The Shackleton Expedition

This blog is going to be more about images than words. I write in honor of the recent discovery of the remains of Ernest Shackleton’s ship, The Endurance, on the floor of the Antarctic Sea. My husband and I travelled to the Antarctic in 1999 on a 100-passenger ship with Zegrahm Expeditions. We were joined on the cruise by a photographer doing research for an upcoming documentary on the Shackleton Expedition, so our route was slightly altered to take in more of the elements of the journey and survival of Shackleton and his crew. As you may know, the ship’s journey sadly ended in 1915 when the Endurance became trapped in sea ice and eventually sank. But the story did not end there.

The Endurance crew had to remain on the ship for months waiting for enough ice to melt to launch lifeboats and make it to the shore of Point Wild on Elephant Island, a rocky mass surrounded by ice and roiling waters, and inhabited only by penguins.

There, the 22 crewmen camped for 137 days, while their captain and 5 others sailed to the port of Grytviken on South Georgia Island, 800 miles away. Then Shackleton and 2 other men had to hike across the island, over mountains, and around waterfalls to the now deserted whaling port of Stromness, where they finally found help.

The unsung hero of this story is Louis Pardo, the captain of the Chilean vessel Yelcho, who came to rescue the crew in August of 1916. A statue in homage of Pardo now sits on the rocky shore of Elephant Island.

Six years later, in 1922, Ernest Shackleton returned to Grytviken on South Georgia Island, where he died suddenly of a heart attack. According to his wishes, he was buried there in a humble grave.

Ernest Shackleton was a fearless and relentless leader and during the many trials faced by him and his crew on this disastrous voyage, and through their many months of survival in the wild, not a single man was lost.