Endurance: Part 7 and Epilogue

   The men, by a miracle, had achieved the impossible.  Rejoicing quietly, the crew tries to pull the James Caird from the water.  Even with the party's combined strength, the boats hardly move at all.  Leaving the boat tied up against a boulder,  the men make their way to a cave where Shackleton decides that he will take Crean and Worsley to search for people on the land.  After an exhausting journey, Shackleton, Worsley, and Crean spot Stromness, a whaling station.  It had been almost two years since any crew member had had any contact with the outside world.  Shackleton, Crean, and Stromness stood staring, amazed.  The men soon approached Stromness and asked to see the manager. 

" 'Who the hell are you?' he said at last.  The man in the center stepped forward.  'My name is Shackleton,' he replied in a quiet voice.  Again there was silence.  Some said that Sorlle turned away and wept."

     Shackleton, with three of his men, reveal who they are to the factory manager, and at once the manager, Thoralf Sorlle weeps.  Sorlle was in total disbelief that the crew had survived, and had even made it to South Georgia.  Like Sorlle, the outside world believed that the crew of the Endurance was lost at sea.  Shackleton's journey to South Georgia is still noted today as an impressive, navigational accomplishment.  Over the next few days, Shackleton did everything in his power to find a ship that was capable of making it to and back from Elephant Island.  After several failed attempts, Shackleton and his party boarded the Yelcho, an ancient sea-going tug, to go rescue the other crew members.  One can find irony in how it took several tries at a boat that would make it back to Elephant Island, when Shackleton manages to sail hundreds of miles across the treacherous Antarctic Ocean on the tarnished Caird.
  
    While Shackleton is leaving South Georgia, the twenty two other men continue their battle for survival on Elephant Island.  It had been four months since the men had seen Shackleton, and there was much doubt that they would be rescued.  August 30 began like almost any day, but this time when the men hopelessly looked out to sea, they actually spotted a small ship.  As it approached, the twenty two men looked in the face of their leader, Ernest Shackleton, and hurried onto the Yelcho to return home.
  
     I can only really picture the sheer bliss the twenty two men on Elephant Island felt when they saw Shackleton coming to their rescue.  One may compare the happiness felt by Shackleton's men to the gaiety of six Brazilian men who were rescued after being stranded for 22 days at sea.  The Brazilian men were found by an Italy ship after their boat's engine crashed.  The group managed to survival by eating the little food available and by even drinking their own urine.  Like the Brazilian men, Shackleton and his crew had complications with their ship, had to survive on a little amount of food, and were eventually rescued.

Endurance: Part 6

"For some strange meteorological reason, savage, tornadolike downdrafts periodically swooped down from the heights above and fairly exploded when they struck the water, whipping the seas close inshore into a frenzy of spindrift and froth."

     Alfred Lansing tells of how Shackleton and the five other men are holding up as they make the harrowing journey to South Georgia.  Like in the quote, Lansing uses concrete details to help the reader imagine just how brutal the travel for help was.  With uncontrollable waves, overwhelming wind, and random bits of ice, the men find themselves to be physically and mentally weakening.  In addition to all the pains of the deadly ocean, Shackleton and the men wear soaked clothing, have to eat bent over, and uncomfortably sleep on the rocks that keep the boat from becoming too light.  However, within just a few days, the crew calculate that they have made it almost one-third of the way to South Georgia.  Weeks pass and the party of men have been experience all sorts of trouble with the James Caird. Then, on May 10, 1916, men finally make it to South Georgia.

    For me, it is easy to compare this long, chaotic journey to South Georgia with some of the road trips I have made with my family.  For example, this year my family and I drove to North Carolina.  I ended up riding with my aunt,  my uncle, my grandma, and my five cousins.  We drove in this huge, blue van.  With all the road trip snacks, portable DVD players, unread books, and crossword puzzles, this journey had the potential to be a very fun and easy ride.  However, my cousins are all under the age of eight, and became cranky soon after we left home.  With a screaming baby and two fighting twins, everyone in the car was annoyed and a bit angry.  On top of the crying children, frequent bathroom stops were made, which greatly irritated my aunt and uncle.  A fourteen hour car ride turned into an eighteen hour miserable experience.  Although I was traveling to vacation and Shackleton was traveling in hope of finding a rescue team, we both made a long and dreadful journey.

