South: A True and Remarkable Story

[Daless2]

South: A True and Remarkable Story.

These days I don?t get to do much of what I would like to be doing, but such is life.

The other day I was sitting back in the chair in my study thinking of all the places I have been in my lifetime, all the adventures I have been on, some big, most small. I?ve been on every continent, and wheeled on every continent too, including Antarctica.

And it was that thought that brought me back to a favorite book I first read as a child, and reread it again.

It is the story of Ernest Shackleton and his failed attempt to cross the Antarctic continent.

I don?t have a lot of energy tonight but I want to share this. I will therefore be copying in some text from a book review on this story and providing a link to anyone who might have an interest to read more or get a book.

The book is titled

South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917
By Ernest Shackleton

Book Description When we read accounts of polar exploration today, we are impressed. When we read of the exploits of men such as Ernest Shackleton we are astounded. To survive under the conditions that he and his men experienced, with equipment deemed primitive by today's standards, is almost beyond our ken. Shackleton tells the story of his last expedition (1914-1917) when his ship, the Endurance, was crushed by pack ice. He went on to complete an 800-mile open boat journey and then a twenty-mile hike through the mountains in order to save his men. And he did.

Here is a link

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1589760921/qid=1137978806/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/103-7050615-2877441?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

If you want to read an adventure story that will certainly drop your jaw, if you want to see what level a team of men can perform at in horrific conditions, and what actionable leadership qualities are, then I strongly recommend this book.

Besides, in many ways, Shackleton?s Expedition with 27 other men closely resembles Jeeping; only the obstacles were Ice Foes in the south Pacific and the Jeeps where Sledges powered by dogs and human being.

I just wanted to share this, as I believe most would enjoy reading it.

Frank

PS: Please note there are several publications of SOUTH.

The one I gave a link for is the issue that contains all the pictures from this truly heroic adventure.

The other versions are the same text, but no pictures.

If you get the book, get this one, as the pictures are remarkable.

[Daless2]

I decided to copy in more of the story so as to prevent the need to go to the link to get more of the story.

Excerpted from South!: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917 by Ernest Henry Shackleton.

This is one of the books that you must read. Shackleton, like Scott and Byrd, seems more like a hero from ancient myth than a mere mortal. The story of his adventure will forever be one of the most thrilling and astounding ever told. And yet it is told in the plain style of a man who felt that he only did what any man would do.

Sir Ernest Shackleton had been to the Antarctic twice before: once with Scott's first expedition (from which he was sent home with scurvy), and once on his own expedition, when he had made it to within 90 miles of the South Pole. Both Amundsen and Scott later beat him to the pole and by the time Shackleton returned on the Endurance, he was determined to be the first to complete a transpolar journey.


He left England on the eve of the First World War, after offering his ship and men to the war effort, to be turned down by Winston Churchill. When he reached the island of South Georgia off the coast of Argentina, he learned from whalers that ice had moved far north into the Weddell Sea. By the time Shackleton reached Antarctica, the pack-ice was turning quickly impassible. They forced their way through as much of it as they could, but the Endurance became trapped. When they could no longer keep the ice from the sides of the ship it was crushed. Shackleton quotes one of his men:

"'November 21, 1915. This evening, as we were lying in our tents we heard the Boss call out, 'She's going, boys!' We were out in a second and up on the look-out station and other points of vantage, and, sure enough, there was our poor ship a mile and a half away struggling in her death-agony. She went down bows first, her stern raised in the air. She then gave one quick dive and the ice closed over her for ever. It gave one a sickening sensation to see it for, mastless and useless as she was, she seemed to be a link with the outer world. Without her our destitution seems more emphasized, our desolation more complete...I doubt if there was one amongst us who did not feel some personal emotion when Sir Ernest, standing on the top of the look-out, said somewhat sadly and quietly, 'She's gone,boys.'"


And in spite of it all, they retained a sense of optimism:

"...after a year's incessant battle with the ice, we had returned, by many strange turns of fortune's wheel, to almost identically the same latitude that we had left with such high hopes and aspirations twelve months previously; but under what different conditions now! Our ship crushed and lost, and we ourselves drifting on a piece of ice at the mercy of the winds. However, in spite of occasional setbacks due to unfavourable winds, our drift was in the main very satisfactory, and this went a long way towards keeping the men cheerful."

They lived drifting, struggling to survive the cold, the splitting ice, and the killer whales who cruised along under the ice looking for seals:

"These aggressive creatures were to be seen often in the lanes and pools, and we were always distrustful of their ability or willingness to discriminate between seal and man. A lizard-like head would show while the killer gazed along the flow with wicked eyes. Then the brute would dive, to come up a few moments later, perhaps, under some unfortunate seal reposing on the ice...Wordie, engaged in measuring the thickness of young ice, went through to his waist one day just as a killer rose to blow in the adjacent lead. His companions pulled him out hurriedly."

