Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
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Book Reviews of Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Book Review: The greatest human leader of men
Summary: 5 Stars
Shackleton failed to reach the South Pole in 1902 and stopped 460 miles from the Pole; six years later Shackleton turned back 97 miles from the Pole after realizing it would be certain death by starvation if he continued. King Edward VII recognized as a hero Shackleton and knighted him.
1914-1916 Endurance expediation lead Shackleton and his men 1200 miles from civilization and in one of the worst situations possible. Pack ice had trapped, dragged the ship for ten months, and eventually crushed the ship. The men had to rely on life boats salvaged from the ship. The men endure temperature far below zero, four months of darkness, survived on a diet of penguin, seal, and sometimes dog. Once the ice began to melt the men moved to the life boats and spent week fighting for their lives before hitting land, Elphant Island and at Elephant Island the men spent most of their time huddle under overturn boats. The men suffered extreme boredom, starvation, extreme discomfort, and lost of hope. Shackleton offer his men hope. Shackleton was charming both a poet and adventure. His men never doubt Shackleton's discipline and Shackleton's brotherhood with his men help overcome intense boredom as they sang songs, played games, and wrote of their experiences.
Shackleton decided to take five men and sailed 800 miles in the most sever weather and oceanic conditions to South Georgia and return and rescue his men. The interesting fact about the journey was Shackleton planned to succeed by sailing to South Georgia using Star navigation, and if, the navigation was any degree imprecise their deaths were sealed. The Altantic has some of the harshess waves, it is amazingly cold, and no modern expediation has successfully completed the Shackleton crossing to Georgia. The Altantic ocean was too much.
Upon reaching South Georgia, Shackleton realizes they are on the wrong side and proceeded to accomplish another amazing feat, the crossing over of the South Georgia Mountain, at the only time of the year possible for the crossing. The whalers were in awe of Shackelton and his partners as they walked down the mountain. They seemed invincible. Shackleton turns right around and launches a rescue mission for his trapped men on Elphant Island. Not one man was lost in the expedition and his men shout for joy in seeing their captain Shackleton approach to rescue them.
"I love the fight and when things are easy, I hate it".
British explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard, "For a join scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a winter journey, give me Wilson, for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen; and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time."
"By endurance we conquer". Shackleton replaced the War Hero of World War I with the exploration hero. Shackleton gave hope to the world. Men died for honour, instead of fearing death. Europe and America were invigorated with Shackleton's courage.
"He had a quick brain, and he could visualize things a head, and as far as he could he safeguarded any eventuality that was likely to occur" - Lionel Greenstreet
"His method of discipline was very fair. He did not believe in unnecessary discipline." - William Bakewell
"No matter what turns up, he is always ready to alter his plans and make fresh ones, and in the meantime laughs, jokes, and enjoys a joke with everyone, and in this way keeps everyone's spirits up" - Frank Worsley.
Book Review: Man's will to survive...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have this strange attraction to books that revolve around survival in inclement weather conditions. Books like In Thin Air both fascinate and unnerve me, in that I can't figure out *why* someone would want to go through that potential experience. But all those mountain climbing books pale in comparison to the incredible story of Ernest Shackleton's expedition to cross the Antarctic on foot. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing takes you along on a two year journey that captures man's will to survive in conditions that are unimaginable.
Shackleton started out from England in August of 1914 with a ship laden with the supplies they'd need to make it to the South Pole. From there, they would use supplies stored by another ship in preparation for the rest of the trip to the other side of the continent. Tragically, they never even made it to the coast to start their expedition. January 1915 found them stranded in pack ice, with no way to free the ship to continue or escape. The ship became their home for the next 10 months as they wintered through the dark Antarctic nights, ever vigilant for potential escape or danger from their ice floe breaking up. The extreme pressure of the ice pack finally won out, and the Endurance was crushed and sunk. This left the 28 men stranded with three smaller boats, dwindling supplies, and little hope of long-term survival.
