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.