All photos in this post are Frank Hurley's, taken on the 1914-1916 Endurance Expedition.
One of the wonderful parts of our Antarctic expedition was that it coincided with the 100-year anniversary of the failed Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton in 1914-1916 and we were able to visit many of the same locations as Shackleton and his crew, under much better conditions than they experienced a hundred years ago.
Up to the early 20th century, many explorers knew of the great white continent, but little was known about it and few had visited it. In the early 1900s, adventurer and explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton set out on his first led expedition to hopefully accomplish a feat no other explorer had yet to: reach the South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole. In 1907-1909, he and his crew set out on the Nimrod. This expedition was faced with very difficult conditions with freezing cold temperatures, frost bite, little food and painful snow blindness. 83 miles from the pole he made the difficult decision that, with not enough supplies to make it to even one of the poles and back, it was more important to save his men than to proceed.
Although the Nimrod expedition was a failure, and the quest to the South Magnetic Pole was accomplished by Edgeworth David, and Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911; Shackleton was seen a bit differently from his peers from a leadership perspective for having shown the concern for keeping his crew alive over the glory of the accomplished quest. Shackleton was determined to continue his exploration and decided to be the first man to lead an expedition across the continent. He sent out a newspaper advertisement saying: “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” He received over 5,000 applications. When selecting his crew, there was one important but unexpected member chosen that is, most likely, the reason why the Endurance expedition is the most well known of the Antarctic expeditions. Shackleton brought along the photographer Frank Hurley to capture the daily living and journey of the Endurance. He also strategically planned for 69 dogs and allowed 1 tabby cat “Chippy” to join in.
Up to the early 20th century, many explorers knew of the great white continent, but little was known about it and few had visited it. In the early 1900s, adventurer and explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton set out on his first led expedition to hopefully accomplish a feat no other explorer had yet to: reach the South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole. In 1907-1909, he and his crew set out on the Nimrod. This expedition was faced with very difficult conditions with freezing cold temperatures, frost bite, little food and painful snow blindness. 83 miles from the pole he made the difficult decision that, with not enough supplies to make it to even one of the poles and back, it was more important to save his men than to proceed.
Although the Nimrod expedition was a failure, and the quest to the South Magnetic Pole was accomplished by Edgeworth David, and Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911; Shackleton was seen a bit differently from his peers from a leadership perspective for having shown the concern for keeping his crew alive over the glory of the accomplished quest. Shackleton was determined to continue his exploration and decided to be the first man to lead an expedition across the continent. He sent out a newspaper advertisement saying: “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” He received over 5,000 applications. When selecting his crew, there was one important but unexpected member chosen that is, most likely, the reason why the Endurance expedition is the most well known of the Antarctic expeditions. Shackleton brought along the photographer Frank Hurley to capture the daily living and journey of the Endurance. He also strategically planned for 69 dogs and allowed 1 tabby cat “Chippy” to join in.
August 8, 1914 - The Endurance left Plymouth, England for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
December, 1914 - The Endurance enters the Weddell Sea and encountered bad weather and pack ice.
January 18th, 1915 - The Endurance is trapped in pack ice.
Being stuck this early in the expedition, Shackleton began to show his strong leadership by keeping his men on a schedule and having purposeful work to keep them mentally alert and physically active. For the ten months the crew remained with the Endurance, he insisted on having schedules, responsibilities and celebrations of some sort each and every day. Although they stayed on board the ship for as long as possible, they did build dogloo’s on the ice so the dogs could have a more comfortable place to sleep and to be outside to exercise.
October 27, 1915 - Shackleton gives the order to abandon ship.
November 21, 1915 - The shifting ice finally claimed the Endurance, and the ship sank.
Shackleton still wanted to complete the expedition, but he decided his main focus was to save the lives of his men and began to move them away from the site. They walked 2 miles in 3 days before deciding to set up the Ocean Camp. Here, Shackleton again prepared very rigorous scheduling for his men over the next 5 months. At this point, the Ocean Camp had drifted to the edge of the Weddell Sea, where the ice was melting and beginning to separate, and the men were finally able to launch their small life boats into the stormy seas.
April 14, 1916 - The men arrive at Cape Valentine, Elephant Island. This was the first time the men had set foot on land in 16 months.
April 17, 1916 - The men move to the (slightly) better site of Point Wilde.
April 26, 1916 - Shackleton selected 5 men, took a month’s worth of supplies, and launched the James B. Caird lifeboat to head for South Georgia.
May 9th, 1916 - Shackleton and his 5 men arrive at King Haakon Bay on South Georgia.
After enduring a hurricane and the worst seas they had ever seen, Shackleton abandoned the lifeboat, chose two of those men, and began a 36 hour hike across the mountainous and glacier-filled landscape (that had never been traversed before) to Stromness Whaling Station. Upon arrival, the men were unrecognizable and told their story (with Hurley’s slides as proof) to the first humans they had seen in 18 months.
August 30, 1916 - The Chilean boat, Yelcho, arrived at Cape Wilde to rescue Shackleton’s men.
Three months and three attempts at a rescue later, and Captain Luis Pardo was able to retrieve all of Shackleton’s men. Once the Yelcho arrived at Elephant Island it only took one hour to completely disassemble everything, get the men on board, and reunited with their captain. Although the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was a failure, all the men survived and it was the first exploration group to survive an overwinter and 19 months in Antarctica. More than 24 months after leaving England, the entire (human) crew of the Endurance left the Antarctic and was able to finally go home.