Endurance: Part 5, Chapters 4-6

" The Caird had sailed, taking with her the best of everything they had."

    With Shackleton and a few other crew members off in search of a rescue team, the rest of the team  intently watch as their leader disappears into the horizon.  The diction of Alfred Lansing suggests that these men are feeling even more stranded and hopeless with Shackleton gone.  Refusing to admit they are doomed, the crew tries to show an outward confidence.  Although the crew tries to have a positive attitude, nothing can erase the long month of waiting for Shackleton's return.  Days later, the men decide it's in their best interest to make a shelter.  The crew worked for days to build a shelter that would hopefully hold up against the violent wind and driving snow.  The days pressed on and members had developed infections, salt water boils, frostbitten limbs, bad teeth, and gangrene.

    With all the misery in front of them, the crew imagines the luxuries of home.  One day, the men each wrote down a meal they wished they could have.  Many wanted sweet dishes, such as apple dumplings, marmalade puddings, and porridge.  Others chose scrambled eggs, baked pork and beans, and apple sauce.  Without Shackleton, the rest of the crew spend their time building up hope.  Even with all the imagining, the men still live in the bitter conditions on frugal rations of food.  Weeks pass and the fact that Shackleton may not return is openly discussed.

    The movie, Cast Away, is about how one man manages to survivor on an island that his plane has crashed on.  The man uses what was left of the plane, food from the island, and cargo from the plane for his survival.  Like the man from Cast Away, the crew of the Endurance survives by building shelters, feeding off the animals on the land, and from items brought back from the ship.  The man from Cast Away and Shackleton's men both learn to cope in the harsh situations and only hope to make it back to civilization.

 

Endurance: Part 5, Chapters 1-3

"Elephant Island had flattered only to deceive.  She had revealed her true face to them, and the sight of it was ugly."

    Shackleton and his men have finally made it to Elephant Island.  Here, the men recover from the anguish endured on the freezing waters of the Antarctic Ocean.  Green, the cook, prepares meal after meal for the crew to gorge on.  Crew members recall the first day on land to be one continuous feast.  However, while the men are indulging themselves in the euphoria of the land, Shackleton has other plans.  Ernest Shackleton, although delighted to be on solid land, understands that his crew must move on.  Elephant Island, it turns out, isn't as wonderful as "she" seems.  Lansing uses personification when referring to the island, calling it "her" and "she".  With its violent winds, towering cliffs, driving snow, and naked landscape, the island is described as inhospitable and deceiving.  In the coming days, Shackleton decides to make a start for South Georgia in the hope of finding a rescue squad.  

    One can compare the situation of Shackleton and his crew to the story of the motor torpedo boat, PT-109.  This was commanded by John F. Kennedy during World War II.  The PT-109 was badly damaged and actually split in two.  The men were stranded in water that was filled with sharks and crocodiles.  Being on Harvard University's swim team, Kennedy managed to guide his men to an island.  Not only were the men without food and water, they were trying to hide from the Japanese.  John F. Kennedy led his team miles away to the Olasana islands in search of food, water, and of being rescued.  Like John F. Kennedy,  Shackleton led his crew through dangerous waters to a not so promising island.  When on the land, both leaders decide it's best to head to another island in hope of finding a rescue team.

Endurance: Part 4, Chapters 3-5

"... they were on land.  For the first time in 497 days they were on land.  Solid, unsinkable, immovable, blessed land."

