Endurance Part 7-Epilogue, Lansing

During Part 7 Shackleton decides that himself, Crean, and Worsley must make the voyage across the interior of South Georgia, which had never before been done. From what they could tell, the island was nothing more than peaks and glaciers. However, the trip had to be made: quickly. Shackleton made the executive decision to leave behind sleeping bags, tents, and anything that might possibly slow them down. The trip had to be delayed for a few days because of weather, but as soon as there was a clearing the men took off on their journey. The connotation of the word "endure" became very clear as to why this book is called Endurance. Shackleton and the two men brought supplies that would only last them for 6 days. Miraculously, they managed to make it through the most perilous part of their journey by sliding down glaciers, similar to bobsledding. They finally reached the whaling station on May 21, 1916. Roughly four months later, the men on Elephant Island were rescued. The day was August 30, 1916. Macklin wrote for his final journal entry, " 'I stayed on deck to watch Elephant Island recede in the distance...' " (280). The men were finally saved: all 28 of them. Much like Tom Hanks at the end of Castaway, they could finally return to civilization.

Endurance Part 6, Lansing

All of part 6 follows Shackleton and the his crew of 5 other men on their 850 mile voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia. In a span of just 4 short days they had already traveled over a third of the way to their destination. However, the seas were sporadic and suddenly turned against them. In their setting, the biggest problem was ice. Shackleton felt as though he was out of his element on the open sea. However, Worsley was capable and that gave Shackleton some slight relief. After a couple of weeks, the men aboard the Caird spotted South Georgia, but they were unable to land for fear of wrecking the ship among a shallow reef and being killed. So after two days of staying in the perilous open seas they found a small opening in a cove to which they could fit their boat through. Time was of the essence, because they had gone two days without a drink of fresh water and they had to land in order to find some fresh water. Lansing sums up the end of part 6 beautifully. Lansing writes, "It was five o'clock on the tenth of May, 1916, and they were standing at last on the island from which they had sailed 522 days before...a moment later all six were on their knees, drinking" (254). Their goal of landing on the island had been acheived. However, they still had to walk 29 miles across the width of the island to the whaling station.

Endurance Part 5: 4-6, Lansing

The second half of part 5 follows the 22 men who were left on Elephant Island to wait for the return of Shackleton to rescue them. Some of the men believed that it would only take until mid-May for them to be rescued. To pass the time, the men took notes and surveys on what food item they would most like to have upon their return home. It was almost unanimous among all of the men that meat would be out of the question. The crews' first choice was anything sweet. Lansing uses pathos to evoke a sense of sorrow for the men to the reader. One such way that Lansing does this is describing how emergency surgery had to be done on Blackboro to remove one of his feet that had become infected by ganggrene. The crew soon realized that they would have to spend their winter on Elephant Island, which everyone dreaded. Wild, who was now technically the leader of the men on the Island, set a goal for the men to be optimistic about; by mid-August, they would be rescued. However, 4 months later, mid-August came and went, and there was still no sign of a rescue boat. Orde-Lees wrote in his journal, " 'There is no good in deceiving ourselves any longer' " (215). One could equate the feeling of hopelessness to that of being stranded in a desert with no food or water. For the men on Elephant Island, it seemed that all hope was lost.

Endurance Part 5: 1-3; Lansing

Shortly after landing, all of the men collapse and sleep as they've never slept before. James wrote in his diary that day, " 'Turned in and slept, as we had never slept before, absolute dead dreamless sleep...' " (179). (Everyone knows that this is the best possible sleep that one can receive). However, shortly after arriving at their new safe haven, Shackleton realizes that they must soon move. He notice water marks on the rocks above their heads, which gives the allusion that when the tide comes in it would kill them all. Shackleton then decides to send Worsley and a crew of five on a coastal trip around the island to find safer land. After a long day's worth of searching, Worsley and his men finally return in the late night. The news that they have brought back is not news that reaches the crews' ears pleasantly; there is only one spot on the island that they could possibly get to, but it is not much better than the place they currently reside. Shackleton makes the executive decision and decides to make the 7 mile journey. Upon reaching the small beach, the decision is resented by most of the men, but they must stay. The wind from the mountains is tremendous, reaching speeds of almost 120 mph. Shackleton makes the observation that they could not possibly survive long there, so he makes ready for a small expedition of 6 men to set sail on the Caird. So, at the end of part 5 Shackleton and a crew of 5 set sail for their last hope to bring back help: the island of South Georgia, 850 miles away.

