Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.41 You Save: $7.54 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.29 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Book Review: Overcoming Adversity and Defining Heroism
Summary: 5 Stars
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage is a story of heroism, bravery, courage, and survival of twenty-eight men on their way to Antarctica to cross the mysterious continent on foot. Lansing makes clear the motives that drove the men to take on such a journey and analyzes the personality and ambition of the only man who would take that risk. Fore it was none other than Sir Ernest Shackleton who dared to take on this challenge because no one else had the heart or the audacity to do it first. After their ship, the Endurance, got stuck in the sea ice and was eventually crushed by the immense pressure that it created, the men had no choice but to carry on foot with three small vessels. They had no control over their Fate, and they simply had to battle whatever Mother Nature heaved their way. And Mother Nature did not spare any mercy for the men. However, despite all the times they could have given up, the men held on to a certain faith and hope that everything was going to be all right, and it is bewildering to ponder where that inner force came from. Alfred Lansing does an excellent job to portray and let the reader feel the desperation the men could of had in that situation. Usually its the reader that tries to subconsciously reassure the characters that in the end all will be well, however in this suspenseful adventure, its the men on board the Endurance that reassure the readers with their optimism and trust that they will be all right. Until the final moment of rescue, Nature did not give the men any slack, and instead she seemed to slap them in the face every time they came close to a major step in their journey. Yet in the end, the men defeated all the odds against them, which there were many, and embraced civilization with a deeper understanding of themselves as well as the forces that run their lives. Lansing makes us realize that in the end, we are so small in the scale of life, and we seem to think that the existence of the world revolves around us. Yet, we forget that there is another world that is bigger and more powerful than ours and in the end it will leave us dumbfounded and in awe with amazement. This amazing power, however, can only be understood through the compelling and powerful words of Alfred Lansing.Book Review: Through endurance, we conquer.
Summary: 5 Stars
Ernest Shackleton is one of the most amazing explorers ever to have lived. I think his accomplishments are underrated, and his place in history deserved.This is a story of a shipwrecked attempt to traverse the entire Antartic continent. After Shackleton's boat, The Endurance, was caught in dangerous pack ice the crew was forced to abandon the ship. For 2 years, they lived in the harshest climate in the world, subsisting on seals, penguins, and "hoosh." Their spirits were kept high by the commanding leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton.
In an almost unbelievable tale, Shackleton realizes that they stand no chance stranded on the pack ice waiting for rescue. After several failed attempts to trek his men and all of his equipment across the ice, it was decided that some of the men would have to sail for the whaling stations of South Georgia Island. Shackleton, and 4 men set sail in one of the rescue boats, promising to return for the other men. After many days of gale force wind and swells that easily could have capsized their boat, they arrived at South Georgia Island. Upon their arrival, they realized that the winds had landed them on the wrong side of the island and they would have to traverse a mountain range to get to the whaling stations. Leaving 2 more weak men at the landing site, Shackleton and the others spent 3 days without sleep trying to get across the mountain range. After many wrong turns, and having to back track several times, the finally made it to the whaling stations. They quickly gathered the rescue team, and retrieved the 2 men left at the other side of the island. Then they set sail for the ship wreck only to find the pack ice was too dangerous to get close enough for a rescue.
After 3 attempts and several days at sea, the men are finally rescued.
What is more amazing than the leadership and courage that Shackleton and his men displayed, is that not one of them died. It is truly a testament to the explorer's spirit that Shackleton kept his men together and their morale high to get them through this nightmare.
This book is a must read.
