Shackleton Expedition

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton embarked on the ship Endurance to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent overland with his 27-member crew. The journey quickly turned into one of the greatest survival stories in history when the Endurance became trapped in pack ice. Shackleton’s leadership kept the crew's morale up through harsh Antarctic conditions, ingenious survival efforts, and eventual rescue after a grueling 17-month ordeal. Although Shackleton didn’t achieve his initial goal, his commitment to his crew's safety made him a legendary leader. This episode of 'History's a Disaster' delves into the incredible trials and perseverance faced by the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

00:00 The Beginning of Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure
00:43 Shackleton's Previous Expeditions
02:38 The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
06:13 Trapped in the Ice
08:40 Surviving the Antarctic Winter
11:34 The Endurance is Lost
12:50 A Desperate March and Ocean Camp
16:18 Escape to Elephant Island
18:48 The Journey to South Georgia Island
22:44 Rescue and Return
23:56 Shackleton's Legacy
24:48 Closing Remarks

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Transcript

 In 1914, sir Ernest Shackleton set out on the ship endurance for Antarctica. Shackleton, along with his 27 member crew, hoped to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent over land. They never made it. The endurance would get trapped in the ice, and the crew would have to fight a cold Antarctic winter to survive.

So what happened? I'm Andrew. And this is history's a disaster.

Tonight we're diving into the icy waters of Antarctica and getting into one of the greatest survival stories in history. I. The story of the Imperial Trans Antarctic expedition led by Sir Edmund Shackleton, the last major expedition in what historians would call the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.

Shackleton was obsessed with Antarctica and with the fame and renowned that would come with being the first to accomplish something, anything involving the continent. This would be his third expedition to Antarctica. His first expedition was the Discovery Expedition led by Captain Robert Scott in 1901.

Shackleton served as the third officer on the ship until he got sent home for health reasons. He was pissed and determined to go back, and in 1907 he'd get his chance. After securing private funding in the ship, he launched the Nimrod expedition with the goal of being the first to reach the South Pole.

Shackleton and the three men with him would get to within 98 miles of the South Pole before being. Forced to turn back. While he failed to reach his intended goal, he did set a record for furthest travel South. This would make him a bit of a celebrity back home and would get him a Knight Hood by King Edward iii.

And while he got the fame, he saw there was very little money. What little bit the expedition brought in was barely enough to pay back the loans. Shackleton used to fund the expedition, but with fame comes resources and Shelton had become famous. During the early 19 hundreds, explorers were the celebrities of the day, boldly going where no man had gone before.

Okay. I'm not a Trekkie, but it's a very fitting quote for this time period. Shackleton's third Expedition was able to secure funding near mid 1914. He called the Expedition the Imperial Trans Antarctic expedition. He chose the Imperial name because he wanted the expedition to be open to any member of the British Empire.

There's an ad that is. Famously attributed to Shackleton for this expedition. The ad reads men wanted for hazardous journey, low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness, safe return, doubtful, honor and recognition. In the event of success, and that is quite an ad. And as the story goes over 5,000 people responded to the ad.

Now, however, no copies of this ad prior to a mention in a book from 1944 exists in the Antarctic Circle, which is a group of scholars involved in Antarctic research, currently has a reward for anyone able to find the original ad, and this reward has gone. Unclaimed for years, so it's highly likely this ad never actually existed.

But despite of this, Shackleton would recruit a crew of 26, which would turn to 27 with the addition of a stow away, along with purchasing a ship. He named the endurance after his family motto, by endurance, we conquer. They would also have with them 69 sled dogs. The plan was to land on one side of Antarctica off the We Sea in Shackleton, along with five men would sled over the entire continent of Antarctica and meet up with a ship the Aurora on the other side.

I'm the Ross Sea and this Ross Sea Party would also be carrying food and supplies for their overland track and would cache them along the route they were supposed to take

as they were prepping to set sail World War. I started, Shackleton did offer his ship for use in the war effort, but was told to proceed with his expedition after setting sail from England. They would stop at a whaling station in St. George Island. It would be their final stop before heading into the ice flows of the Wattle Sea in these whaling stations.

