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.