Endurance - 04/03/21

 Hello Adventurers, 


Book 19: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (8/10)


Premise: A polar expedition gets stuck and eventually abandoned on an island of ice, they must survive and escape with no way to contact the outside world. 


 Slightly over a century ago the artic was a mostly unexplored area. So explorers were trying to be the first to make it to the center, cross the entire continent of Antarctica and more. Shackleton and his crew of 27 sailors were on one such voyage when there ship became trapped in a sheet of ice. With no way out they decided to winter in the ship and hopefully resume sailing in the summer. However after month of being trapped in ice, the ice started pushing in towards the ship and finally destroyed it. The crew was able to rescue there 3 smaller life boats and made the decision to head towards the nearest populated land, nearly 900 miles away. 


The next several months were spent in a mixture of moving their possessions including boats with dog sled teams, and having the ice flow they were on carry them towards civilization. Eventually the ice started to break up around them and the crew knew they had to move. Finally after months on the ice they set sail in their much smaller life boats. With eight to nine people on these boats there was barely even space to lay down. They spent nights on small patches of ice and occasionally glaciers. With much effort they were eventually able to land on an island. 


On the final leg of the journey one boat led by Shackleton sailed off to get help for the others. Landing on the island with habitation they realized their journey was not over yet they landed on the opposite side of the island as the whalers who lived there and the rudder had broken. Left with no other choice three of the men traveled over the island, being the first men to do so because of the rough terrain and bad weather. Eventually they were able to make it to the far side of the island. But the story isn't over yet, it took three separate attempts to rescue the rest of the crew on the island where they had been living for over ninety days.


In the end only one man died, of a heart attack soon after they landed on the original island. One other sailor got frost bite and lost his feet. Besides that the crew was relatively healthy and intact. The crew rarely fought with each other. They worked together and survived. This was partially because Shackleton was a smart and prudent leader, the other part was that the men realized they needed each other to survive. 


So pack extra socks when traveling to cold destinations, 

and remember dear readers, Stay Vivid 

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