Weddell Sea party Voyage through the ice Endurance, without Shackleton (who was detained in England by expedition business), left
Plymouth on 8 August 1914, heading first for
Buenos Aires. Here Shackleton, who had travelled on a faster ship, rejoined the expedition. Hurley also came on board, together with Bakewell and the stowaway, Blackborow, while several others left the ship or were discharged. On 26 October, the ship sailed for the South Atlantic, arriving in South Georgia on 5 November. Shackleton's original intention was that the crossing would take place in the first season, 1914–1915. After a month-long halt in the
Grytviken whaling station on
South Georgia,
Endurance departed for the Antarctic on 5 December. forcing the ship to manoeuvre. During the following days there were more tussles with the pack, which, on 14 December, was thick enough to halt the ship for 24 hours. Three days later, the ship was stopped again. Shackleton commented: "I had been prepared for evil conditions in the Weddell Sea, but had hoped that the pack would be loose. What we were encountering was fairly dense pack of a very obstinate character".
Endurances progress was frustratingly slow, until, on 22 December, leads opened up and the ship was able to continue steadily southward. This continued for the next two weeks, taking the party deep into the Weddell Sea. Further delays then slowed progress after the turn of the year, before a lengthy run south during 7–10 January 1915 brought them close to the ice walls which guarded the Antarctic coastal region of
Coats Land. This territory had been discovered and named by William Speirs Bruce in 1904 during the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. On 15 January,
Endurance came abreast of a great
glacier, the edge of which formed a bay which appeared a good landing place. However, Shackleton considered it too far north of Vahsel Bay for a landing, "except under pressure of necessity"—a decision he would later regret. On 17 January, the ship reached a latitude of 76° 27′S, where land was faintly discernible. Shackleton named it
Caird Coast, after his principal backer. Bad weather forced the ship to shelter in the lee of a stranded
iceberg. Strenuous efforts were made to release her; on 14 February, Shackleton ordered men onto the ice with ice-chisels, prickers, saws and picks to try to force a passage, but the labour proved futile. Shackleton did not at this stage abandon all hope of breaking free, but was now contemplating the "possibility of having to spend a winter in the inhospitable arms of the pack".
Drift of Endurance among the pressure ridges in the pack ice On 22 February 1915,
Endurance, still held fast, drifted to her most southerly latitude, 76° 58′S. Thereafter she began moving with the pack in a northerly direction. On 24 February, Shackleton realised that they would be held in the ice throughout the winter and ordered ship's routine abandoned. The dogs were taken off board and housed in ice-kennels or "dogloos", and the ship's interior was converted to suitable winter quarters for the various groups of men—officers, scientists, engineers, and seamen. A
wireless apparatus was rigged, but their location was too remote to receive or transmit signals. However, as winter set in the speed of the drift increased, and the condition of the surrounding ice changed. On 14 April, Shackleton recorded the nearby pack "piling and rafting against the masses of ice"—if the ship was caught in this disturbance "she would be crushed like an eggshell". Shackleton now considered the possibility of finding an alternative landing ground on the western shores of the Weddell Sea, if that coast could be reached. "In the meantime", he wrote, "we must wait". The first signs of the ice breaking up occurred on 22 July. On 1 August, in a south-westerly gale with heavy snow, the ice floe began to disintegrate all around the ship, the pressure forcing masses of ice beneath the
keel and causing a heavy list to
port. The position was perilous; Shackleton wrote: "The effects of the pressure around us was awe-inspiring. Mighty blocks of ice [...] rose slowly till they jumped like cherry-stones gripped between thumb and finger [...] if the ship was once gripped firmly her fate would be sealed". This danger passed, and the succeeding weeks were quiet. During this relative lull the ship drifted into the area where, in 1823, Captain
Benjamin Morrell of the sealer
Wasp reported seeing a coastline which he identified as "
New South Greenland". There was no sign of any such land; Shackleton concluded that Morrell had been deceived by the presence of large icebergs. On 30 September, the ship sustained what Shackleton described as "the worst squeeze we had experienced". Worsley described the pressure as like being "thrown to and fro like a
shuttlecock a dozen times". The supplies and three lifeboats were transferred to the ice, while the crew attempted to shore up the ship's hull and pump out the incoming sea. However, after a few days, on 27 October 1915, and in freezing temperatures below , Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship. The position at abandonment was 69° 05′S, 51° 30′W. The wreckage remained afloat, and over the following weeks the crew salvaged further supplies and materials, including Hurley's photographs and cameras that had initially been left behind. From around 550 plates, Hurley chose the best 120, the maximum that could be carried, and smashed the rest.
