This is the third time I’ve read Endurance, Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing although this time was via audio format. Simon Prebble was the perfect voice for this remarkable story. I chose to read it again in anticipation of actually going to the Antarctica in another month. We will fly to Buenos Aires, and then take a second flight to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, located on Tierra del Fuego. From there, we’ll take a 10-day cruise to the peninsula which juts north from the Antarctica mainland. We’ll be crossing the dangerous Drake Passage which Lansing writes about in vivid language. That passage around the cape is famous as being the most dangerous sailing area in the world due to the monstrous waves.
It was about 16 years ago that my wife and I sailed through this same area. Two days before Cape Horne, while we were sailing through the more protected Straits of Magellan, there were 60-foot waves in the Drake Passage which would have kept us from going out to the cape, but when it was our turn, the seas were nearly dead flat. It was a beautiful day and we sailed around the small island of Cape Horne where there’s a light house before heading off for the Falklands. At the time, it was not our intent to go to Antarctica. While standing on deck and getting a good luck at the remarkable beauty of Cape Horne, a fellow passenger told me it was the fifth time she had taken this tour, but because of brutal weather, it was the first time she had actually seen the Cape Horne island. Because I had the prior experience of being at sea and sailing through a typhoon with it’s own monstrous waves, which I found to be exciting as hell, I’m hoping this trip does not have another flat day. I’m hoping for some motion, just maybe not 60-foot waves.
The Endurance, the name of Shakleton’s ship as well as the title of the book, is nearly indescribable with regard to adventure and danger. After reading many adventure books, I find myself eager to be a part of such treks, but not this one. I thought Lansing was shouting at his top voice, “Don’t do this.” At the same time, Lansing’s admiration of Shakleton was unmistakable. As one might expect of anyone who would undertake such a journey in what was a failed attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole, Shakleton was obsessed, a maniac, but also a man who drew the affection and loyalty of his total crew of 28 men. This was Shakleton’s third trip to Antarctica. The story starts with all the difficulty of putting together such an expedition in 1914, but when it arrived, the Endurance got stuck in an ice floe. Despite heroic attempts to dislodge the boat, the crew had to abandon it, and that’s when their greatest perils began. His descriptions of going through the Drake Passage on a 22-boat was amazing. Time and again, Shakleton faced life and death decisions, and more than two years after setting out on his journey, they made their way to safety. He did not lose a single man, compared to his rival Amundsen who lost three men on his contemporary expedition.
This is a great true adventure book, certainly one of the best ever written. Did you know that the ship Endurance was recently discovered where it sunk in the Antarctic waters? I’ve seen underwater pictures of the ship, and I hope to learn more about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment