The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Product Information

As for the rest of the Trans-Continental team, the supply depot party had also run into trouble with the ship Aurora but continued to lay the supplies nonetheless. Eventually, needing rescue, the party of men sadly lost three lives in the process.

As the situation worsened, the ship was crushed by the ice and began to drift in a northerly direction. Endurance trapped in the ice Most skillfully Alexander constructs the expedition's character through its personalities--the cast of veteran explorers, scientists, and crew--with aid from many previously unavailable journals and documents. We learn, for instance, that carpenter and shipwright Henry McNish, or "Chippy," was "neither sweet-tempered nor tolerant," and that Mrs. Chippy, his cat, was "full of character." Such firsthand descriptions, paired with 170 of Frank Hurley's intimate photographs, which are comprehensively assembled here for the first time, penetrate the hulls of the Endurance and these tough men. The account successfully reveals the seldom-seen domestic world of expedition life--the singsongs, feasts, lectures, camaraderie--so that when the hardships set in, we know these people beyond the stereotypical guise of mere explorers and long for their safety.Caroline Alexander is a deft storyteller, efficiently and seamlessly merging excerpts from crew members’ diaries with photographs and independent research. She contextualizes the events of the expedition against the world arena, providing a rudimentary social and political framework upon which to build the story. She had access to sources previously unavailable to other researchers, and skillfully unifies diary entries and independent research. The result is a comprehensive, thoughtful, and thorough recollection of the expedition. With unexpected intimacy, Alexander reconstructs both the physical voyage and the burgeoning relationships between the men. She has an acute sense for the social dynamics on the ship, and is skilled in her candid nuanced portrayals of the individual men. After dispersing from the Falkland Islands , most crew members immediately entered military or civilian service to their respective countries. The book’s final act is devoted to the post-expedition lives of the crewmembers, ranging from abject poverty to business ownership (with one crewmember, not warmly viewed by his cohorts, finding profession as a spy). The eclectic crew, unsurprisingly, went on to equally disparate lives. This achievement was followed by his former commander, Robert Scott who also reached the South Pole but sadly lost his life on the return home.

Her summation of an 800 mile journey in a small open boat, battered by frigid gale force storms, manned only by ES and two others, in a a desperate attempt to seek help best captures the heart of this story:

In 1901, he joined his first expedition to the Antarctic, led by the esteemed British naval officer Robert Falcon Scott. The journey involved a challenging trek to the South Pole and was a joint venture with the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society.

He depicts the day-to-day life of the men, their teams of sled dogs, and the slow demise of their home for ten months, the Endurance. He worked without hat and gloves, always on the move, always looking for the next composition. “His eye for light was flawless,” says Ms. Alexander. The film was well received by critics, [1] and was nominated for and won several awards. [2] See also [ edit ] But otherwise, for anyone with even passing interest in classic adventure stories, this is just an insanely good book - can not over-recommend!

Success!

Book Genre: Adventure, Art, Biography, Historical, History, Maritime, Nonfiction, Photography, Science, Survival, Travel