The Endurance trapped in ice

The James Caird

The port at South Georgia

Heroic times
Before World War I, in what has since been called the 'heroic age of exploration', reaching the South Pole was a 'must have' prize for national pride. Although Captain Robert FalconScott was beaten to glory by the Norwegian Amundsen in 1911, interest in the icy southern continent continued to rise after the tragic deaths of Scott and his team.

It was against this backdrop that Shackleton planned to make the first crossing of Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. A charismatic Anglo-Irish merchant seaman, he used his charm and energy to raise funds. He also placed an advertisement in newspapers: 'MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.'

Trapped in ice
The Endurance set sail at the outbreak of war in August 1914. Among the 28 men were four scientists: a biologist, a geologist, a meteorologist and a physicist. Throughout the voyage and the events that followed, they continued to carry out experiments. However, the expedition's most significant contribution to science was one that had not been planned: the careful recording of the ice drift on the notorious Weddell Sea.

When Shackleton and his men reached the Antarctic Circle the following December, they found that the pack ice in the Weddell Sea was unusually thick. The expedition soon ran into trouble, and in February 1915, just one day's sailing short of their destination, the crew of 28 found themselves trapped. Instead of achieving a glorious 'first', Shackleton and his men faced a gruelling trial of survival.

The 15-month ordeal that ensued was a real test of Shackleton's leadership. His trump cards were his appearance of optimism and his even-handed approach to the officers and seamen. As they drifted north with the ice, he kept up the crew's morale by ordering them to train the 60-odd sled dogs that they had brought with them. Pressure from the ice eventually sank the ship in November 1915 and the men set up camp on the ice floes. They lived on penguins and seals until, in the end, they were forced to kill their - by now - beloved dogs.

Shackleton's hold on the men's allegiance was damaged by two abortive attempts to march to land in October and December. But somehow he was able to reclaim their trust and persuade them to carry on as a disciplined unit.

Lifeboat launch
By April 1916 - the end of the Southern Hemisphere summer - the ice had melted so much that the men had to take to the three open lifeboats. Soaked to the bone and suffering from dysentery, they rowed for a week until they reached Elephant Island, an inhospitable rocky outcrop off the tip of the Antarctic peninsula.

Shackleton realised that, if he and his men stayed there, they had little hope of rescue and it was doubtful whether many of them would survive. So he and five others set off in the 22-foot (6.7-metre) lifeboat James Caird on an 800-mile make-or-break voyage to the island of South Georgia to seek help.

Despite running into a hurricane and monstrous waves, the men made it in 17 days. But they still faced a 22-mile trek across the uncharted mountainous interior. Taking Captain Frank Worsley and second officer Tom Crean with him, Shackleton made it to the whaling station of Stromness just before the weather closed in. The remaining three men on the other side of South Georgia were picked up by sea shortly afterwards.

Rescue and return
Desperate to rescue the majority of his crew stranded on Elephant Island, Shackleton was thwarted three times before the ice allowed a Chilean ship to reach them on 30 August 1916.

Despite this heroic survival against the odds - incredibly, no human lives were lost - and the tumultuous welcome he had received on arriving in Punta Arenas in Chile, in 1917 Shackleton returned to an England still embroiled in war and with little interest in his adventures. He had failed in his task to cross Antarctica - the country now had other matters on its mind.