Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

April 10 dawns brightly. The ice pack appears to be opening and the boats are launched. An hour later, the boats are in an expanse of broad water devoid of ice. Toward midmorning, the men realize that they have reached open ocean, replete with forceful wind, breaking waves, and freezing spray. Storekeeper Orde-Lees has seasickness, as does Kerr, a second engineer. Incredibly enough, morale improves as they realize they may be within reasonable distance of land. Shackleton determines that the men should spend the night in their boats in order to avoid the trauma of cracking ice floes. This solution proves to be untenable, however, as the boats bump against each other and nearly dislodge the oars attaching them to the floe. Reluctantly, Shackleton determines that they will raise the boats to the ice. Exhausted, deprived of adequate food, and developing blisters on their frostbitten hands, the men fall into an exhausted sleep. Several hours later, winds rise to gale-force level and the floe on which the crew is camped is lifted and dropped, accompanied by the sound of the shrieking wind. Once again, their floe is crumbling, but Shackleton cannot launch the boats due to the horrific conditions. Eventually, the winds calm, a pool opens, and the boats are launched immediately. Taking advantage of the northeasterly winds, Shackleton decides to head for Deception Island, an island that is an extinct volcano and often visited by whalers. Shackleton’s plan is to salvage lumber for a shelter from a chapel built on the island by whalers. The men are ordered to sleep in the boats in order to avoid repeating the crisis pitch involved with evacuating a breaking ice floe. In the morning, the crew embarks on apparently calm water but is saddened when Captain Worsley reveals the results of his calculations. They are now 22 miles farther away from land than they had been when they left Patience Camp three days earlier.

The winds continue to blow the boats east, and when measurements are taken, the men learn that they are “20 miles east of where they started and 50 miles east of where they thought they were” (197). Shackleton changes their destination for the third time; they will not try to reach Hope Bay. The distance to be traveled is about 130 miles, and the men are exhausted and disheartened. They overnight by attaching the boats to a small floe, although the swell is heavy and the floe pitches terribly while the tents are being erected. As the men start to enjoy the prospect of rest, large blocks of ice begin to threaten their boats. Once again, a hurried evacuation is made from the floe, with the addition of heavy snow falling and the surface of the ocean freezing “into rubbery patches that would later become ‘pancake ice’” (199). The estimated temperature is four degrees below zero, and the men’s clothing is frozen stiff. Lack of food and sleep, coupled with the inability to move, causes the men to stay awake while they convulsively shiver. They move their toes continuously inside their boots in order to keep their feet from freezing. 

Once again, the men fight back against their physical suffering and the elements. The men curse everything: weather, boats, cold, and each other. Orde-Lees annoys the artist, Marston, by elbowing him out of his seat. The men are constantly wet and cold; the ship’s physicians speculate that they are absorbing water through their skin, leading to the need to urinate frequently. Most of them have diarrhea as a result of their diet of uncooked pemmican and are further tortured by having to sit on the frozen gunwale of the boat in order to relieve themselves. The entire party experiences dehydration, as well. Their departure from the last ice floe camp was so abrupt that it did not allow time to bring ice to be melted into water on the boats. Some of the men find it impossible to swallow when they try to eat, and this brings on seasickness.

The sea calms by about 3:00 am, and a magnificent pink and gold sunrise serves to lift the men’s spirits. They rejoice when they see the peaks of Clarence and Elephant Islands, which are approximately 30 miles away. Shackleton orders immediate departure, but the group is delayed by facial frostbite during the preceding night, as well as by painful boils. McIlroy, a physician, advises Shackleton that the feet of Blackboro, the young stowaway, are apparently dead due to lack of circulation. Two of the ships have had to be freed from ice inside and out by hours of chipping prior to sailing. When the boats set sail, many of the men are so dehydrated that they are unable to eat their ration of biscuits. Shackleton suggests that they try “chewing seal meat raw in order to swallow the blood” (208), but then orders that raw meat be given only to men whose thirst seems to be “threatening reason” in order to preserve the supply.

Dr. Macklin and First Officer Greenstreet find their feet to be frostbitten. Contrary to his prior self-absorbed behavior, Orde-Lees offers to massage Greenstreet’s feet in order to restore circulation. He does so for quite a while and then places the man’s feet on his own bare chest in order to complete the warming process. By 2:00 pm, the 3,500-foot peaks of Elephant Island are straight ahead of the boats and approximately 10 miles away, but the boats get caught in a strong current and the men must fight a headwind, which requires the sails to be lowered. After battling winds for several hours, they experience a calm, followed by a screaming, 50-mile-per-hour wind. Captain Worsley screams to Shackleton in the Caird that their chances will be better if they separate, and Shackleton agrees, though with grave reservations. By midnight, the men are exhausted enough to fall asleep while at the tiller, and Shackleton realizes that Worsley’s boat, the Docker, has vanished from sight. 

In Worsley’s boat, true exhaustion has set in: Worsley has been at the tiller for five-and-a-half days, and he can no longer judge distance. When he tries to get up, he is unable to straighten his body due to extended periods in the freezing cold while in a hunched position. The other men lay him down in the boat and rub his thighs and stomach until his muscles loosen. Finally, the cliffs of Elephant Island become visible through the fog and mist, and the men experience tremendous relief. Worsley is awakened when the men kick him until he regains consciousness, and he guides the boat under the glaciers surrounding the island. The men lean over the sides of the boat, scooping up ice so that they can finally drink water.

During the long frigid night on the Caird, Shackleton keeps watch for Captain Worsley’s Docker with increasing anxiety. The Wills is being towed by the Caird, and the men are in a deplorable state. Navigator Hudson is experiencing terrible pain in his side and is unable to stay at the tiller. First Engineer Rickenson seems “on the point of collapse” (217). Additionally, the Wills’s bow plunges into the ocean with each wave, and the men are knee-deep in water. This actually makes them slightly more comfortable, since the water is warmer than the air. The feet of Blackboro, the stowaway, are no longer in pain, and he realizes that gangrene is inevitable. During the long night, Shackleton attempts to lift the young man’s spirits by telling him that he will have the honor of being the first person to ever walk ashore on Elephant Island. Blackboro, aware that he is unable to walk, does not reply. When dawn arrives, Shackleton orders an immediate search for a landing place, but the ice-encrusted island offers no sheltering coves or beaches. Captain Worsley’s Docker is also searching for a safe landing spot, and the men whisper to each other that the men on the other boats have probably not survived the night. They are shocked to round a corner of Elephant Island to see the Caird and Wills “bobbing in the backwash from the breakers” (219). Ironically enough, had the Docker found a landing spot immediately, they never would have been reunited with the other boats. Shackleton urges Blackboro to be first ashore prior to recalling that the boy cannot walk, and two crewmembers immediately pull Blackboro up onto the beach. As the party lands, First Engineer Rickenson has a heart attack.