 
    It has been over a year and the crew of the Endurance has finally arrived on Elephant Island.  The few days before getting to the island were long and perilous.  In these chapters, Alfred Lansing uses a tone that suggestions this is the most difficult part of getting back to civilization.  First, the men find the wind has sent them in a direction different from where they wanted.  Disappointed, the men, with their frozen garments and weary bodies, procedure on through the sea in search for land.  On the boats, all men endured the agony of the cold.  All men were ordered to move their toes to keep from being frost bitten.  Also, the crew found it impossible to swallow their food, and their hunger caused seasickness.  Of all of the boats, the Wills was in the worst condition, and was led by Hudson who was suffering from severe frost bite in his hands.  The author's tone tells the reader the seriousness of the crew's condition.  Lansing goes into depth of how Shackleton and his men are suffering from frostbite, seasickness, the cold, and thirst.  Eventually, Shackleton agrees to have the three boats separated.  The next day, the men land on Elephant Island, exhausted from exertion.

    Ernst Shackleton and his crew have been lost in the freezing Antarctic Ocean for over a year.  After months of searching for land, the men finally persevere.  For anyone, it is rewarding to find something after it being gone so long.  I can relate to this when I lost one of my textbooks and binders.  I felt like I had looked everywhere, and still, I couldn't find my book and binder.  My homework, which was due that day, was folded inside my binder.  I panicked, but after hours of worrying and searching, I finally found the book with binder.  Similar to me finding my book, Shackleton felt great relief when reaching land after searching so long for it.

Endurance: Part 4, Chapters 1,2

     The crew of the Endurance continues the rest of their journey on the boats, James Caird, Dudley Docker, and the Stancomb Wills.  Though the men are off of the unstable ice, they still have difficulty in meandering through impending ice.  One night, the men awaken to find a floe that they were camping on for the night had a crack.  With this crack in the floe, a fireman, Ernie Holness, had fallen into the water.  Holness, was soaked, but alive.  With this, Shackleton commanded the Stancomb Wills to launched, and the crew departed from the split floe.

    Exhausted, the men carry on through the hazardous and icy sea.  It was April 10 and the crew was thrilled to realize that they were finally sailing in open water.  With the wind and unruly water, Shackleton decides to pull the party along a single piece of ice.  There the men spent a sleep night next to the "floe-berg".

"Within minutes, however, the wind freshened out of the northeast, and the sea picked up.  The boats began to bump heavily against one another, and they threatened to uproot the oars which held them to the floe.  In addition, the wind swirled across the surface of the berg, catching snow from its surface and hurling it straight in their faces."

     Alfred Lansing uses imagery to paint vivid pictures in the reader's mind of just how intense that night was for the crew.  I can image that the men would were already weary from the day's work, and were now being engulfed by the biting wind and inescapable cold as they were trying stop the boats from bumping against each other.

     Working together, the crew decides to haul up the boats onto the ice.  The first boats goes up without trouble.  However, the next twice boats required more effort.  A few men, even Shackleton, fell into the numbing sea trying to pull the last boat up. In the darkness, one man, Hudson, tells the party that he saw a light in the distance.  Excitedly, the men search for a light, and find nothing.

    The Shackleton and his crew have been shipwrecked for now five and a half months.  During this months, the men have endured the freezing cold, going to bed with an empty stomach,  living on unstable ice, being cut off from the outside world, etc.  In these two chapters, it seems that all of the sleepless nights and all of the energy put forth for the crew's survival is finally beginning to pay off when they find open water.  Many students can relate to this in times where they have studied and participated  in class in order to get a good grade.  I feel the more effort and time I put into studying for a test, the better I do.  Like students studying for a class, the crew of the Endurance finally find open water after months of putting forth all of their energy in doing so.

Endurance: Part 3, Chapters 5,6

"Back at camp, there was almost a holiday atmosphere in anticipation of the first hot lunch in more than two weeks."

     For Shackleton and his crew members, things are finally starting to look up.  With the killing of two sea leopards and the rest of the dogs, the men increase their portions of food, and are able to sleep with a full stomach.  Also, with an island relatively close, there are high hopes of getting off of the cracking ice.

"Hope tells a flattering tale."

    This quote turns out to be very true for Shackleton and his men.  Though there has been good fortune and high spirits among the crew, the ice pack begins to drift in an unwanted direction.  On top of things, the ice is continuing to crack, almost separating the crew.