Camping on the ice With the loss of
Endurance the transcontinental plans were abandoned, and the focus shifted to that of survival. Shackleton's intention now was to march the crew westward, to one or other of several possible destinations. His first thought was for
Paulet Island, where he knew there was a hut containing a substantial food depot, because he had ordered it 12 years earlier while organising relief for
Otto Nordenskjöld's stranded Swedish expedition. Other possibilities were
Snow Hill Island, which had been Nordenskjöld's winter quarters and which was believed to contain a stock of emergency supplies, Shackleton believed that from one of these islands they would be able to reach and cross Graham Land and get to the whaling outposts in
Wilhelmina Bay. He believed the march was too risky; they should wait until the ice carried them to open water, and then escape in the boats. Shackleton over-ruled him. The company set out on 30 October 1915, with two of the ship's lifeboats carried on
sledges. Problems quickly arose as the condition of the sea ice around them worsened. According to Hurley the surface became "a labyrinth of hummocks and ridges" in which barely a square yard was smooth. They gave the name "Ocean Camp" to the flat and solid-looking floe on which their aborted march had ended, and settled down to wait. Parties continued to revisit the
Endurance wreck, which was still drifting with the ice a short distance from the camp. More of the abandoned supplies were retrieved until, on 21 November, the ship finally slipped beneath the ice. The final resting place of
Endurance would remain a mystery for nearly 107 years, until the wreckage was discovered on 5 March 2022. 's 1823 voyage|Path of ''Endurance's'' drift and the escape route to Elephant Island The ice was not drifting fast enough to be noticeable, although by late November the speed was up to a day. By 5 December, they had passed 68°S, but the direction was turning slightly east of north. This was taking the transcontinental party to a position from which it would be difficult to reach Snow Hill Island, although Paulet Island, further north, remained a possibility. Conditions, however, had not improved since the earlier attempt. Temperatures had risen and it was uncomfortably warm, with men sinking to their knees in soft snow as they struggled to haul the boats through the pressure ridges. On 27 December, McNish rebelled and refused to work, Two days later, with only progress achieved in seven back-breaking days, Shackleton called a halt, observing: "It would take us over three hundred days to reach the land". The crew put up their tents and settled into what Shackleton called "Patience Camp", which would be their home for more than three months. Food shortages became acute as the weeks passed, and
seal meat, which had added variety to their diet, now became a staple as Shackleton attempted to conserve the remaining packaged rations. In January, all but two teams of the dogs (whose overall numbers had been depleted by mishaps and illness in the preceding months) were shot on Shackleton's orders, because the dogs' requirements for seal meat were excessive. Meanwhile, the rate of drift became erratic; after being held at around 67° for several weeks, at the end of January there was a series of rapid north-eastward movements which, by 17 March, brought Patience Camp to the latitude of Paulet Island, but 60 nm (111 km) to its east. "It might have been six hundred for all the chance we had of reaching it across the broken sea-ice", Shackleton recorded. The party now had land more or less continuously in sight. The peak of
Mount Haddington on
James Ross Island remained in view as the party drifted slowly by. They were too far north for Snow Hill or Paulet Island to be accessible, and Shackleton's chief hopes were now fixed on two remaining small islands at the northern extremity of Graham Land. These were
Clarence Island and
Elephant Island, around 100 nautical miles (185 km) due north of their position on 25 March. To reach any of these destinations would require a perilous journey in the lifeboats once the floe upon which they were drifting finally broke up. Earlier, the lifeboats had been named after the expedition's three chief financial sponsors:
James Caird,
Dudley Docker and
Stancomb Wills.
Lifeboat journey to Elephant Island The end of Patience Camp was signalled on the evening of 8 April, when the floe suddenly split. The camp now found itself on a small triangular raft of ice; a break-up of this would mean disaster, so Shackleton readied the lifeboats for the party's enforced departure. He had now decided they would try, if possible, to reach the distant Deception Island because a small wooden church had been reportedly erected for the benefit of whalers. This could provide a source of timber that might enable them to construct a seaworthy boat. The boats were surrounded by ice, dependent upon leads of water opening up, and progress was perilous and erratic. Frequently the boats were tied to floes, or dragged up onto them, while the men camped and waited for conditions to improve. Shackleton was wavering again between several potential destinations, and on 12 April rejected the various island options and decided on
Hope Bay, at the very tip of Graham Land. However, conditions in the boats, in temperatures sometimes as low as , with little food and regular soakings in icy seawater, were wearing the men down, physically and mentally. Shackleton therefore decided that Elephant Island, the nearest of the possible refuges, was now the most practical option. On 14 April, the boats lay off the south-east coast of Elephant Island, but could not land as the shore consisted of perpendicular cliffs and glaciers. Next day the
James Caird rounded the eastern point of the island to reach the northern
lee shore, and discovered a narrow
shingle beach. Soon afterwards, the three boats, which had been separated during the previous night, were reunited at this landing place. It was apparent from
high tide markings that this beach would not serve as a long-term camp, so the next day Wild and a crew set off in the
Stancomb Wills to explore the coast for a safer site. They returned with news of a long spit of land, to the west. With minimum delay the men returned to the boats and transferred to this new location, which they later christened Cape Wild.
Voyage of the James Caird Elephant Island was remote, uninhabited, and rarely visited by whalers or any other ships. If the party was to return to civilisation it would be necessary to summon help. The only realistic way this could be done was to adapt one of the lifeboats for an voyage across the Southern Ocean, to South Georgia. Shackleton had abandoned thoughts of taking the party on the less dangerous journey to Deception Island, because of the poor physical condition of many of his party.
Port Stanley in the
Falkland Islands was closer than South Georgia but could not be reached, as this would require sailing against the strong prevailing winds. Shackleton selected the boat party: himself, Worsley, Crean, McNish, and sailors
John Vincent and
Timothy McCarthy. On instructions from Shackleton, McNish immediately set about adapting the
James Caird, improvising tools and materials. Wild was to be left in charge of the Elephant Island party, with instructions to make for Deception Island the following spring should Shackleton not return. The
James Caird was launched on 24 April 1916. The success of the voyage depended on the pin-point accuracy of Worsley's navigation, using observations that would have to be made in the most unfavourable of conditions. The prevailing wind was helpfully north-west, but the heavy sea conditions quickly soaked everything in icy water. Soon ice settled thickly on the boat, making her ride sluggishly. On 5 May, a north-westerly gale almost caused the boat's destruction as it faced what Shackleton described as the largest waves he had seen in 26 years at sea. On 8 May, South Georgia was sighted, after a 14-day battle with the elements that had driven the boat party to their physical limits. Two days later, after a prolonged struggle with heavy seas and hurricane-force winds to the south of the island, the party struggled ashore at
King Haakon Bay.
South Georgia crossing The arrival of the
James Caird at King Haakon Bay was followed by a period of rest and recuperation, while Shackleton pondered the next move. The populated whaling stations of South Georgia lay on the northern coast. To reach them would mean either another boat journey around the island, or a land crossing through its unexplored interior. The condition of the
James Caird, and the physical state of the party, particularly Vincent and McNish, meant that the crossing was the only realistic option. After five days, the party took the boat a short distance eastwards, to the head of a deep bay which would be the starting point for the crossing. Shackleton, Worsley and Crean would undertake the land journey, the others remaining at what they christened "
Peggotty Camp", to be picked up later after help had been obtained from the whaling stations. A storm on 18 May delayed their start, but by two o'clock the following morning the weather was clear and calm, and an hour later the crossing party set out. Without a map, the route the party chose was largely conjectural. By dawn they had ascended to and could see the northern coast. They were above
Possession Bay, which meant they would need to move eastward to reach Stromness. This meant the first of several backtrackings that would extend the journey and frustrate the men. At the close of that first day, needing to descend to the valley below them before nightfall, they risked everything by sliding down a mountainside on a makeshift rope sledge. They travelled without rest on by moonlight, moving upwards towards a gap in the next mountainous ridge. Early next morning, 20 May, seeing
Husvik Harbour below them, the party knew that they were on the right path. At seven o'clock in the morning, they heard a steam whistle sound from Stromness, "the first sound created by an outside human agency that had come to our ears since we left Stromness Bay in December 1914". After a difficult descent, which involved passage down through a freezing waterfall, they at last reached safety. They were met with shock and disbelief by the whalers at the harbor, who had never seen anyone enter the harbor from the mountains. Both children and men were frightened at the trio's ragged appearance. However, upon meeting with the factory manager, Thoralf Sørlle, the three men were able to wash and given food, clothes, and shelter. Shackleton wrote afterwards: "I have no doubt that
Providence guided us ... I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers it seemed to me often that we were four, not three". This image of a fourth traveller was echoed in the accounts of Worsley and Crean and later influenced
T. S. Eliot in the writing of his poem
The Waste Land. This phenomenon has been reported by other adventurers and is known as the
third man factor.
Rescue ) after Shackleton's report from the Falkland Islands some 12 days after he had reached Stromness station. Shackleton's first task, on arriving at the Stromness station, was to arrange for his three companions at Peggotty Camp to be picked up. A whaler was sent round the coast, with Worsley aboard to show the way, and by the evening of 21 May all six of the
James Caird party were safe. It took four attempts before Shackleton was able to return to Elephant Island to rescue the party stranded there. He first left South Georgia a mere three days after he had arrived in Stromness, after securing the use of a large whaler,
The Southern Sky, which was laid up in Husvik Harbour. Shackleton assembled a volunteer crew, which had it ready to sail by the morning of 22 May. As the vessel approached Elephant Island they saw that an impenetrable barrier of pack ice had formed, some from their destination.
The Southern Sky was not built for ice breaking, and retreated to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. On reaching Port Stanley, Shackleton informed London by cable of his whereabouts and requested that a suitable vessel be sent south for the rescue operation. He was informed by the Admiralty that nothing was available before October, which in his view was too late. Then, with the help of the British Minister in
Montevideo, Shackleton obtained from the Uruguayan government the loan of a tough trawler,
Instituto de Pesca No. 1, which started south on 10 June. Again the pack thwarted them. In search of another ship, Shackleton, Worsley and Crean travelled to
Punta Arenas, where they met Allan MacDonald, the British owner of the schooner
Emma. McDonald equipped this vessel for a further rescue attempt, which left on 12 July, but with the same negative result—the pack defeated them yet again. Shackleton later named a glacier after McDonald on the
Brunt Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea. After problems arose in identifying this glacier, a nearby
ice rise was renamed the
McDonald Ice Rumples. By now it was mid-August, more than three months since Shackleton had left Elephant Island. Shackleton begged the Chilean Navy to lend him , a small steam tug that had assisted
Emma during the previous attempt. They agreed; on 25 August,
Yelcho—captained by captain of Chilean Navy
Luis Pardo—set out for Elephant Island. This time, as Shackleton recorded, providence favoured them. The seas were open, and the ship was able to approach close to the island in thick fog. At 11:40 a.m. on 30 August, the fog lifted, the camp was spotted and, within an hour, all the Elephant Island party were safely aboard, bound for Punta Arenas.