Holy shit ran by mostly outcast and people wanting to get away from society. So, you know, real good people. I mean, why else would they be hiding out on the ass end of the world? I. Cutting up whales and stripping the glubber out of them. Anyways, they hung out at these stations the entire month of November.

There was unusually icy conditions in the We Sea, and they were hoping conditions would end up improving at what passes for summer There. This gave Frank Hurley the time to film some wildlife for anxious British audiences. These films were meant to offset the cost of the expedition and are still watchable today with many of them being included in multiple documentaries about the expedition.

However, by time December came, Shackleton could not delay any longer, not if he wanted to make use of the Antarctic summer. He was afraid this would be his last chance to make the expedition and he could not fail. Now,

on December 5th, they set sail for the we sea. By the third day of sailing, they hit huge chunks of surface ice, known as pack ice. This ice ran as far as they could see, broken up only by small gaps of open water. They would have to sail through these gaps. All the way to the shore where they couldn't get through these gaps, they would have to hit one of these chunks at full speed and hope the ship split it so they could cut it into two and keep sailing and in the ice.

Some days were better than others with long runs of open water, allowing them to speed through the area. Other days, they got slowed almost to a standstill by the pack ice. Six weeks into the voyage and just 100 miles from shore, the endurance hit a field of heavy ice flow. They were slowed down considerably, not wanting to expend the energy to break through.

They made the decision to stop for the night and hope for better conditions in the morning. They did not improve overnight. The temperature dropped 40 degrees. They woke up to find the ship surrounded by ice. The peck ice had frozen solid and there was no water to be seen anywhere the ship was trapped.

They waited for days for a change in their condition, and it would not be long before a gap opened up 400 yards ahead of where they were stuck. For two days straight, they worked the ice with shovels, pickaxes, and saws, and holy fuck, what a great time to be the cameraman. This was a backbreaking job. They worked the ice until midnight every day trying to break free, and after two days, they only made it a third of the way through, and it was decided by the surveyors to stop.

The rest of the way was impassable with the ice being up to 18 feet thick in areas. They were trapped one day away from their destination. And without being in radio contact with anyone, no one knew where they were. No help would be coming. They were stuck there until the warmer weather of spring, hopefully thawed them out enough for them to escape, and spring was seven months away.

Shackleton. Took all of this in stride, never once losing his composure in front of his crew members. Just told them to prepare to winter on the ship. He was an optimistic man and a born leader. He kept it together and kept the men's morale up despite how fucked they were. The ocean current and the We Sea runs in a clockwise circle, uh, something called a geier, and that's some big scientificy thing.

And I did not get into all that. And as long as they were trapped in the ice, they would continue to float north until they could break free of the ice. A strict daily routine was kept with always something to do, and they all worked together doing the most menial task. It did not matter if you were an officer or not.

Everyone scrubbed the deck. This would make them a solid team. And this is what Shackleton wanted, cared deeply about his men always placing their safety above the expedition. And you know what else helps out with morale? Dogs? Everybody loves dogs. The sled dogs would become faithful companions to the men.

Plus it also gave them something to do, training the dogs to be a sled team. They also passed away the days with soccer matches between the men, and at night they put on a bit of theater with a bit of everything from comedy to burlesque, and not even going to comment on a bunch of sailors doing burlesque or why they had women's wigs with them either.

Anyways, they had a record player. They used to put on weekly concerts for entertainment and what had to be the height of entertainment, a haircutting contest, which had to be absolutely thrill, a real hair raising event. They also had plenty of books to read and to billiard stable for three months.

They've made it as good as could be.

In May the sunset, it would not be seen again for a long time. Winter was here. As the temperatures got colder, they had to abandon their cabins and go to the bottom of the ship where it would be easier to keep warm. With the temperature dropping the ice got worse under huge amounts of pressure. Blocks of ice would buckle and form ridges along the ice pack.

They were stuck on by July. They were in the middle of a blizzard, which did not help anything at all. The wooden ship moaned and buckled in the frigid conditions assaulted by the ice and the pressure being put on it. They made it through the spring though. However, the ice did not let up. The ice would end up lifting the endurance up and tilting it to its port side.

