The Endurance: one of the greatest survival stories ever told

The Endurance

Survival against the greatest odds.

Alex Q. Arbuckle

1914-1916

The sun rises on Endurance after the darkness of winter. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Ernest Shackleton had already made a name for himself as an intrepid explorer, having reached a record southern latitude on his Antarctic expedition of 1907-1909, when he set sail on the Endurance in 1914.The South Pole had been conquered a few years prior by Roald Amundsen, so Shackleton set a more ambitious goal: Land on Antarctica and cross 1,800 miles over the entire continent, an endeavor he named the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.With a support ship sailing to the far side of the continent to lay supply caches for the back end of the crossers’ journey, Shackleton took a hand-picked crew of 28 (including one stowaway, a spurned applicant) from Buenos Aires to South Georgia Island and into the frozen Weddell Sea.

Ernest Shackleton, leader of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

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The wake of Endurance as she pushes through the ice of the Weddell Sea. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Crew attempt to clear a path through the ice for Endurance. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

The ship soon encountered an unexpected density of pack ice. After more than two months of halting progress, Endurance became hopelessly icebound.The grand expeditionary plan was done for; the new goal was to hunker down and prepare to spend the winter in the ice.Sled dogs were moved off the ship and into igloos on the ice, and the ship was converted into a winter habitat. To maintain morale, the crew exercised on the ice and played games indoors. Frank Hurley, the expedition’s photographer, entertained himself by tromping around and making dramatic compositions with the trapped ship and ice formations. In his darkroom next to the ship's engine, he skillfully developed and preserved his glass plate negatives in nearly frozen chemicals, the skin on his fingertips splitting and cracking.

Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

We reached the head of the Weddell Sea, but impenetrable barriers of old ice frustrated further progress. - Ernest Shackleton

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Crew take the dogs out on to the ice. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Physicist Reginald James outside his observatory. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Photographer Frank Hurley gets a high angle shot. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Frank Worsley, captain of The Endurance. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Navigating Officer Hubert Hudson with Emperor penguin chicks. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Second Officer Tom Crean with sled dog puppies. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Charles Green, the cook, skins a penguin for dinner. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Frank Wild, second in command. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Lionel Greenstreet, first officer. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Evening amusements in "The RItz" aboard the Endurance. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

A haircutting tournament aboard the Endurance. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

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Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

The ice is rafting up to a height of 10 or 15 feet in places, the opposing floes are moving against one another at the rate of about 200 yards per hour. The noise resembles the roar of heavy, distant surf. - Ernest Shackleton

Crew play games and musical instruments to pass the time. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Crew play soccer on the ice near Endurance. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Endurance at night, illuminated by flashlight. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

A Saturday evening toast to "sweethearts and wives." Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Biologist Robert Clark and geologist James Wordie in their cabin. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Crew retrieve fresh ice to use for water. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Owd Bob, sled dog. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Lupoid, sled dog. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Standing on the stirring ice one can imagine it is disturbed by the breathing and tossing of a mighty giant below. - Ernest Shackleton

"Ice flowers" form on the pack ice near Endurance. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

James Wordie, Alfred Cheetham and Alexander Macklin scrub the floors of the "The Ritz" aboard Endurance. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

George Marston, artist. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

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The ship groans and quivers, windows splinter, whilst the deck timbers gape and twist. Amid these profound and overwhelming forces, we are the absolute embodiment of helpless futility. - Frank Hurley

Meanwhile, the ship drifted with the movement of the ice floes around it, at the mercy of their immense, crushing mass. On Oct. 27, 1915, the ship was squeezed to the breaking point, and Shackleton gave the order to abandon Endurance. With conditions now more dire than ever, and no room for dead weight, Shackleton ordered the four weakest sled dog pups and the carpenter’s cat Mrs. Chippy to be shot. Hurley, the photographer, waded into the wreck to retrieve his photos. With Shackleton's help, he set aside the best 120 of his plates and smashed the remaining 400. He ditched his bulky cameras, keeping only a Vest Pocket Kodak and a few rolls of film.After a brief attempt at a march, the crew built a camp on the ice, retrieving supplies and lifeboats from the Endurance until it finally sank on Nov. 21. After another abortive march, they settled in for a more than three-month stay at “Patience Camp.”

Endurance lists as she is squeezed by shifting ice. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

After long months of ceaseless anxiety and strain, after times when hope beat high and times when the outlook was black indeed, we have been compelled to abandon the ship, which is crushed beyond all hope of ever being righted. - Ernest Shackleton, Oct. 27, 1915

Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Frank Wild, Second in Command, contemplates the wreck of the Endurance. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

We are alive and well, and we have stores and equipment for the task that lies before us. The task is to reach land with all the members of the Expedition. It is hard to write what I feel. - Ernest Shackleton, Oct. 27, 1915

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Crew members haul one of the lifeboats across the ice after the loss of Endurance. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Supplies dwindled. The remaining dogs were eaten, and still the 28 men drifted. Land was distantly visible but inaccessible across the broken ice. On April 8, 1916, the floe they were living on began to break up. The 28 men crowded into the three lifeboats, and began to navigate a treacherous maze of ice and sea, aiming in the direction of what they hoped was a whaling outpost.About a week later they made landfall on Elephant Island, a rocky crag inhabited only by penguins and seals. It was their first taste of terra firma in 497 days, but their journey was not over.

They were laughing uproariously, picking up stones and letting handfuls of pebbles trickle between their fingers like miners gloating over hoarded gold. - Ernest Shackleton

The beach on Elephant Island where the expedition made its camp. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

From Elephant Island, the only human settlements they had a chance of reaching were the whaling stations on South Georgia Island — 920 miles away. Shackleton ordered one of the 22.5-foot lifeboats, the James Caird, to be fortified and prepared for a perilous open sea crossing. On April 24, 1916, Shackleton set out with five men and a month of provisions. He knew that if they did not reach help after a month, they were doomed anyway.The rest of the men stayed behind on Elephant Island, building a makeshift shelter out of the other two lifeboats.

We knew it would be the hardest thing we had ever undertaken, for the Antarctic winter had set in, and we were about to cross one of the worst seas in the world. - Frank Worsley

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For 14 grueling days, the men on the James Caird endured gale-force winds, monstrous waves and a constant soaking of freezing spray. The little boat was perpetually coated in ice and in danger of capsizing.Finally, they made it to the southern coast of South Georgia Island. The men were exhausted and the boat was nearly sunk.There was one last hurdle: The human settlements were on the north side of the island. In one final burst of effort, Shackleton and two others made a non-stop 36-hour crossing of the island’s mountainous and uncharted interior.On May 20, they at last reached civilization. It would take another three months to return through the pack ice surrounding Elephant Island, but on Aug. 30, 1916, the last of the men were rescued and safe.

Crew wave farewell as the James Caird sets off for South Georgia Island in search of rescue. Credit: Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images