![]() (Shortform note: The term “ice floe” refers to any piece of ice that is held together. Lansing narrates their moves in detail, as well as the mood changes among the crew during this time. ![]() They had to move camps often because their floe cracked or melted, and they eventually abandoned the floes and got on their boats when the ocean drift took them away from the islands they were aiming for. The geographers and archeologists who discovered the Endurance had to battle the same weather conditions as the ship’s last crew-unbearable cold, moving ice packs, and blizzards-but they had the advantage of technology to make their mission a successful one.) Living on the Ice FloesĪfter leaving the ship, Shackleton and his crew set up several different camps on ice floes while they waited for better weather conditions to continue their journey. One reason the ship is so well preserved is that wood-eating marine life doesn’t live in the coldest sea on the globe. Despite having been more than 3,000 meters (1.8 miles) underwater for over a century, the ship is well preserved and its name on the stern is intact. (Shortform note: Although the Endurance went down, 107 years later, in March 2022, a team of scientists rediscovered it. Also to avoid burdens, Shackleton ordered them to kill some of the animals they had on board: the three youngest dogs, an older dog that wasn’t harness-trained, and the cat. The only non-essential items they took were their diaries and a banjo. Shackleton urged the men to take only the nearest necessities so they wouldn’t be unnecessarily burdened. Lansing says that, before leaving, they tied the Union Jack to a still visible part of the ship so that it would go down with its colors flying. Finally, he wrote, “ It is hard to write what I feel.”) Leaving the Ship AreaĪfter getting some rest after several days of fighting the ice, they left the ship on October 30 and headed on foot in the direction of Paulet Island, pulling their lifeboats and supplies. However, the ship was now irretrievable and they had to begin the task of reaching land with all the members of the crew. He remarked that it was the end of a long period of wondering and anxiety, punctuated by moments of optimism. (Shortform note: In his diary, Shackleton recorded the events of the day they abandoned the ship. Shackleton planned to get to Paulet Island, which was 346 miles away-in 1903, the crew of another ship crushed by ice had awaited rescue there, and they had left stores of food on the island in case anyone else found themselves stranded in the region. They were now in the Weddell Sea, halfway between the South Pole and the nearest populated town 1,200 miles away.
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