Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

280 pages

"Bound for Antarctica, where polar explorer Ernest Shackleton planned to cross on foot the last uncharted continent, the Endurance set sail from England, in August 1914. In January 1915, after battling its way for six weeks through a thousand miles of pack ice and now only a day's sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked inside an island of ice. For ten months the ice-moored Endurance drifted northwest before it was finally crushed. But for Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men the ordeal had barely begun. It would end only after a near-miraculous journey by Shackleton and a skeleton crew through over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization." -Back Cover

I vaguely remember learning about this in school and I think I even read this book, but I wanted to read it again. Shackleton's ship was so aptly named it's almost eerie. What those men endured and accomplished together is truly amazing. The fact that for the most part they all stayed pretty positive and optimistic is unbelievable. Shackleton was loved, admired and feared by his men. He knew how to lead men. He knew how to avoid conflict by putting certain people together and keeping others apart. He knew how to get them to keep going even when they didn't think they could or want to. Every man (except the stowaway) had been handpicked and many of them had traveled to Antarctica with him before.

Two thoughts ran through my mind throughout this book: the importance of keeping a journal or record of some sort and the idea that we are almost always stronger than we think we are. There were so many times in this book where you just wondered why Mother Nature couldn't cut them a break. They'd work so hard to get to land and then waves or storms would deter them. They'd use their dog teams to take treacherous trips back for supplies only to have to then kill the dogs to either eat them or save the food they had to feed them. That was probably the lowest point of the story for me. They never gave up though. When Shackleton set out to sail for South Georgia as a last hope for his men, it seemed so unfair that he would then have to hike over a glacier that had proven itself to be impassable to reach the town. This is a story that is so inspiring. It's suspenseful--I had a hard time putting it down. It reminds you of what the human spirit is capable of.