This Side of the Pond

Not every journey ends where it means to, but, as the wise often say, it’s not the destination that matters. Such was the case for Ernest Shackleton, whose ship has been located after more than a hundred years sitting on the bottom of the Weddell Sea.

You may have seen the news that a multinational team of scientists has finally found the HMS Endurance, one of the most famous (until now) lost shipwrecks of all time. Its ice-crushed carcass has languished 10,000 feet below the surface for over a century, and there it shall forever remain.

As a site of historic importance, the ship that once tried valiantly to reach the South Pole will be left where it is, artefacts intact, under the international Antarctic Treaty. But we can still marvel at photos of its perfectly preserved timbers and the porthole that leads to the great man’s cabin – not to mention the technology that made it possible or the images of species of sea life that, like goldfish in a well-decorated bowl, have made the vessel their home.

It’s been a while since Ernest Shackleton has been a name on everyone’s lips, but to those familiar with his tale, he will forever command respect. Irish-born and London-raised, he was an explorer, an adventurer and, most of all, a heck of a man.

Shackleton wanted to be the first to make a land crossing of Antarctica. With a crew of 27 men, a stowaway later named the ship’s steward and a cat called Mrs. Chippy (even once they discovered he was a boy), he set off in December, 1914 aboard the Endurance for his third attempt at doing so.

But the ice floes around the Antarctic are not a challenge for the faint-hearted. The Endurance began tracking a ponderous path through the fractures, until a gale developed and the ship took shelter under a grounded iceberg.

When the weather began to clear, the crew saw the ice pack had blown away and resumed their journey, but to no avail. The pack had not moved far and the gale soon returned, compressing the ice until the Endurance was entirely bound, unable to move in either direction. Just one day of sailing from their destination, the crew’s only choice was to wait for the end of winter.

According to the accounts of a ship surgeon, Shackleton took the news in great humor and portrayed a calm and confident attitude for his men. But in private, he was worried that the Endurance couldn’t outlast the winter, saying, “What the ice gets, the ice keeps.”

The crew set up camp and began salvaging provisions. Though they tried to make it across the ice to land, the plan was abandoned when they only got 7.5 miles in the space of a week.

And so, they waited. For months, they remained, while the Endurance withstood the pressure from both ice and weather. She lasted until October, groaning and creaking as she was continuously battered, with occasional efforts from the crew to free her each time conditions improved.

The poor ship couldn’t hold out any longer and began slowly sinking into the frigid seas. On November 13, a pressure wave swept through the ice and crushed the bow; eight days later, another hit and – within a single minute – the stern was lifted clear of the ice as the floes moved together, then fell into the ocean as they moved back apart. The Endurance was gone.

The crew remained on the ice, hoping it would move them closer to one of the nearby islands, but on April 9, the ice floe split. Shackleton ordered his men to break camp and launch the lifeboats, but now they had a new problem: they were in the angry open waters of the ocean.

They made it to the islands six days later, exhausted from the journey and the seasickness. The day was not yet saved, though, as the chances of rescue on remote Elephant Island were not exactly good.

The closest help was a whaling station on South Georgia – 800 miles away. Shackleton himself stepped forth to undertake this mission and set out with five others aboard a lifeboat.

It took 17 days, but they made it to the island – unfortunately, on the wrong side. The team hiked over mountains and glaciers for 36 hours, over terrain that had never been crossed before, until they finally reached the whaling station (to the understandable surprise of its inhabitants).

Shackleton could now set about rescuing the remaining men still on Elephant Island, but again nothing seemed inclined to go to plan. On the first attempt, his ship ran out of fuel; on the second, the ship provided by the Uruguayan government was unable to get through the ice.

Back on Elephant Island, the men never gave up hope. Days passed, then more days, and still there was no sign of Shackleton.

Until, finally, there was. It took him 128 days, but Shackleton finally came back for his men on a ship procured from Chile, rescuing every member of the Endurance’s crew and bringing them to safety.

The ship, it seems, was well-named. Shackleton, too, more than earned the nickname his men knew him by: “The Boss”.

It says much for the character of the man that, despite their 20-month ordeal, many of Shackleton’s crew chose to join him on another expedition to the Antarctic. Sadly, they said he never seemed the same, having lost some of the spirit that had brought them through their misadventure.

Ernest Shackleton never reached the South Pole. He died in his bunk on January 5, 1922, at just 47 years old, and was buried on South Georgia.

Shackleton’s era was known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and his actions were a significant reason for the name. Unsurprisingly, he became a role model for leadership in extreme conditions.

In 1956, one of his contemporaries remarked in an address to the British Science Association: “Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency, but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”

A week after making their historic discovery, the scientists who found the Endurance visited South Georgia to pay their respects to Shackleton’s grave. In the form of photographs, they brought his ship back to him after all this time.

He may never have reached his destination, but what does that really matter, after all? It’s Shackleton’s journey, and the fortitude he showed in completing it, that we would do well to forever remember.