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.