Endurance Part 4: 3-5, Lansing

After failing to reach a safe floe for two consecutive nights, Shackleton decided that it would be best for them to just stay in the boats until they found land. Shackleton changed their hopeful destination to Hope Bay. The weather became chillin and snow began to fall. To keep warm, the men took turns rowing. The only person who refused to row was Orde-Lees, who always complained that he either was not well enough to row or that he was an insufficient rower. Whatever the case, the men did not view this as fair, so they let Orde-Lees have it whenever they got the chance and always had an ad hominem argument. In all of the haste, the men forgot to bring along ice to melt for drinking purposes, so that was added into the equation. They were hungry, frozen, tired, and had no means of receiving water to quench the pallet. Once again the destination was changed; this time the destination was Elephant Island, which was only about 100 miles northwest. They set sail through the night, and within a couple of days could see elephant island a meer 30 miles in front of them. Worsley and Shackleton made the joint decision to split up and have the Caird and the Wills sail together and to have the Docker sail separately, that way at least some of the men would have a chance at finding land. The plan worked and after a hellish night sailing, the sunrise brought the men happiness; they were only about 100 yards away from land. By some miracle, all three ships docked on the same narrow strip of land. Lansing writes, "For the first time in 497 days they were on land. Soling, unsinkable, immovable, blessed land" (175). The men were as happy as a kid on Christmas morning.

Endurance Part 4: 1-2, Lansing

The first section of Part 4 follows the crew of the Endurance as they set sail upon the three boats that they have left: the Dudley Docker, the James Caird, and the Stancomb Wills. The largest of the 3 boats was the Caird, which was 22 feet long. The men were so ecstatic to be rid of their previous setting: Patience Camp, which had been their jail cell for four months. However, they did not factor into their equation how perilous the open sea would be. Soon into their journey to Clarence Island a two-foot high pack of ice starting charging towards their boat, as a result of opposite flowing currents. (One can compare this to a small wave of pure ice rushing towards onesself). Shackleton decided that it was not wise to sleep in the boats, so they stopped at that he believed to be sturdy enough. However, in the middle of the night the floe cracked right in the middle of No. 4 tent, leaving one man in the water and Shackleton separated from the rest of his crew. After rescuing the man, Ernie Holness, from the water they then sent a boat to retrieve Shackleton from the other half of the broken floe. The next stop that the men made for the night was on what looked to be half floe-half ice berg, but it looked sturdy. Hurley wrote in his diary, " '...pray God [this floe] will remain entire throughout the night' " (149). Lucky for the men, it did. However, they had to make a quick move on for the next morning the berg began to be crushed underneath them. When they made it safely to the boats, Worsley tried to map out their coordinates. It seemed that in all of their hurry from one deadly floe to the next that the crew actually lost ground in trying to reach Clarence Island. Instead of being 40 miles away, they were now 61 miles away.

Endurance Part 3: 4-6, Lansing

Morale is at an all time low, and tempers are at an all time high at the beginning of this section. However, just as all hope is seemingly lost, land is spotted 40 miles North. The only problem is that the ice is in the stage where one cannot walk on it one one cannot take a boat through it. So instead, the men must pray that the wind will carry them in the right direction. Lansing's structure of this section builds a fort of suspense because the men have no way of knowing if the floe that on which they currently reside on is safe or not. Just as the men start contemplating what to do the floe splits in half and the men must rush onto the safer side. The mens' food supply was at an all time low as well, but fortune seemed to strike them just as hope was lost. In one day, they caught two 1,000 pound seals and feasted on their meat. Lansing wrote, "Though everyone was fully aware that their situaiton was becoming more critical by the hour, it was much easier to face danger on a resonably full stomach" (133). Lansing was correct in that regard, for it seems in modern times that the day is much easier after one consumes food for energy. When the sun rises the next day, Shackleton realizes that the floe has traveled 28 miles North and Clarence Island can be seen. As the ice begins to crack once more, Shackleton makes a split decision to launch the boats into the water, seizing what might perhaps be their only opportunity to do so. The men are off and running, and just as they lset sail, the ice closes up behind them.

