This is easily the most fascinating story of a rescue mission there ever was. It shows how far leadership and daring can go. I came across this by watching the wonderful documentary “The Endurance: Shackletons Legendary Antarctic Expedition“. If you can get the DVD, watch it, it’s worth it. This post can only give you a rough description of the adventure and I hope it will inspire you to find out more, or, if you are familiar with the story already, to revisit. A special “Thank You” goes to commenter 5thstate, who reminded me of the plan to write this post when he mentioned Shackleton’s book in his reply to today’s open thread. I took the info from wikipedia, which is, as far as my judgement goes, quite correct here.

Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874 – 1924) started his career at sea at the age of 16 in the Merchant Navy. He never had much use for school and mostly felt bored there. His first experiences with the Antarctic were on board of the Discovery during the expedition from 1901 to 1903. The expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott broke the record of the highest latitude, getting closest to the South Pole at latitude 82°17′. Some conflict that seems to have arisen among Scott and Shackleton promted the latter to try and outdo Scott.

On the Nimrod he set out to get closer to the South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole and he established a new record only 112 miles from the South Pole. The expedition lasted from 1907 to 1909.

In 1912 it was clear that Amundsen had won the race for the South Pole ahead of Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition and so Shackleton needed another challenge. Like crossing the Antarctic continent from the Wedell Sea to Ross Island.

The Imperial Transatlantic Expedition 1914 – 1917 was born.

The Endurance, Shackleton’s Ship set out on December 5th 1914 and was frozen in the pack ice on January 19, 1915, never to take up sailing again. The men camped on the ice for months and on November 21st 1915 the ice had destroyed the Endurance. The ship sank.

In April 1916 the ice floe on which the men camped broke in two and the men could not stay on the ice any longer. They took their lifeboats on a journey to relative safety. Deception Island was their initial destination, but

The boats were still in the pack, dependent upon leads of water opening up, and progress was perilous and erratic. Frequently the boats were tied to floes, or dragged up on to them, while the men camped and waited for conditions to improve. Shackleton was wavering again between several potential destinations, and on 12 April rejected the various island options and decided on Hope Bay, at the very tip of Graham Land. However, conditions in the boats, in temperatures sometimes as low as -20°F (−30°C), with little food and regular soakings in icy seawater, were wearing the men down, physically and mentally. Shackleton therefore decided that Elephant Island, the nearest of the possible refuges, was now the only practical option. (Source: Wikipedia)

Elephant Island was reached after five days at sea under the aforementioned conditions. The island was uninhabited, however, and it was soon clear that no rescue was possible from there.

Shackleton and five other men set off for the 800 miles journey to South Georgia on April 24th. They encountered hurricane conditions in what wasn’t more than a cleverly patched up 22.5 ft lifeboat, the James Caird. No sunlight, nor starlight to guide them in the prevailing weather conditions. After 14 days they sighted South Georgia.

But the whaling station where they hoped to find help was on the other side of the island.

The populated whaling stations of South Georgia lay on the northern coast. To reach them would mean either another boat journey around the island, or a land crossing through its unexplored interior. The condition of the James Caird, and the physical state of the party, particularly Vincent and McNish, meant that only the second of these options was viable.

So a land journey through the rough country of South Georgia lay ahead of the exhausted men.

Without a map, the route they chose was largely conjectural. By dawn they had ascended to 3,000 feet (910 m) and could see the northern coast. They were above Possession Bay, which meant that they were too far to the west and would need to move eastward to reach Stromness, their target whaling station. This meant the first of several backtrackings that would extend the journey and frustrate the men. At the close of that first day, needing to descend to the valley below them before nightfall, they risked everything by sliding down a mountainside on a makeshift rope sledge. There was no question of rest—they travelled on by moonlight, moving upwards towards a gap in the next mountainous ridge. Early next morning, seeing Husvik Harbour below them, they knew that they were on the right path. At seven o’clock in the morning they heard the steam whistle sound from the whaling station, “the first sound created by an outside human agency that had come to our ears since we left Stromness Bay in December 1914”. After a difficult descent, which involved passage down through a freezing waterfall, they at last reached safety.

From there Shackleton eventually found a boat to sail to Elephant Island, where he landed on August 30th 1916 and found all of his men alive to bring them back home.

An incredible story.