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.