Timbers in the ship broke and the rudder was snapped off. They worked as quickly as they could to hack the ice off the ship for what little good it would do. By October, the ice broke through the starboard side of the ship, opening it up to let freezing water into the hold for three days. They had to work the pumps around the clock to save the ship.

By the end of October, they recognized the futility of it all. The order was given to abandon ship. They scavenge every bit of supplies they could from the ship, along with three of the four lifeboats.

And while they had plenty of tents, they did not have enough warm sleeping bags, so they had a lottery for the sleeping bags and suspiciously. The officers all got the nice ones. Wonder how that happened? But anyways, despite all this, the loss of the ship and most of their provisions, shekel rolled with it and announced it was time to go home.

His only plan now was to get everyone home safe. Shackleton aimed to march to the nearest landmass, which was over 300 miles to the west. Everyone was allowed only two pounds of personal possessions, with only a few exceptions to this roll made. One of them being a banjo,

and with the reduced supplies, a difficult decision was made. They could not afford extra mouths to feed. So three puppies that were born during the expedition along with the ship's house cat were shot after three days of hard marching. They were still within sight of the ship, so they returned to the ship to wait and made camp outside of it.

And returning to ship allowed them to get more supplies from the ship. They were forced to leave behind during the march. And they had to move quickly and carefully to do this as they worked to claim items from the ship. The pressure from the ice was causing it to collapse in on itself. By November 21st, the ice completely claimed the ship as it sank below the icy depths.

And with nothing else to do. They waited. They had traveled over 1300 miles trapped on this ice chunk, and they hoped it would eventually bring them to land, or at least into open ocean. While they waited, they used timbers from the ship to build what they called ocean camp. Part of the wheelhouse was turned into a galley, and they would take parts from the Schitt's boilers and convert it into a stove.

They had to use penguin skin and seal blubber for a fuel source. New daily routines were established. The main routine among them being hunted. They hunted penguins and seals along the ice pack. They would boil ice and sea water to drink. And for most of the expedition, they had a supply of tea and cocoa.

They knew no rescue was coming, and the biggest enemy to the expedition was morale. Shackleton had to do something a month after the sinking of the endurance. Another march was attempted. They loaded the one ton lifeboats up and began to march. They cut through the ice ridges where they could, they pushed forward and snow.

Dale was coming up to their knees. By the fourth day. Some of the crew were starting to get a bit rebellious, but Shelton doubled down and reasserted his control and they backed down. It weakens the march and Shackleton called a halt. They set up a new and much shittier camp than what they had just left behind with fewer equipment and even fewer supplies, and rationing was even stricter.

Shackleton promised they'd be off the ice before winter. So they did not need to store as much meat. Many were not convinced and doubt was growing, but Shackleton prevailed. Food would become scarce and the dogs would end up being shot with the lack of seals and penguins. They would end up using the dogs for food.

The ice pack eventually reached near the end of the ice. Well, the ice was thinning out and the ocean's current could be fell. Finally they could get in the boats and escape the ice. They made the decision to make for Deception Island 150 miles away. Deception Island at the time was known to have supplies for shipwrecks.

They narrowly escaped. The drifting ice flows stopping each night to pull their boats on them to make camp, and they would barely avoid a disaster One night when the ice, they were camped on, split in two under their tents. One man would be dropped into the icy water narrowly, avoiding freezing to death.

When he got pulled out, they would eventually make it to the Black Sea. Things would not get better. They had to row these little ass light boats across open ocean, and now there was no more ice to stop and camp on just endless water. Their supplies had dwindled down to one hot drink and a ship biscuit per day.

So they were freezing, exhausted, and starving, and dysentery was making the rounds among the crew.

On the sixth day of rowing, after the decision to change course for the closer elephant island, a storm came sweeping in and one boat was now at risk of sinking, and a long, sleepless night was spent bailing out water. But by day seven, they've reached Elephant Island. They made it to dry land. Once on dry land, one of the crew members driven half mad by hunger and exhaustion, and the stress of the ordeal would take an ax and start swinging.

He would not stop until 10, lay dead on the beach. These seals would be the first hot meal they had in days, and once they made camp and tents were set up, it did not take long for many of the men to drift off to sleep. But within days, another blizzard came ripping through the area. A tent was ripped to shreds and a lot of equipment was tossed into the ocean.

