustations of ice on the inside of the boat and over all the gear
freezing up the sail as stiff as a piece of corrugated iron.
Fortunately the water which ran into the bottom of the boat did not
freeze at once so that by frequent bailing we were able to keep pace
with it and prevent the accumulation of ice along the keels, where, had
it once formed, it would have been next to impossible to eradicate it
on account of the cargo.
Much sleet covered us, and what with this and the sea spray we were all
more or less wet through and our outer clothing was frozen stiff. Our
time was largely occupied in picking the ice off each other's backs. It
would be a lie to say that we were at all happy under these
circumstances but now and again we made a feeble effort to assume a
cheerful, hopeful air in spite of ourselves. We were being sorely
tried, indeed, though."
