Anjani Ganase continues her account of the Homeward Bound (2023) expedition to Antarctica with these reflections on the attempts by explorer Ernest Shackleton to cross the white continent.
By far, my favourite story of courage and leadership is the story of the Irish explorer, Ernest Shackleton, and his attempted Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), which became a journey of perseverance.
By this time, Shackleton was smitten by the white continent, having completed two expeditions on the Antarctic continent from New Zealand, via the Ross Sea.
[caption id="attachment_1062232" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Launch of the James Caird from the shore of Elephant Island for open sea voyage. - courtesy Frank Hurley[/caption]
The first was the Discovery Expedition (1901–1903) as part of the British National Antarctic Expedition Team, where Shackleton was the third officer. The team aimed to establish safe trekking routes in McMurdo Sound and penetrate the Ross Ice Shelf, and achieved the farthest south latitude ever crossed at the time. Shackleton’s leadership was already highly regarded by this time.
Shackleton then led a British National Antarctic Expedition aboard the Nimrod (1907–1909), which was his attempt to reach the south pole. He and his party, including Jameson Adams, Frank Wild and Eric Marshall, set off from Cape Royds on October 29, 1908, only to turn around 58 days later, just 180km from the pole. The decision was to avoid starvation and illness on the return leg, a delicate race against time.
The expedition that really won Shackleton respect as a great leader was the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917). He, as the expedition leader, and Frank Worsley, the ship’s captain, planned to lead a team of 26 across the Antarctic continent from the Western Peninsula through the South Pole to reach established supply camps on the other side of the continent on course to Ross Island which would be set up by a second party. However, the Endurance, which set sailed on December 5, 1914 from South Georgia Island, was not able to land on the continent, as the ship became fastened in by the ice flow in the Weddell Sea that drove them away from land. The crew spent the winter on the ice, and on October 24, 1915 the ice began crushing the ship and they were forced to abandon her.
What ensued was a two-year journey for survival as the crew tried to make their way towards any outposts for rescue. For months, they were completely at the mercy of the ice flow, which drifted past land too far and treacherous to reach. They erected camps and moved to new areas by foot when the opportunity arose. They dragged lifeboats along the ice, and periodically went to the ship for supplies, still fixed in the ice.
They eventually launched the boats the following summer and sailed to Elephant Island against whirling winds, frozen seas and damp cold.
It was then decided to risk sending a party of five to South Georgia Island aboard a 22-foot lifeboat and to leave the other men behind to camp on Elepha