The breaking up of the ice pack forced the group to launch the boats to make an attempt to reach an inhabited portion of land in order to be rescued. But even that didn't go as planned, as the weather and seas conspired to push them away from the more probable points of rescue, finally stranding them on a small sliver of land known as Elephant's Island. Again enduring harsh weather, the decision was made to send a small group out on the last seaworthy boat to make an 800 mile journey to the nearest whaling station. Shackleford pushed off, knowing that his own survival chances were slim, much less those of the group that was being left behind on the island. But against all odds, they were able to make it to South Georgia, cross a number of inhospitable mountains, and arrive at a whaling station... four very grimy, tired, and left-for-dead individuals. Even more surprising, they were able to secure a ship, head back to their shipmates and rescue *all* of them. No one was lost on a two year ordeal that should have killed them all.
I was amazed at what Shackleton and his crew were able to do in order to survive. Nearly a century later, with technology and gear that would be unthinkable back then, I'm not sure you would be able to put 28 people in the same situation and have them survive. What they did could be considered miraculous. I was even more struck about how far we've come in terms of transportation and communications since then. There were no search parties to send out, nor could you radio for help. The fact that you hadn't shown up anywhere in over a year was proof enough that you had been lost at sea, and your story would never be told unless some explorer came across your remains years later.
This would be a really good book if it were a fictional adventure novel, although we'd say it was a bit over the top and not very realistic. The fact that it was a *real* story just makes it all the more incredible. Great read...
Book Review: Required Reading
Summary: 5 Stars
There are a few books we can consider required reading of a modern educated person. Anne Frank's diary would be one, and I think this version of the Shackleton drama would be another. I have a friend who reads it every year.
Because there are so many strong reviews of this book, I'll speak briefly of something that might be overlooked.
In the eyes of most readers, the most astonishing thing about this adventure is that not a single life was lost. And that truly is amazing. Obviously, things could have gone much worse with just a tiny bit more bad luck. But I'd note something that might be just as strange. In all of the grueling and painful twists in this adventure, Shackleton seems never to have lost the trust and respect of his men. Think of that. Every little decision he made was potentially fatal for the whole crew, and he often had to make decisions that had every chance of being lethally wrong. And yet his men stood stoutly behind "the old man" and were prepared to die with that kind of total trust.
Anyone who wants to be a leader should read this book annually and think about what qualities were present in Shackleton that allowed him to be such an effective leader under such wretched circumstances.
Sometimes our minds can be our worst enemies. Rational thought can save the life of an explorer caught in a life-threatening crisis. But when the situation we are in is apparently hopeless, rational thought is our potential enemy. There were many times during the Shackleton adventure when a rational person would have to conclude that the story had no chance of getting a happy ending. That is when "endurance" becomes a queer virtue, when you put one foot in front of the other in spite of the fact that you are suffering hugely in an effort that is "surely" doomed to fail.
I am not a great fan of adventure literature, and yet the best of it is utterly captivating. In a sense, extreme adventures can be like laboratories that experiment with human nature, testing the limits of what it can do. Nobody would ever get permission to put humans in such grim and painful circumstances as they chose to put themselves in for these grand adventures. Since they do volunteer to do dangerous and painful things, we can take advantage of the chance to see how the human spirit fares when exposed to the worst possible tests.
And that is the particular gift of this book. Without blinking in its description of the hell these men experienced, the author shows us how magnificently they were led and how courageously they fought to keep alive. In the end, they proved that the human spirit can soar above threats and challenges that seem perfectly invincible. The salvation these men ultimately earned was bought at a terrible price, and yet we can thrill with them when we see them prevail when it was surely "impossible" that they would.
Book Review: The Ultimate survival true story of all time
Summary: 5 Stars
Just got done watching the 3DVD set Shackleton 5 stars. I wondered how the book Endurance could possibly compare with this fantastic DVD set. The book was just as good 5 stars.
We see Sir Shackleton in 1914 and his 27 men heading for a cross continent trek across Antarctica. Unfortunately the Endurance gets caught in the ice. She is crushed and sinks. Shackleton orders abandon ship and his men are on the ice. Against all odds, low temperature and little food they get on an ice flow and move 3 small boats toward open water. They are starving and must kill and eat their sled dogs as well as seals and penguins. Some of the men are almost killed by 1100pound Leopard seals but the seals are shot and supply the men food and blubber for their cooking pots. They eventually get off the flow and face horrific seas and bad weather and make it to Elephant island. Some are frostbite and the youngest member has to have his toes on one of his feet amputated. Another developed a boil on his back the size of a football.Unbelievable hardships.