Endurance Part 3: 1-3, Lansing

Since the men had to stay on the soggy floe for fear of breaking through the ice at any time, they decided to name the floe "Mark Time Camp". The rations of food were quickly being diminished, so Shackleton made the executive decision to have each of the dog sled teams slaughtered in order to preserve food. Dogs would be used for labor one day, and then be killed the very next. Most of the men used maxims when writing in their diaries. Macklin wrote in his diary, " 'My dogs will be shot tomorrow' " (Lansing, 107).  Men could sense when their dog team would be killed. Tempers start to flare between men over small things because all of the men are anxious to reach a safer floe. By the end of the section, rations of food are dangerously low, and the men might have to eat raw seal for food, because they have no blubber for fuel. All of the crew become pessimistic and believe that the land that they were aiming to land on, Paulet Island, is already far out of reach.

Endurance: Part 2: 4-6, Lansing

The men decide to occupy their time by playing cards and telling stories. The night watchman notices the ship reappear from pressure. The men all come out of their tents and watch as about 15 feet of the ship is finally pushed forever back below the ice and is covered. Shackleton then decides to move the camp westward, because from his calculations land is only about 500 miles away. The men become trapped on a soggy floe and cannot move forward or backwards for the time being. Lansing uses bathos to evoke a pity for Shackleton's crew. Lansing writes, "Even at 3 A.M., the coldest time of the day, the surface of the ice was treacherous" (92). Being trapped on this floe meant that the men had to spend their New Year their. Thus the time changes from 1915 to 1916. Hopes of all of the men were down.

Endurance Part 2: 1-3, Lansing

Part 2, chapters one through three, capture the life of the men on the floe that they currently preside on. In order to stay alive, the men must make trips back to the ship in order to salvage what they can. At this point only about 20 feet of the Endurance is above the ice, so the men must make haste when salvaging supplies. Shackleton did his best to keep spirits high by putting certain people in certain tents together. For instance, Shackelton put the crew's most pessimistic person, James, in a tent with him because he did not want his pessimism spreading throughout the camp. James is described as the "antithesis", or opposite, of Shackleton. Lansing writes, "...he probably never should have gone with the expedition at all" (76). At the end of this part of the book, the crew watches as the Endurance is finally sinks below the ice, and is buried in its icy tomb.

Endurance Part 1: 5-8, Lansing

Chapters 5-8 of part one recount the days of the men aboard the Endurance while they were trapped on a large ice flow for over half of the Antarctic winter. The topic on which Lansing decides to speak of is the fact that the relationship between the men actually grew. In most cases, being stuck at see would strain a relationship, as seen in the movie "Survival Island". When a couple becomes stranded on an island after their boat crashes, the tension between the two becomes unbareable and they become almost animal-like in their nature. That is not the case with the men aboard the Endurance. Lansing writes, "It was remarkable that there were not more cases of friction among the men, especially after the Antarctic night set in" (42). In fact, the men grew closer. Near the end of part one, the ship becomes free of one ice floe but entrapped between two others, which eventually builds up enough pressure to basically squeeze the ship in half. At the conclusion of part one, the men aboard the ship Endurance are forced to abandon ship.

Endurance Part I: 1-4

Endurance, by Alfred Lansing is about Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Atlantic Expedition's plight to survive being trapped in the harsh environment of the Antartic for over a year. The first part of the book starts at the beginning of the end. Chapter one, part one, begins with the evacuation of the ship, Endurance, by its crew. The next three chapters are inundated with concrete details of how the ship became stuck in the ice. Lansing writes, "Two or three times early in February they tried to free the ship...There was always too much loose ice floating around her and freezing up." (32). This explains how the ship became stuck in a nutshell. This quote lets the reader realize how futile the efforts of the crew had become. One can relate this single event to the sinking of the Titanic. No matter how hard the crew tried to keep the ship afloat it just would not happen, so they had to abandon ship. By the end of the second and third chapters, the reader has met the crew. By the end of the fourth, the mood for the rest of the book is a sharp decline. The men on the boat are stuck in an ice floe over 140 miles wide, and they have no way to get out.