The men were forced to take shelter in the lifeboats, and after five days of this damn blizzard, the men came to hate the island. But now that they were out of the ice and on firm land, they just had to make it the civilization. They were nowhere near any type of shipping or whaling lanes, so there was no hope of rescue that way.

So a new plan was made. Shelton was going to take a lifeboat, a little 22 foot long boat and travel across the worst, the most treacherous ocean in the world to reach South Georgia Island, the same island they had left from at the start.

To do this, they would need to scavenge two of the lifeboats to reinforce the third. The carib, its gun walls were raised by using wood from packing crates. They sealed the ship's, seams with paint and seals blood, so they sealed it with seal. Make sense? And then the deck was canvassed. Shackleton would take the five most experienced sailors with him on the desperate attempt to make St.

George Island Frank Wild. His right hand man would be left in charge of the remaining men on the island on April 22nd with the boat finished and clear weather. They loaded the ship with food and water for four weeks and set out the sky was sunny and the sea calm as they made sail. Day two would change that.

The seas became rougher and the weather turned to ship. They worked in four hour shifts while three tried to sweep below deck. The other three would run the ship, bailing out water, keeping up with the sail, and just fighting to keep the ship going and navigation was extremely limited. But Captain Worsley managed it after 10 days.

He figured they were halfway there and they were in a desperate situation. At this point. Two of them were stricken ill, and very near death. Shackleton kept a close watch on everyone making sure they all got hot drinks. When it looked like someone was getting too cold, one of the men would lose their upper lip when it would be ripped off after it froze to a metal cup, and many of them would suffer frostbite to the ears.

But on May 7th, 14 days at sea. They saw the first signs that land was near. They found kelp floating in the water and birds flying nearby. But more problems came up as they got near land.

The winds ramped up. The hurricane speeds driving them dangerously close to the island's cliffs. They managed to fight the wind and got away from danger. And finally, after 17 days of sailing, they reached King Heck on bay, on South George Island. They made it to land safely, and for the first time in 17 months, they saw grass though.

Only downside to their landing. The whaling stations were on the other side of the island. They would have to walk across the island to reach them. And of course, the interior of the island was a real shit show and unmapped. No one had ever crossed the mountains and glaciers that made up most of the island.

Shackleton would take two men with him when he went. They would put screws into the bottom of their shoes to improvise climbing boots to help make it across the IC interior. I. They had to move and keep going if they wanted to live. They carried very little with them. They struggled and fought their way through the cliff and valleys, and after a 36 hour trek through the dangerous and icy terrain, they made it to the way Lake Station.

They were so filthy and emaciated. From their ordeal. The whaling station manager did not recognize them at first. They spent the night in the manager's house as a blizzard tore through the interior. They had made it just in time. I. The following day, the men on the other side of the island would be picked up and taken home.

All that remained now was rescuing the men on Elephant Island using a borrowed boat. A rescue was attempted but was turned back by the ice. They could not make it through. Shackleton spent the next four months trying desperately to get back to his men. In late August using a tug borrowed from Chile, they made the fourth attempt.

They were 10 weeks overdue, but the 22 men on Elephant Island survived the winter. They made a small hut out of the remains of the two lifeboats, and they were eating seal meat that had started to turn rancid. But despite all the hardships, they survived. And with her hope of rescued, dwindling to near nothing.

A boat appeared offshore. Shackleton had come for them, and everyone that started on the expedition would go home safe. A little lighter, a little worse for where, but they all survived. And in 1921, Shackleton would make one last expedition to the Antarctic. He would never make it. He would suffer a heart attack while on St.

George Island and he would end up getting buried in their cemetery there. Now the crew on this expedition included many from the endurance and would continue on and stop at Elephant Island to see where they had spent so much time fighting to survive. And that was the Shackleton expedition. While Earnest Shackleton never accomplished any of his goals, he set out to do, he would do the one thing that would make him a great leader.

He brought his men home. He placed his men above his own ambitions and would end up bringing them all home safe. Thanks for listening. And if you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your app of choice, and you can send comments or suggestions to Histories, aid disaster@gmail.com, and you can follow the show on social media at Histories of Disaster on Facebook, Instagram, and a few others.

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