Shackleton’s Endurance

Aug 1914 – Mar 202250 items

antarcticaice

The Endurance held in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea, 1915. Photo: Frank Hurley. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Shackleton’s Endurance, 1914–1917

Ernest Shackleton meant to cross Antarctica on foot, from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. His ship never reached the coast. The Endurance froze into the pack in January 1915, drifted for nine months and was crushed. Twenty-eight men camped on the floating ice, took to three small boats, reached Elephant Island, and were rescued in August 1916 after six of them sailed a lifeboat to South Georgia and three walked across it. Not one of the twenty-eight died.

On the other side of the continent, the Ross Sea party laid the depots the crossing party would have needed, not knowing that nobody was coming. Three of them died.

How it is built

Routes: each leg is a period drawn on the map, from Plymouth to the pack, the drift of the ship and of the camps on the ice, the boats, the James Caird, the crossing of South Georgia and the Yelcho. Read the Ross Sea party’s bands against them: they run at the same time.
One day hour by hour: zoom into 19–20 May 1916 to follow the 36-hour march to Stromness by Shackleton’s own times, converted to GMT.
A coda: Shackleton’s death at South Georgia in 1922, and the wreck found in March 2022, a hundred years to the day after his burial.

Filter by shackleton for the Weddell Sea party, ross sea party for the men on the far side, lifeboats and navigation for the boat journeys, rescue for the relief voyages, and losses for the three deaths.

At Stromness

“Tell me, when was the war over?” I asked. “The war is not over,” he answered. “Millions are being killed. Europe is mad. The world is mad.”

Shackleton and the station manager, 20 May 1916, from South (1919). All dates are Gregorian.

Items

3 Aug 1914
“Proceed”
Off Margate, Kent
8 Aug 1914 – 9 Oct 1914
Endurance: Plymouth to Buenos Aires
2 months, 2 days · Endurance: Plymouth to Buenos Aires
26 Oct 1914 – 5 Nov 1914
Endurance: Buenos Aires to South Georgia
10 days · Endurance: Buenos Aires to South Georgia
5 Nov 1914 – 5 Dec 1914
A month at Grytviken
1 month · Grytviken whaling station, South Georgia
5 Dec 1914 – 19 Jan 1915
Into the Weddell Sea
1 month, 15 days · Endurance: South Georgia to the pack of the Weddell Sea
24 Dec 1914 – 16 Jan 1915
Aurora: Hobart to McMurdo Sound
23 days · Aurora: Hobart to McMurdo Sound
19 Jan 1915 – 27 Oct 1915
The drift of the Endurance
9 months, 11 days · The drift of the Endurance
c. 19 Jan 1915, 00:00
Beset
76°34′ S 31°30′ W, the Weddell Sea
24 Feb 1915
The ship becomes a winter station
In the pack, about 77° S
1 May 1915 – 26 Jul 1915
The winter night
2 months, 26 days
6 May 1915 – 3 Apr 1916
The drift of the Aurora
≈ 11 months · The drift of the Aurora
6 May 1915
The Aurora is torn away
Scott’s hut, Cape Evans, Ross Island
1 Sep 1915 – 18 Mar 1916
Laying the depots to Mount Hope
6 months, 19 days · The Ross Sea party’s depot line to Mount Hope
24 Oct 1915
The ice breaks the sternpost
69°05′ S 51°30′ W, where the ship was abandoned
27 Oct 1915
Abandon ship
69°05′ S 51°30′ W, where the ship was abandoned
30 Oct 1915 – 1 Nov 1915
The first march
2 days · The first march, from Dump Camp
1 Nov 1915 – 23 Dec 1915
Ocean Camp
1 month, 22 days · Ocean Camp’s drift (approximate)
21 Nov 1915
The Endurance sinks
Worsley’s position for the sinking
23 Dec 1915 – 29 Dec 1915
The march between
6 days · The march between Ocean Camp and Patience Camp (approximate)
27 Dec 1915
McNish refuses to haul
The march between Ocean Camp and Patience Camp (approximate)
29 Dec 1915 – 9 Apr 1916
Patience Camp
3 months, 12 days · Patience Camp’s drift (approximate)
26 Jan 1916
The Mount Hope depot
Mount Hope, at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier
9 Mar 1916
Spencer-Smith dies
The Ross Ice Shelf, south of Hut Point
7 Apr 1916
Clarence Island in sight
Patience Camp’s drift (approximate)
9 Apr 1916 – 15 Apr 1916
The boats to Elephant Island
6 days · The boats: Patience Camp to Elephant Island
15 Apr 1916
Landing at Cape Valentine
Cape Valentine, Elephant Island
17 Apr 1916 – 30 Aug 1916
Point Wild
4 months, 15 days · Point Wild, Elephant Island
24 Apr 1916 – 10 May 1916
The voyage of the James Caird
16 days · The voyage of the James Caird
c. 6 May 1916, 00:00
The great wave
8 May 1916
Mackintosh and Hayward lost
Sea ice between Hut Point and Cape Evans
8 May 1916
South Georgia sighted
Off the west coast of South Georgia
10 May 1916
Landfall at Cave Cove
Cave Cove, King Haakon Bay
15 May 1916
Peggotty Camp
Peggotty Camp, head of King Haakon Bay
19 May 1916, 05:28 – c. 20 May 1916, 17:28
The crossing of South Georgia
1 day, 12 hours · Across South Georgia, Peggotty Camp to Stromness
c. 19 May 1916, 18:58
The slide
Above the Crean Glacier
20 May 1916, 07:28
Five minutes’ sleep
Above Fortuna Bay
20 May 1916, 09:28
The seven o’clock whistle
Above Fortuna Bay
20 May 1916, 15:58
Stromness in sight
Stromness whaling station, South Georgia
c. 20 May 1916, 17:28
“My name is Shackleton”
Stromness whaling station, South Georgia
21 May 1916
The three at Peggotty Camp are fetched
Peggotty Camp, head of King Haakon Bay
23 May 1916 – 8 Aug 1916
Three failed relief attempts
2 months, 17 days · Three failed attempts to reach Elephant Island
15 Jun 1916
Blackborow’s toes amputated
Point Wild, Elephant Island
25 Aug 1916 – 3 Sep 1916
Yelcho: the fourth attempt
9 days · Yelcho: Punta Arenas to Elephant Island and back
30 Aug 1916
“We are all well, boss”
Point Wild, Elephant Island
20 Dec 1916 – 9 Feb 1917
Aurora: the relief of the Ross Sea party
1 month, 21 days · Aurora: the relief of the Ross Sea party
10 Jan 1917
Seven survivors
Shackleton’s hut, Cape Royds, Ross Island
5 Jan 1922
Shackleton dies at Grytviken
King Edward Cove, Grytviken
5 Mar 1922
Buried at Grytviken
The whalers’ cemetery, Grytviken
≈ 99 years
5 Feb 2022 – 5 Mar 2022
Endurance22
28 days · S.A. Agulhas II: Cape Town to the wreck
5 Mar 2022
The wreck is found
The wreck of the Endurance