What Happened When Shackleton Was Stranded In The Antarctic For Years?
The Goal Of Shackleton's Mission Was A Two-Team, Trans-Continental Trek
- Photo:
- Finetooth, Like tears in rain, U.S Central Intelligence Agency
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
Because both Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott had already reached the South Pole, in 1914, Ernest Shackleton proposed to make the first continental crossing of Antarctica, an unprecedented mission. So lengthy was this trek that Shackleton assembled one team he would lead from South America and a second team that would leave from Tasmania and land on the opposite side of the continent along the Ross Sea. Shackleton would not be able to carry enough supplies to make it completely across Antarctica; the Ross Sea party would have to trek almost a third of the way across the continent in order to set up the necessary supply depots. This whole plan was rendered impossible by Shackleton's failure to reach Antarctica before his ship became trapped in the ice, preventing him from landing at an appropriate site.
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Shackleton's Ship Became Hopelessly Trapped In Ice
- Photo:
- Frank Hurley
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
Shackleton's 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was beset with problems before he even reached his intended landfall at Vahsel Bay. In January of 1915, unusually cold temperatures precipitated an increase in the pack ice around the ship, the suitably named Endurance, and less than 100 miles from land, the ship became completely immobilized in solid ice. Two days were spent attempting to chop a passage through this barrier to no avail. Even worse, the ship was also moving away from its goal, as the Endurance was at the mercy of the drifting ice floe.
With temperatures routinely hitting -20 degrees centigrade, (-4 F) Shackleton would not be able to reach land until the ice melted, which would potentially take months.
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Shackleton And His Men Endured Freezing Winds And Blizzards Waiting For The Ice To Melt
- Photo:
- Unknown
- Wikipedia
- Public domain
Shackleton's dilemma was not unprecedented. A 1911 German Antarctic exploration commanded by Wilhelm Filchner had also been trapped for six months before enough ice melted to allow his ship, the Deutschland, to escape and return to South Georgia Island. However, Shackleton also had to prepare for the possibility that the ice might begin to exert pressure on the sides of the ship.
He removed weight from the sides of the ship, hoping this would allow the Endurance to rise in the event that the ice began to push together, keeping the vessel intact as opposed to being crushed. Beneath the frozen ice, sea currents exerted tremendous force that pulled the ice floes and Shackleton's ship for many miles. Frequent blizzards and freezing wind also impacted the ice. Shackleton and his crew could only wait.
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Shackleton Was Forced To Abandon His Ship Before It Was Crushed By The Ice
- Photo:
- Royal Geographic Society
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
For six months, Shackleton waited to see whether he would be able to escape or if his ship would be destroyed by the pack ice accumulating around the Endurance. Later, he described the daily situation he faced in October of 1915:
"The ice is rafting up to a height of 10 or 15 ft. in places, the opposing floes are moving against one another at the rate of about 200 yds. per hour. The noise resembles the roar of heavy, distant surf. Standing on the stirring ice one can imagine it is disturbed by the breathing and tossing of a mighty giant below."
By the end of the month, the ship began to sustain serious damage to its stern. Within a matter of days, it was clear that the Endurance was not going to make it. On October 27, Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship.
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After Abandoning The 'Endurance,' The Expedition Went Into Survival Mode
- Photo:
- Unknown author
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
Once the men left the Endurance, any chance of completing the original mission of crossing Antarctica was abandoned. Shackleton was now forced to focus on getting his men back to civilization, a formidable challenge. The ship had drifted for 281 days and a distance of 1186 miles. Shackleton was 350 miles from remote Paulet Island, the nearest outpost with even a thought of resupply and shelter.
Initially, the group erected tents near the Endurance, hoping to salvage as much as possible before the ship sank. They would have to rely on eating seals and even penguins to supplement their ever-decreasing supplies. The expedition spent almost a month salvaging whatever it could before the Endurance finally broke apart and disappeared into the water beneath the ice. Shackleton's initial plan was to attempt to march to the northern tip of Antarctica and if the ice broke apart, to take to the lifeboats salvaged from the Endurance.
