Loneliness is the penalty of leadership, but the man who has to make the decisions is assisted greatly if he feels that there is no uncertainty in the minds of those who follow him, and that his orders will be carried out confidently and in expectation of success.”īy April 11, 1916, as their ice floe broke apart, Shackleton and the Endurance crew took to their lifeboats, spending several days grimly huddled together, battling seasickness, drenched by freezing seawater and ravaged by thirst. “I confess that I felt the burden of responsibility sit heavily on my shoulders but, on the other hand, I was stimulated and cheered by the attitude of the men. Frank Hurley/Royal Geographical Society/Getty Images
The ship’s captain, Frank Worsley, used his navigation skills to record Endurance’s final resting place – coordinates which successfully helped the 2022 mission locate her.ĭragging the lifeboats across the ice was an ordeal for the crew. Thousands of miles from civilization, with no means of communicating with the outside world, Shackleton and his crew could only watch as the ice slowly crushed Endurance, eventually sinking her several weeks later. It’s here that, according to those who’ve studied Shackleton’s achievements, he showed his true mettle as a leader, switching objectives from walking across Antarctica to getting him and his men out alive. Then, in October, with the ice shifting and grinding around it, the boat succumbed to the immense pressures of the frozen landscape and was forced on its side, its hull damaged and taking on water.
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Frank Hurley/Royal Geographical Society/Getty Imagesĭespite various attempts to free Endurance, she remained trapped throughout the dark, storm-lashed months of winter. Hurley’s hauntingly beautiful images of the trapped ship and the stark icy landscape have played their own part in building the Shackleton legend over the years.Īt some point the pressure of the ice pushed the boat over and it began to take on water. These days, recorded in the diaries of various crew members – and later by Shackleton in his page-turning book “ South!” – were also documented on film and in photos by Frank Hurley, the expedition’s official photographer. There were social events to mark significant calendar days. Morale was challenged, but “the Boss,” as the crew called him, kept his men busy with regular forays into the white landscape, soccer and hockey matches and other scientific and nautical work. Sled dogs were moved off the ship and billeted in snow-built “dogloos.” Seals and penguins were hunted to feed the crew and animals.Įndurance’s icy incarceration during these months would be the first of many major tests of Shackleton’s skills as a leader. At that moment, you really do feel the breath of the great man upon the back of your neck.”Īfter the ship was abandoned, the men emptied it of as much as they could and established a "dump camp." Frank Hurley/Royal Geographical Society/Getty ImagesĪ “land station” was established on the ice. “You can see a porthole that is Shackleton’s cabin. “I tell you, you would have to be made of stone not to feel a bit squishy at the sight of that star and the name above,” Mensun Bound, the mission’s marine archaeologist, told the BBC. Those on the discovery expedition have spoken of the emotional experience of tracking down the lost vessel through hazardous ice floes and reconnecting with the very ship that carried Anglo-Irish polar explorer Ernest Shackleton on the fateful journey from which he and his crew would, against all the odds, emerge as some of the 20th century’s greatest heroes. Submersible video shot by Endurance22, a mission launched by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust to track down the vessel, shows painted timbers, an undamaged guardrail and the name “Endurance” written above the five-pointed symbol of a polar star. Royal Geographical Society/Royal Geographical Society/Royal Geographical Society via G Endurance became embedded in ice while crossing Antarctica's Weddell Sea.
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