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Setting Sail
Shackleton and his crew of 28 men set sail from London on the Endurance, bringing along 69 (adorable) dogs, two motor sledges, and a LOT of supplies. Notable crew:
- Ernest Shackleton: Head of expedition, affectionally called "Boss" by the crew
-Frank Wild: Second in command
-Frank Worsley: Captain of Endurance
-Frank Hurley: Photographer (but seriously, why was everyone on that ship named Frank?)
- George Marston: Carpenter
-William Bakewell: Only American on board
-The doggos :) -
Arrival at South Georgia
Endurance lands at a whaling station on the island of South Georgia (not to be confused with the country or the US state). Temporary resting stop. -
The Real Beginning
The Endurance finally sets off for the Antarctic mainland. This is the last they will hear from the outside world for 18 entire months, and they will not see proper land for over a year (497 days). The occasional ice floe here and there does not count. Aaaaand everything basically goes downhill from here. -
Pack Ice
This is where everything starts to go awfully wrong. The Endurance encounters pack ice but decides to plough through, confident of the ship's abilities. -
Disaster Strikes!
The Endurance, despite being awesome and all that, was unable to go any further as the pack ice was too much for her to handle. She becomes frozen in the ice. The crew decides to wait it out on the ship. -
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It Gets Worse
The pack ice is gradually closing in on the ship and it starts to leak and get damaged. Lots of stuff (including dogs) get brought on board. -
Abandon Ship
The ship is really starting to leak. The unignorable damage the ice caused to the ship leads to Shackleton ordering the ship to be abandoned. All the important stuff is carried off the deck. Right then and there Ernest Shackleton scraps his hopes and dreams for a new mission: to bring every single man back home alive, no matter what it took. -
Camping Out
The crew decide to camp on a gigantic ice floe to wait it out until the ice thins enough for them to set sail again (on lifeboats this time). It is dubbed "Ocean Camp". Ocean Camp was set a mile and a half away from the Endurance. Food was plentiful at first but had to be rationed carefully later on. The crew was very generous in sharing rations with each other. -
Timber...
The Endurance can endure it no longer, and sinks to the bottom of the Weddel Sea after getting crushed and broken. It eventually gets found, but that's another story for another time. -
All I Want for Christmas is to Go Home
It's Christmas! Well, not quite. Christmas was celebrated early and the crew decided it would be a good idea for them to eat - yes, that's right - all the remaining good stuff. Like, the luxuries and other yummy foods. Not a good survival plan, but at least they got to celebrate Christmas. -
Moving West
Ocean Camp is abandoned in a bid to reach Paulet Island, where more food is located (do it for the food!). The dogs get to drag the heavy sleds while the guys haul the slightly less heavy lifeboats. -
Camping Out pt. 2
Guess what they run into? That's right, more ice! Shackleton and the boys were really lucky back in the day, eh? Anyways, they decided to pitch another camp on more sea ice and named it "Patience Camp", because they would have to stay there for a long time (It ended up being 3-and-a-half months). -
FREEDOM!
Liberation day finally arrives. The ice is gradually melting and clearing up the way for the guys to make their escape. The three lifeboats take off for Elephant Island. The unfathomable decision is made to shoot the dogs. Absolutely horrible. -
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Titanic 2.0
Honestly, the crew's whole "lost at sea on a few wooden boats" thing was strangely reminiscent of the Titanic episode that happened just 2 years before they set sail.
Anyways, remember when I mentioned that they shot the dogs? Well, I guess karma does come back to bite people in the behind because at one point they realised that the current had taken them backwards. They did eventually manage to get back on track, though. -
Land Ahoy!
After a whopping 497 days, the crew finally landed on solid land—the first time in over a year. Actually, I'm surprised they didn't kiss the ground (or did they?). Anyways, needless to say, they set up another camp. -
Off to Sea (Again)
Though they were on solid land, Shackleton's crew was still in danger of running out of supplies, so Shackleton and 5 others got on a slightly modified James Caird, the largest lifeboat, and set sail for the original whaling station in South Georgia. They left the remaining crew with a letter in case they got lost at sea, and off they went (again). -
Mother Nature Is Absolutely Horrible
Lo and behold, Mother Nature decided to be extra mean that day and pulled a hurricane on Shackleton and his men. They pulled through eventually. -
Plot Twist #8,569
Finally, after pulling through the hurricane, Shackleton was getting a bit fed up with getting all the hardships thrown at him. But if you think it got better, you'd be horribly wrong! Because guess what: though Shackleton got to South Georgia, he landed on the wrong side. The whaling station was on the other side of the island. -
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The Hardest Part
Shackleton took two other people with him to climb the harsh and cruel mountains of South Georgia and left the rest of the guys to take care of the lifeboat. Though it only lasted a day, it was undoubtedly one of the toughest parts of Shackleton's entire journey. -
Arrival
After completing the long and treacherous hike, Shackleton and his men finally reached the whaling station and came in contact with the outside world for the first time in almost two years. It was said the guy at the whaling station cried when he saw Shackleton. -
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The Rescue
It took four rescue attempts for all 28 men to be able to get rescued. The governments of Uruguay and Chile pitched in to help the effort, and finally, on September 3rd, all 28 men of Shackleton's crew successfully reached the safe haven of Punta Arenas, Chile, and it was all because of the determination and endurance (no pun intended) of Shackleton and his men. This journey has been known to many as one of the most staggering feats of persistence in the history of mankind.