    One night, the ice cracked, causing pools of water to surface and reach the men.  As the team hastily gathered all the equipment to one side of the crack, the ice pack split in two.  Shackleton was then faced with the dilemma of staying on the unstable ice or escaping on the boats.  With the ice, Shackleton knew that it would continue to crack.  With the boats, he knew they would need open water.  Also, if the men were to take the boats, there would be no getting off on another icepack.  Shackleton quickly decides that the best possible option is to leave on the boats.

   With all that Ernest Shackleton and his crew have been through, it is not difficult to admire their ability to work together through thick and thin.  When the Endurance was having all of its complication, the crew put all their effort forth, and spent endless hours trying to save their ship.  After the Endurance sunk, they kept positive attitudes, entertained each other, and worked as a team in hopes of returning to the outside world.  Like the Endurance's crew,  soldiers and troops, in the military, work as one.  They work together to get a job accomplished.  It is easy for one to appreciate the sense of comradeship that is evident among Shackleton's men and the military.

Endurance: Part 3, Chapters 1-4

"Many of them, it seemed, finally grasped for the first time just how desperate things really were.  More correctly, they became aware of their own inadequacy, of how utterly powerless they were."

  
    Stranded in the universe of ice, Shackleton's men switch campsites.  The reality of the situation start to sink in as the crew travels only 9 in five days.  The men are finally beginning to see just how powerless they really are.  To say they were "out of luck," would be a complete understatement.  The shipwrecked group was trapped in the Antarctic Ocean hundreds of miles from the outside world.  In addition to being away from civilization, the food supplies were dangerously low.  Shackleton's solution to this problem was to kill their dogs off.  Although this upset the men who had raised the dogs since they were puppies, the crew would not be overcome by starvation anytime soon. 

    Within weeks, however, Shackleton surprisingly found land in the distance.  The land spotted was one of the Danger Islets.  It was exactly 42 miles away, and once they were there, it would be only 20 more miles to Paulet Island.  But, the party of men, once again, battled hunger and the bitter cold.  

    Like Shackleton, there have been other Antarctic explorers and crew who have suffered from severe hunger and cold.  Two of these explorers were Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen. Many of Scott and Amundsen's men unfortunately died of scurvy, starvation, food poisoning, and cold.  Like Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen experienced the many terrors of the Antarctic.

Endurance: Part 2, Chapters 5,6

     It was almost Christmas Day, and Ernest Shackleton commanded that the crew must start moving north again.  The men once again pushed the boats and other equipment need for the journey.  Days later though, Shackleton spotted cracks in the ice.  The ground did not have any stable ice that would support the men and the weight of the boats.  There was no where to go and little to do.

"The final loss of the Endurance was a shock in that it severed what had seemed their last tie with civilization.  It was a finality.  The ship had been a symbol, a tangible, physical symbol that linked them with the outside world."

    The Endurance was a symbol for the stranded crew.  In a way, it was a symbol of comfort and it was from home.  The Endurance was the ship that was destined to be the first the cross the Antarctic Ocean from east to west.  Now, there it was, sinking into the depths of the ocean.

      The despair Shackleton feels is definitely evident as he is telling his crew that they cannot move on.  It seems as if the men are in the worst of situations.  With no where to go, the men write troubled passages in their journals.  Anyone can say they have felt as though they have hit rock bottom sometime in their lives.  With Shackleton and his men, they really are a severe situation, but have not given up on hope.  It is true in a distressing situation, hope can always be found.

Endurance: Part 2, Chapters 1-4

"They had been on the ice exactly one week.  In seven short days they had gone from the well-ordered, even pleasant existence on board the Endurance to one of primitive discomfort, of unending wet and inescapable cold."

    In one week, the men went from sleeping in warm beds and eating hot meals, to being completely surrounded by the unbearable cold.  The setting, in which the men are shipwrecked, is a frigid and icy wasteland.  Surprisingly, the attitudes of the men were far from discouraging.  The plan was to journey 346 miles to Paulet Island.  The problem was that the crew had to travel with three boats, weighing a ton each, a pack of dogs, and other equipment across miles of rugged terrain.  Because of the harsh conditions and the long journey they had to make, Ernest Shackleton commanded that all animals who cannot carry their weight, be shot, and all unnecessary items be cast aside.  With that, the men carried only was crucial to survival.