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Shackleton's Men Were Forced To Kill And Eat Their Own Sled Dogs
Once Shackleton realized that he would not make an attempt to cross Antarctica, the sled dogs' days were numbered, especially because the dogs consumed more meat than the men did. On October 30, 1915, five dogs and the expedition's cat were shot by Frank Wild, Shackleton's second-in-command. More dogs would be put down as a result of the ever-worsening food situation, which meant that the dogs were as malnourished as the men.
By January 1916, 30 dogs had been killed, and on March 30, the last of them were shot, skinned, and eaten. By that time, Shackleton's men were so hungry that they did not even think twice about what they were eating. Still, the terrible fate of the animals merely underlined the desperation of the situation. Wild later commented, "I have known many men who I would rather have shot, than these dogs."
After The 'Endurance' Sank, The Expedition Trekked 100 Miles To Remote Elephant Island
Initially, Shackleton marched across the ice floes in a generally northerly direction, his exact route determined by ice and weather conditions. The weather varied greatly, with sunny days followed by fog, wind and extreme cold as low as -20 degrees F. By April, breaks in the ice meant that the men could navigate their lifeboats over open water.
Though he had initially hoped to reach Deception Island, Shackleton broke off this attempt as frequent exposure to freezing cold seawater in rough seas forced him and his exhausted, frostbitten men to put ashore on Elephant Island, a small island off the northernmost peninsula of Antarctica. Most of the island's shore was rocky and inaccessible, but on April 15, the expedition managed to eventually locate a small, seven-mile long beach on the island. This was the first land Shackleton had stood on in 497 days. For the moment, the group was safer than they had been in months, camping on dry land and not on an ice floe which could break apart at any moment.
Shackleton Sailed 900 Miles In A 20-Foot Lifeboat To Summon Help
- Photo:
- Probably Frank Hurley, the expedition's photographer
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
Shackleton soon came to the realization that the only way to get his men back to civilization would be if he successfully returned to South Georgia Island to summon help. That was over 900 miles away, over some of the most turbulent ocean on the planet, in a 20-foot-long lifeboat. Even if the ship, newly christened the James Caird after one of the financial backers of the expedition, remained seaworthy, the voyage would require exact navigation to locate South Georgia Island, a tiny outpost 100 miles long and 20 miles wide. Using only a chronometer and sextant, this would be the responsibility of the ship captain of the Endurance, Frank Worsley.
The lifeboat was refitted with a mast and loaded up with supplies to last only a month, as it was believed they would either succeed or perish in that amount of time. Shackleton and five other men set sail on April 24 on what was realistically a needle in a haystack proposition. Frank Wild was placed in command of the 22 men who would remain on Elephant Island and instructed to attempt to reach the nearby and uninhabited whaling outpost on Deception Island the following spring if Shackleton had not returned by then.
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Shackleton Then Hiked Across South Georgia Island, Across Tremendous Glaciers
Shackleton safely made it off of the beach at Elephant Island and began the monumental task of reaching South Georgia. Although the ship traveled roughly 60 miles a day, the men were quickly drenched by rough seas and would spend the next few weeks perpetually wet, frostbitten, their skin rubbed raw and additionally irritated by seawater. On the fifth day, the James Caird was hit by a a powerful gale, and the crew feared they would capsize at any moment. The gale brought cold temperatures that froze water in heavy layers on the boat, which needed to be chipped off. Any excess weight, including frozen sleeping bags and spare oars, was tossed overboard to keep the ship as light as possible to maintain speed.
The sun came out again on the seventh day and Worsley was able to determine that they had traveled about 350 miles. The next few days were calm until another gale hit on day 11, again practically swamping the boat, which remained just barely upright. Just 14 days after leaving Elephant Island, the crew spotted South Georgia Island. Shackleton would have to spend another night in hurricane-force conditions, as they could not find a suitable area to land. Thwarted by reefs and glaciers, it took another day to find a suitable spot at King Haakon Bay.
While this part of their miraculous journey was complete, Shackleton had landed on the unsettled south side of the island. The James Caird had a broken rudder, was leaking, and was probably not going to be able to navigate the rugged trip to the other side of the island. Shackleton decided to traverse South Georgia Island on foot, an unprecedented trek that would require climbing over ice, rocks, and glaciers that reached 5,000 feet in elevation through deep snow. He had no other choice.