On Elephant Island After Shackleton left with the
James Caird, Wild took command of the Elephant Island party, some of whom were in a low state, physically or mentally:
Lewis Rickinson had suffered a suspected heart attack;
Perce Blackborow was unable to walk, due to
frostbitten feet;
Hubert Hudson was depressed. The priority for the party was a permanent shelter against the rapidly approaching southern winter. On the suggestion of Marston and
Lionel Greenstreet, a hut—nicknamed the "Snuggery"—was improvised by upturning the two boats and placing them on low stone walls, to provide around of headroom. By means of canvas and other materials the structure was made into a crude but effective shelter. Wild initially estimated that they would have to wait one month for rescue, and refused to allow long-term stockpiling of seal and penguin meat because this, in his view, was defeatist. This policy led to sharp disagreements with Orde-Lees, the storekeeper, who was not a popular man and whose presence apparently did little to improve the morale of his companions, unless it was by way of being the butt of their jokes. As the weeks extended well beyond his initial optimistic forecast, Wild established and maintained routines and activities to relieve the tedium. A permanent lookout was kept for the arrival of the rescue ship, cooking and housekeeping rotas were established, and there were hunting trips for seal and penguin. Concerts were held on Saturdays and anniversaries were celebrated, but there were growing feelings of despondency as time passed with no sign of rescue. The toes on Blackborow's left foot became
gangrenous from frostbite and, on 15 June, had to be amputated by surgeons Macklin and McIlroy in the candle-lit hut. Using the last of the
chloroform in their medical supplies, the whole procedure took 55 minutes and was a complete success. By 23 August, it seemed that Wild's no-stockpiling policy had failed. The surrounding sea was dense with pack ice that would halt any rescue ship, food supplies were running out and no penguins were coming ashore. Orde-Lees wrote: "We shall have to eat the one who dies first [...] there's many a true word said in jest". Wild's thoughts were now seriously turning to the possibility of a boat trip to Deception Island—he planned to set out on 5 October, in the hope of meeting a whaling ship— when, on 30 August 1916, the ordeal ended suddenly with the appearance of Shackleton and
Yelcho.
Ross Sea Party ,
Ross Sea party commander
Aurora left Hobart on 24 December 1914, having been delayed in Australia by financial and organizational problems. The arrival in McMurdo Sound on 15 January 1915 was later in the season than planned, but the party's commander, Aeneas Mackintosh, made immediate plans for a depot-laying journey on the Ross Ice Shelf, since he understood that Shackleton hoped to attempt the crossing during that first season. Neither the men nor the dogs were acclimatised, and the party was, as a whole, very inexperienced in ice conditions. The first journey on the ice resulted in the loss of ten of the party's 18 dogs and a frostbitten and generally demoralised shore party; a single, incomplete depot was their only achievement. On 7 May,
Aurora, anchored at the party's
Cape Evans headquarters, was wrenched from her moorings during a gale and carried with drifting ice far out to sea. Unable to return to McMurdo Sound, she remained captive in the ice for nine months until on 12 February 1916, having travelled a distance of around , she reached open water and limped to New Zealand.
Aurora carried with her the greater part of the shore party's fuel, food rations, clothing and equipment, although the sledging rations for the depots had been landed ashore. To continue with its mission the stranded shore party had to re-supply and re-equip itself from the leftovers from earlier expeditions, notably Scott's
Terra Nova Expedition, which had been based at Cape Evans a few years earlier. They were thus able to begin the second season's depot-laying on schedule, in September 1915. In the following months, the required depots were laid, at one-degree intervals across the Ross Ice Shelf to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier. On the return journey from the glacier the party contracted
scurvy;
Arnold Spencer-Smith, the expedition's chaplain and photographer, collapsed and died on the ice. The remainder of the party reached the temporary shelter of Hut Point, a relic of the
Discovery Expedition at the southern end of McMurdo Sound, where they slowly recovered. On 8 May 1916, Mackintosh and
Victor Hayward decided to walk across the unstable sea ice to Cape Evans, were caught in a blizzard and were not seen again. The survivors eventually reached Cape Evans, but then had to wait for eight further months. Finally, on 10 January 1917, the repaired and refitted
Aurora, whose departure from New Zealand had been delayed by lack of money, arrived to transport them back to civilisation. Shackleton accompanied the ship as a supernumerary officer, having been denied command by the governments of New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain, who had jointly organised and financed the Ross Sea party's relief. == Return to civilisation, and aftermath ==