The ice cleared long enough for the men to finally make the journey to Elephant Island in the three surviving lifeboats. But the effort did not stop there for Shackleton. With five others, he undertook the perilous 800 mile journey across the South Atlantic to the whaling station on South Georgia island to get help. At one point he thought he saw day breaking only to realize that a wave of unimaginable proportions was bearing down upon their open boat; he had seen the white of the spray.

Shackleton's story is full of prodigious feats, but none so compelling as his final journey: when they reached South Georgia, he, Worsley, and Crean were forced to walk through frozen mountains hitherto unexplored to reach the whaling station. This journey alone, with descents down ice crevices, waterfalls and a trek across the dangerous thin crust of an ice lake, would be adventure enough for anyone.
We can't recommend this book more highly; read it to see true courage in action. Also, take a look at Shackleton's Boat Journey, also available from The Narrative Press.

[chef]

going to order the book, thanks

[Daless2]

Originally posted by chef
going to order the book, thanks

I thing you will find this book to be very hard to put down, it is in my humble opinion a truly sensational story.

One small tip.

Prior to reading the book turn to the last two pages.

There is a very small ?Glossary or Terms? listed there for what Shackleton calls ?Ice Explorer Nomenclature?.

Things like ?Hoosg?, which is food supply made of dried meat and molasses and packed on the sledges in wooden creates.

There are only about 15 or 20 of these words and it might help you out if you read there meaning prior to diving into the book.


Have a great night.

Frank

[tjsupe]

That sounds like an intersting book. I have been trying to make a oint of reading more books. That is one habit I wish I was more into. Thanks for posting that info.

Where in South America did you go wheeling? I have a family in Argentina and always wondered if there was and what the wheeling was like in S. America.

[Daless2]

Originally posted by tjsupe
That sounds like an intersting book. I have been trying to make a oint of reading more books. That is one habit I wish I was more into. Thanks for posting that info.

Where in South America did you go wheeling? I have a family in Argentina and always wondered if there was and what the wheeling was like in S. America.

I think you?d enjoy the book; it?s a great adventure.

I wheeled in an old Landrover 90 series in both Argentina and Uruguay off and on as time permitted from off duty hours. I was part of the U.S. Embassy Security team there for almost 2 years. Location Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Once you get out of the city almost everything requires four-wheel drive. And once into the mountain to the west things get really interesting.

In that time I managed to visit most of the countries in South America and found just about every experience to be great, especially the people.

I wheeled in the Chile Mountains and got caught in a blizzard there. What was to be one week of leave ended up being almost 3 weeks. I also did some minor off roading on the Falkland Islands after the brief UK / Argentine war in the early 80?s.

That was a pretty desolate place.

If you get the chance go visit your family in Argentina. I?m sure they would enjoy your visit and you would enjoy the wheeling. It goes from mild to wild rather quickly just 200 km or so outside the capital.

Have a great night.

Frank

[Tumbleweed]

Frank, thanks for the recommendation. I have not made the time for a decent book in years.
I spent two seasons on the Greenland Ice Cap, and got the honor to visit a Greendlandic musuem with a Danish interpeter.
Very memorable.
Living on the Ice Cap in modern times is difficult-I can't imagine how they did it near the turn of the century.

[DC]

Frank,

I have that book in my collection, and I agree, it is quite a story of endurance in unbelievably harsh conditions at a time when folks didn't have the benefit of modern technology and the survival gear and clothing to go with it. And as you also mentioned, Shackleton's Boat Journey is another good read (written by the captain of HMS Endurance). Pretty amazing stuff.

Don

[Daless2]

Originally posted by Tumbleweed
Frank, thanks for the recommendation. I have not made the time for a decent book in years.
I spent two seasons on the Greenland Ice Cap, and got the honor to visit a Greendlandic musuem with a Danish interpeter.
Very memorable.
Living on the Ice Cap in modern times is difficult-I can't imagine how they did it near the turn of the century.

Modern times, Heck! Who you kidding Don,

You?re as old as I am (almost)!

I bet you spent those two seasons on the ice cap wrapped in reindeer skins! LOL!

I had the (I was going to say pleasure, but it really wasn?t) experience of spending 7 months in Antarctica at a research facility at Mc Murdo base. (Talk about cabin fever!) We weren?t supposed to be there.

We flew in on a medical mercy mission and could only fly one unit out due to mechanical problems. My crew and I had to winter there. It was quite an experience.

We were tasked up to assist in communications and weather instrument data gathering and repair. It was interesting.

I?d do it again, but I?d want to be younger then I am now, and certainly younger then you my friend!

I did get to wheel on the ice there and the rock shoreline in the late spring!

Have a great night, and please say hello to Rita for me. I hope all is well with you both.

Frank