When Shackleton Made It Back To Stromness, Children Fled At The Sight Of Him
Shackleton's destination was the whaling station of Stromness, which he had not seen in almost two years. One concern was whether or not the whaling station was even still populated as conditions threatened to close it at any time. Three of the men were too weak to attempt the overland trip, so Shackleton took Worsley and Tom Crean with him. They took three days' worth of food, attached screws to the bottoms of their worn boots for traction, and decided to leave their sleeping bags behind.
On May 19, at 2 AM, hiking under the light of a full moon, the trio set out. They spent much of their first day getting lost in the dead ends of glaciers that forced them to retrace their steps. They finally made the decision to escape high altitudes by gliding down the steep incline, roped together. If they did not quickly descend to a lower altitude, they would have frozen to death. They glided successfully, but still had to overcome a 2,000-foot glacier and a 25-foot waterfall before they concluded their 36-hour journey on the outskirts of Stromness.
They tried to make themselves presentable, but wearing tattered, filthy clothes that had not been washed in a year and sporting long hair and beards, they got a predictable response when they encountered two children on their way to the station. When Shackleton asked for the station manager by name, the two children looked at him wide-eyed with fright and ran in the other direction. When he re-introduced himself to the station master, the man had no idea who he was.
Shackleton Took Another Five And A Half Months To Rescue His Entire Crew
- Photo:
- Frank Hurley
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
The three other members that Shackleton left at King Haakon Bay were quickly retrieved by a whaling ship from Stromness. Rescuing the remaining 22 men from Elephant Island would prove to be much more difficult. Because the First World War was raging, the British government had few resources to spare. Shackleton immediately set out in a whaling vessel within a matter of days but the ship was forced to turn back when it encountered a barrier of solid ice. Three more times, Shackleton would attempt a rescue with ships provided by expatriate Brits and even the Uruguayan government, only to encounter impassable ice. Finally, the Chilean government stepped in and provided a small tug boat, the Yelcho, that set off on August 20.
Five days later, while the 22 men on Elephant Island were preparing for a lunch of penguin breast and stewed seal bones, the Yelcho was spotted, visibly lowering a smaller boat into the water. It was Shackleton, who yelled as he approached "All well?" Wild shouted back "All safe, all well!" to Shackleton's visible relief. Within an hour, all 22 men were safely headed to Punta Arenas, Chile.
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Shackleton Died From A Heart Attack On South Georgia Five Years Later
The other component of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the Ross Sea Party, encountered similar difficulties: three of its members perished; its ship, the Aurora, also was unable to weather the extreme conditions and was forced to return to New Zealand; and it was not until January of 1916 that seven survivors were rescued. Because of the chaos of World War I, Shackleton's return to Britain did not receive much attention. In the immediate aftermath of his return, he volunteered for the army and was involved in efforts in both Norway and Russia.
Following the war, Shackleton was able to secure financing from a college classmate for a final expedition to Antarctica, for an intended circumnavigation of the continent. Shackleton's health was deteriorating in the years leading up to this journey and on January 4, 1922, shortly after arriving on South Georgia Island onboard his boat, The Quest, he suffered a massive fatal heart attack. His widow requested that his remains should be buried in the small cemetery on the island, where he reposes today.
Shackleton Was Already A Knight And A Hero Even Before The 1914 Expedition
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In 1907, Shackleton led an expedition intent on reaching the South Pole. Conveyed to Antarctica in his ship the Nimrod, Shackleton ultimately failed to reach his objective. Faced with a much more difficult journey than he anticipated, he was forced to give up and turn back only 97 miles from the South Pole. But the extreme conditions that this expedition overcame just to survive and Shackleton's achievement of reaching the southernmost point in the history of polar exploration made him a British celebrity. Shackleton was knighted by the king and his rival, explorer Roald Amundsen, commented, "Sir Ernest Shackleton's name will always be written in the annals of Antarctic exploration in letters of fire."
