Excellent large format photos and introduction to Sir Ernest
A great book to get if you have never read any others of this amazing adventure. The book is worth getting and provides all the basic information on the journey. But let me add a note about seeing the author at National Geographic Explorers Hall some years ago. I read that the author would be giving a lecture. Not knowing much at all about Shackelton, I marked my schedule and planned to attend. I figured I might be one of a handful of people there like most history book lectures in DC. When I showed up, the line to pick up tickets was going out the door. Worse, it was sold out. Hundreds and hundreds of seats sold out to see the author of this book. I was gracefully given an extra ticket from someone who saw my distress and happily discovered a lifelong historical passion. Perhaps a bit of that "Old Provdy" was at play as the ramifications of this adventure go far beyond 28 men in a boat. I had the fortune to touch the James Caird at the travelling exhibit and there is a magic in the oak that defies explanation. If you want to discover a world of providence, human endurance, unreasonable chance and amazing survival, let this be the first step. As the author of this book said at her lecture, she was once walking in Manhattan with a Shackleton book tucked under her arm when a man approached her on the sidewalk after seeing the book. Wide eyed and smiling, he looked at her and said a single word that meant, he too, was part of the faternity of the moved - "Shackelton!" he said, and walked on. It said all there was to say.
2004-02-18
Last Great Adventure of the Heroic Age
There's lots of books written on the subject of Shackleton's extraordinary journey to the Antarctic. None really captures all the vividness and resilience of Caroline Alexander's, 'The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition.' She presents the astonishing work of Australian photographer Frank Hurley whose never-before-published visual record of the adventure recreates the terrible beauty of the Antarctic, the destruction of the ship Endurance and the heroic crew's daily struggle to stay alive with the miraculous, inspiring leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton. The survival of Hurley's awesome images are scarcely less miraculous. The original glass plate negatives are excellently reproduced. They were stored in sealed canisters that survived months of ice floes, in open boat of the polar seas and buried in the snows of a rocky outcrop called Elephant Island. In the final footage of the expedition Hurley had to abandon his professional equipment and with a pocket camera and three rolls of Kodak film captured some of the most unforgettable images of the thrilling struggle. The expedition began in August 1914 before the outbreak of the first World War. Renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail on thier ship the "ENDURANCE" for the South Atlantic from England in quest for the last unclaimed prize in history: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic interior.
It was by 1915 the men sailed into the frozen waters of the Weddell Sea where the Endurance became trapped in the icy floes and further ice conditions brought the Endurance to a halt. With no dangerous beasts or indigenous natives to tackle the harsh conditions of a savage Antarctic would put to the test the limits of these heroic men for a long, grueling 22 months. Beginning in 1914 and ending in 1917 the Endurance expedition is said to be the last in the Heroic Age of polar expedition. Most is owed to Shackleton's greatness in leadership and insane suffering of his earlier Antarctic experiences. Shackleton was the son of a physician, born near Ballitore, Co. Kildare, Ireland, lived briefly in Dublin as a child before his family moved permanently to England. At age sixteen soon began his life in the navy with romantic ambition took to exploration that appealed to his aspiration. Leading up to the fateful expedition, Shackleton had acquired the use of sixty-nine Canadian sledging dogs to aid in the journey. The dogs were not huskies but mixed collection of big dogs. These tough, brave animals helped the men across the icy terrain to their goal-the South Pole. Hurley writes of them in his book, 'Argonauts of the South.' Sadly, as the years of the expediton grew harsh the toll not only weaken the men but their canine companions. When food was scarce the men had to make grisly accommodations for their survival. Some of the members kept diaries of these unpleasant experiences. Every page you will hold your breathe to what will happen next to the end of the successful rescue by the "Yelcho"-not a life lost and yet been through Hell. This was an excellent and thrilling story that will probably never happen again in our lifetime as one of the last greatest adventures.
2003-07-30
Correction of other reviews
To start with let me say I found this book more interesting than any other book I have read.
Why I think some of the other reviewers are off target:
This isn't a story of Shackleton, it's the story of the whole crew and the voyage.
Also this isn't a story of a life or death struggle of people hanging on for dear life. What is so facinating is that the men live their lives for a couple of years. The crew celebrated holidays, entertained themselves, made friendships... They continued to live their lives, even though they were in a very extreme situation.
This is demonstrated by the fact that Shackleton and a couple of his men tried to go back to Antartica years later, wanting to recreate the adventure. They looked back on the trip with happy memories, not heartbreak.
I would bet for many of the crew, the years on the voyage were the best years of their lives (strange as it sounds).
I would have loved to meet any of the men. I hope I am fortunate enough to make a friend or two in my life with the same attitudes and character of the men of the Endurance.
2003-02-22
