Shackleton's Boat Journey - Softcover

Worsley, F A

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712665749 ISBN 13: 9780712665742

Publisher: Pimlico, 1999

Synopsis

Frank A. Worsley was the Captain of the H. M. S. Endurance, the ship used by the legendary explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton in his 1914-16 expedition to the Antarctic. On its way to the Antarctic continent the Endurance became trapped and then crushed by ice, and the ship's party of twenty-eight drifted in an ice floe for five months. Finally reaching an uninhabited island, Shackleton, Worsley and four others sailed eight hundred miles in a small boat to the island of South Georgia, an astounding feat of navigation and courage. All hands survived this ill-fated expedition; as Worsley writes, 'By self-sacrifice and throwing his own life into the balance, (Shackleton) saved every one of his men...although at times it looked unlikely that one could be saved.'

About this title

Review:

On 1 August 1914, on the eve of World War I, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his hand-picked crew embarked in HMS Endurance from London's West India Dock, for an expedition to the Antarctic. It was to turn into one of the most breathtaking survival stories of all time. Even as they coasted down the channel, Shackleton wired back to London to offer his ship to the war effort. The reply came from the First Lord of the Admiralty, one Winston Churchill: "Proceed". And proceed they did. When the Endurance was trapped and finally crushed to splinters by pack ice in late 1915, they drifted on an ice floe for five months, before getting to open sea and launching three tiny boats as far as the inhospitable, storm-lashed Elephant Island. They drank seal oil and ate baby albatross (delicious, apparently.) From there Shackelton himself and seven others- -the author among them--went on, in a 22-foot open boat, for an unbelievable 800 miles, through the Antarctic seas in winter, to South Georgia and rescue. It is an extraordinary story of courage and even good-humour among men who must have felt certain, secretly, that they were going to die. Worsley's account, first published in 1940, captures that bulldog spirit exactly: uncomplaining, tough, competent, modest and deeply loyal. It's gripping, and strangely moving. --Christopher Hart

Review:

"A breath-taking story of courage, skill and determination under the most appalling conditions" (Sir Edmund Hillary)

"One of the great survival stories of our time" (Library Journal)

"A remarkable book... Worsley writes without heroics...but makes us feel to the marrow the conditions that the party endured before all hands were rescued" (New Yorker)

"Simply gripping" (Irish Mountain Log)

"A stirring account of a fascinating adventure" (Sunday Tribune)

About this edition

• Publisher: Pimlico
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0712665749
• ISBN 13: 9780712665742
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224