Word: shackleton
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...have been reading "South," Sir Ernest Shackleton's account of his Antarctic expedition, which began in August 1914. The book takes on some sidelong relevance in my mind as I look at the New Hampshire primary results...
...Shackleton's ship, Endurance, got locked in the ice of the Weddell Sea and eventually broke apart and sank. Shackleton led his 28 men on an 18-month frozen odyssey, camping on disintegrating ice floes, living on blubber and cold penguin legs while killer whales eyed the expedition from below, speculating that men might taste as good as seals...
...last Shackleton led the party to solid ground on Elephant Island. He left 22 to hunker down there, and with a crew of five, set out in a 20-foot open boat across 850 miles of the worst seas in the world. He made it to the remote South Atlantic island of South Georgia, then climbed across a mountain and glacier to fetch help at a whaling station. All of the expedition's men were rescued...
What might have happened is a fascinating guess. It seems doubtful that even such sturdy characters as Shackleton and his crew could have made a transpolar crossing. The terrain was unknown and unforgiving, no one on board knew much about dogsledding, and the half-trained dogs were sick because worm medicine had been left behind...
What did happen became legend. The Endurance was caught in drifting pack ice during the coldest season in memory and, after weeks of trying to follow open-water leads, was frozen in. And there the ship stayed. Shackleton and his men were prepared to winter over, and they did, still fairly confident, killing penguins to stretch out their stores of food. Hurley climbed the yardarms to take photos, and at one point--amazingly, given the equipment he had to work with--lighted the frost-coated ship with 20 synchronized flashes for a dramatic night shot...