Crushed in the Weddell Sea Ice Pack, 1914”

Sir Ernest Shackleton was one of the giants of Antarctic exploration. In 1914 he mounted an expedition to cross Antarctica from sea to sea. His ship. the ENDURANCE, was caught and crushed by the ice pack of the Weddell Sea and sank after being abandoned on October 27, 1915. With the world’s attention concentrated on WWI, it did not know that the ENDURANCE had sunk on November 21, 1915 nor that the party of 28 men were camped on the frozen sea drifting north for 5 months until the ice began to break up. When Shackleton’s party finally reached the open sea and could use their lifeboats, they launched on April 9, 1916 for a 4 day sail to the bleak shores of Elephant Island. Freezing, half-starved, their morale spent - someone had to go for help. While Shackleton was an inspired leader, he was no navigator. The unsung hero of this miraculous rescue was the captain of the ENDURANCE, Captain Worsley. Only Worsley had the skill and experience to navigate the 22 foot JAMES CAIRD through fierce gales, covered in ice, for several hundred miles to the whaling station on South Georgia Island. Using only a hand held compass Worsley, Shackleton and two other crewmen made it to South Georgia on May 7, 1916 arriving only a few days before the whaling station would be closed and abandoned for the season. The following morning, exhausted as he was, Shackleton left his 3 hospitalized crew members and shipped out with a rescue party that returned to Elephant Island to rescue the remaining 24 crew members that had been left behind. The fate of the ENDURANCE is a testament to the endurance of man, his will to survive and the extraordinary leadership of Shackleton and feats of