Then Shackleton and 5 men must sail almost 800 miles to South Georgia island to get rescue for his men from a Norwegian whaling village.They make the horrendous voyage across the Drake passage that has some of the worst weather on earth. Eventually they arrive on the wrong side of the island and Shackleton and 2 men must trek about 30 miles across part of the island and a glacier before arriving at the village. They are ushered to the Norwegian leader and the 3 stinking, dirty, nasty, badly clothed humans knock on his door. He says "Who the hell are you". Shackleton says my name is Shackleton. The Norwegians knew of Shackleton's expedition as it had stopped at South Georgia before but after over a year they thought them all dead. The Norwegian leader cries for them. Shackleton's 3 men left behind on the other side of the island are rescued. After 3 attempts with different ships the others on Elephant island are rescued.
Its amazing. Shackleton INMO was not a great planner and made serious mistakes but his leadership and survival skills were legendary.He had a huge ego but believed in himself and inspired others to give 110% of themselves in order to survive. The expedition across the Antarctic continent was a failure but Shackleton's indomitable spirit and superb leadership skills helped save every man. No one was lost. All return as heroes. The most incredible story of survival ever told with diaries, logs and pictures( many lost) to prove it. An incredible man and a fantastic story. Endurance 5 star.
PS. For scientific Antarctic matters learned give me the explorer Scott. For speed, planning and efficiency reaching the South Pole, Amundsen. For leadership, survival skills and surviving in the worst conditions give me Shackleton. The 3 great Antarctic explorers of the heroic age of exploration.
Book Review: Cripes!
Summary: 5 Stars
Alfred Lansing subtitled his book, Endurance, as "The Greatest Adventure Story Ever Told." That's a tall claim, and he may be right. In terms of the limits of hardship the human body can endure, only one book rivals this incredible true story: Slavomir Rawicz's "The Long Walk" (which I enthusiastically recommend).In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton, a veteran of two previous Antarctic expeditions, and his crew of 26 men and an eighteen-year-old stowaway-who later has his frostbitten and gangrenous foot amputated-set sail for Antarctica aboard the worthy ship, Endurance, determined to be the first men to sledge across the full breadth of the continent. They never get there. Beset in ice floes just off the coast of Antarctica, ship and crew begin a two-year ordeal of cold, hunger, monotony, loneliness, and despair as they are dragged helplessly around the vicious Weddell Sea by pack ice. The ship is crushed by the ice before the first year is out, forcing the crew onto the ice. This begins an excruciating existence of basic survival against all odds as the pack drifts slowly north, forcing them onto ever diminishing floes, and eventually to the ship's life boats.
Near death, the crew finally reaches hellish and uninhabited Elephant Island after nearly two years. This is before functional radio. There are no satellites, no phones. No one in the world knows where they are. They have been given up for dead by the civilized world thousands of miles away and preoccupied by World War I. Their only hope for salvation is for Shackleton and five others to take the best of the three boats, an open, 22-foot life boat, and sail it 870 miles across the worst seas on earth to the whaling station on South Georgia Island and return to rescue the others before they freeze or starve to death. After landing on South Georgia, they're forced to trek on foot across the frozen island to reach the whaling station, a feat never before attempted and rarely since accomplished.
The scene Lansing paints as Shackleton and two others trudge into this camp as gaunt and grimy, bearded and long-haired living ghosts in rags, is so moving I had to get up and walk around for a while after reading it. I got seasick on a cruise ship in the Caribbean once, and wanted to die. What these heroes stoically endured is simply beyond comprehension. And hurray to Lansing for his research and writing effort. As a writer myself, I see one of the major challenges in writing this book as how to keep the text fresh and the excitement going, when in reality each day of the expedition was a boring repetition of cold, hunger, worry, ice, and more ice. But this is the epitome of a page-turner. Why isn't it a major movie? -Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.