    Eventually,  Ernest Shackleton called the journey to Paulet Island off because of the difficulty in dragging the boats through the uneven ice.  The leader hoped that the ice block they were on would drift near land in the coming months.  While staying in one area, the crew became accustomed to the conditions.  The men learned to eat blubber and stomach the freezing cold day in and out.

    The arctic setting the men are stranded in causes them make choices that are important to their survival.  These choices helped them adjust to the harsh environment.  When the seasons change, people today take precautions to adjust to the change.  For example, in the winter, many purchase warm clothing and turn the heater on.  In the summer, people buy clothes that will keep them cool, wear sunscreen, turn the air conditioning on, and drink lots of water to keep from being dehydrated.  Like the crew of the Endurance, people today make changes when it is necessary for their survival.

Endurance: Part 1, Chapters 4-8

     Alfred Lansing rewinds back to tell of how the Endurance came to be trapped in the ice.  The northerly gale had been compressed and crowed the Weddell Sea pack against the land.  It was the middle of January, and the Endurance was marooned in a universe of ice.  Each morning, members of the crew set out attempting to saw away ice from the ship.  Men would return with little or no progress.  When February approached, the men feared because the end of the Antarctic summer was near.  The beginning of the Antarctic winter meant no sun, which meant there would be no chance of the ice melting.

     Despite the Endurance being trapped in the lifeless and dark Antarctic Ocean, the crew found ways to keep themselves from creeping into a common depression brought about by the polar winter.  The men entertained each other by having dog races, telling stories, listening to music, putting on skits, etc.

    In late October, a large chunk of ice ground across the Endurance tearing the stern post away from the starboard planking.  As water poured into the ship, men worked busily at the pumps.  After 28 agonizing hours of working nonstop, the crew knew the Endurance could not be saved.

"She's going boys," he said.  "I think it's time to get off."

    I feel this quote could be deemed the turning point of the novel.  Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance had desired to be the first to cross the Antarctic from east to west.  These men had hopes of accomplishing this, but are now obeying orders to abandon the ship.  In one swift command, the fate of the crew is sealed.  Instead of accomplishing their goal, the men will now be battling for their survival.

    Although cliche, it is true that things do not always go according to plan.  The crew set out with the dream of being the first to sail across the Antarctic, but ended up stranded in a sea of ice on a sinking ship.  Although not as extreme, many people can agree that they have experienced a situation when things have not gone according to plan.  For example, in grade school, I was assigned to build a science project to accomplish a simple task in a complex fashion.  I built a project that worked perfectly at my house.  When I took it into school and had to show it to the teacher, it would not work.  I had hoped to impress the teacher, but I ended up with a bad grade.

Endurance: Part 1, Chapters 1-3

      "They were for all practical purposes alone in the frozen Antarctic seas.  It had been very nearly a year since they had last been in contact with civilization.  Nobody in the outside world knew they were in trouble, much less where they were."

       Alfred Lansing begins with the crew putting forth all their effort in hope of saving the sinking Endurance.  The crew of the Endurance had set out to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent from west to east.  Now, the leader, Ernest Shackleton, was ordering his crew to abandon the ship.  Although the crew was relieved to finally be free from the anguish endured while trying to save the ship, they would soon be in dire need of shelter, food, and heat.  I feel this quote effectively presents a mood of sheer isolation.  The nearest place of refuge was a tiny island located hundreds of miles across the ice-packed sea.  I would say that the quote definitely expresses the extremity of the situation.

 
  
   It is not difficult to compare the desperation that the crew faces to the hopelessness of a Uruguayan rugby team that was stranded in the Andes Mountains after a plane crash.  Like the crew of the Endurance, the rugby team was left in extremely harsh conditions and had no contact with the outside world.  The Uruguayans faced starvation and were actually forced to feed on the dead passengers.  Although it is only the beginning of the misfortune experienced by the crew of the Endurance, the quote suggests that they will share the same fate of the Uruguayans.