Book Review: Startling good read
Summary: 5 Stars
Whew!! That's the first word that comes to my mind. It surfaced in my thoughts numerous times as I was reading this tale. This book is overwhelming. I had always heard tales about Shackleton and this was a most compelling read. I found myself unable to put it down. It just grabs a hold of you and won't let go. Alfred Lansing did a superb job of storytelling here. It is one of the most amazing tales of human courage and endurance ever written. This is a fabulous story. Sir Ernest Shackleton truly displayed extraordinary mettle in spite failing to achieve the initial objective. His leadership is undeniable. He held a crew together to endure the harshest climate on the planet. That the entire crew survived the venture is testament to the power of the human spirit. The will to survive can attain soaring heights as this tale suggests. Lansing attempts to get into the nature of the different men but he allows their diaries to dictate the writing. This is great because supposition by authors of nonfiction can be fatuous. Drawing excerpts from the diaries of the men is a way to draw upon the incredible human drama and psychology that must have unfolded in this venture. The obstacles encountered by the crew are staggering. The wind, the dampness, the bitter cold and the long months of darkness in the winter seem like more than any man should be able to stand. They slept in wet sleeping bags in sub-freezing temperature; ate unappetizing foods; and still managed to keep their hopes alive. These were not accommodations up to Hyatt standards. One wonders how many people today would be tough enough to triumph over these hardships. The pain, ennui and discomfort must have been staggering. I found myself just shaking my head with awe at numerous passages in the book. These are men who went to Hell and came back alive. That is remarkable in and of itself. This book is a classic account of one of man's most remarkable journeys. Read it and discover for yourself.Book Review: Thank God for Armchair Adventuring...
Summary: 5 Stars
...because I would still be thawing out from Shackleton's wild romp in the Antarctic. And a few years have passed since their adventure and those fateful seventeen months in 1914-16 when Shackleton and his men encountered the worst Murphy's Law could throw their way. The book is a testament to human endurance, to Lansing's writing, and the leadership of a man like Ernest Shackleton. It is an enjoyable read from front to back, from launch to recovery, from freezing to thawing.As far as adventure/disaster books go, I would rank it behind Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." Though the author Lansing does an incredible job placing the reader "there" with Shackleton's men as they get their ship stuck in the ice pack in the Weddell Sea, float on ice floes, launch across treacherous seas in lifeboats, and go where no man has gone before on a last ditch desperate land jaunt, the fact doesn't change that Lansing, himself, wasn't there. I think no matter how hard an author can apply his trade to a story, it is difficult to relay to the reader the immediacy of impending doom and the cold and dread and the spirit that drives men to survival. Don't get me wrong, Lansing does a fine job bringing off this task, but it is short of the immediacy Krakauer gives the reader of putting you "there" in the desperate situation and knowing what it is like to survive from the worst nature and man has to offer.
If you want to read the best in adventure/disaster writing start skip by Junger's somewhat thrill-lacking "The Perfect Storm," and head straight for "Into Thin Air," followed by Lansing's "Endurance." Be warned though, you will be losing out on some sleep in the process since these books absolutely prove impossible to put down. Stoke the fire, turn the thermostat up, because you will be chilled to the bone and will probably have nightmares of Sea Lions chasing you across ice floes once you finish the book and finally get some sleep.
Book Review: Amazing story!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book tells the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-16. Lansing wrote the original manuscript in 1959, based on the diaries and recollections of the expedition's members. He tells this gripping story in a spare prose that only adds to the story's terrific suspense.Shackleton's aim was to compensate the Empire for the American Robert Peary's being the first to reach the North Pole in 1909 and for the Norwegian Roald Amundsen's beating Robert Scott to the South Pole in 1912. With 27 men, Shackleton set sail in the Endurance from Buenos Aires in October 1914, seeking to make the first overland crossing of the Antarctic - an ambition not achieved until 1958.
They left the island of South Georgia in December, but in January the Endurance became trapped in pack ice in the Weddell Sea, and stayed trapped for nine months until she sank in November. They were 1200 miles from the nearest human beings. They had no radio transmitter and no hope of rescue. The crew now struggled North for six months, travelling 400 miles, walking and dragging their three boats, drifting on fragile ice floes.
They launched the boats after the pack ice finally released them, and made a six-day voyage to Elephant Island, where Shackleton left 22 men camped. Then he and five crewmembers sailed 850 miles back to South Georgia - sixteen days, in an open twenty-foot boat, across the stormiest ocean in the world. Shackleton and two others then trekked across the mountains and glaciers of South Georgia, a crossing next made in far easier conditions in 1955.
The tale shows how all the men discussed what they had to do next and how, once they took a decision, they implemented it. It also shows Shackleton's extraordinary powers of decision and judgment. Despite their appalling ordeals, they didn't lose a man. No wonder that Chris Bonington called it `the greatest survival story of all time'.