The men were calm as they prepared to leave the ship. They attached a canvas chute to the rail and slid each dog down it onto the ice below. The sky was clear, but there was movement in the ice that worked like a jigsaw puzzle to cut up and separate the ship into two pieces. The men noticed how much like an animal dying in agony their ship behaved at this time.

Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out—they had to get themselves out.” Whatever his mood—whether it was gay and breezy, or dark with rage—he had one pervading characteristic: he was purposeful.” After six miserable days, the three lifeboats land on Elephant Island on April 15, the first time that the 28 men touch solid ground after precisely 497 days! The rapidity with which one can completely change one’s ideas . . . and accommodate ourselves to a state of barbarism is wonderful.” Making use of crew member journals, many of which have never been published, Alexander writes a compelling story of boldness and courage in the face of impossible odds. She boldly and succinctly captures the terrible landscape and the men’s characters as they persevered and fought for their lives.Even at home, with theatres and all sorts of amusements, changes of scene and people, four months idleness would be tedious: One can then imagine how much worse it is for us.”

The mission is not complete, though: there are 22 men still on Elephant Island and they are all waiting to be saved. That happened in December 1911, when a highly prepared Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen decisively beat the (ironically) better-remembered one led by a British Royal Navy Officer named Robert Falcon Scott. Given his interest in polar studies, he would soon apply and be admitted as a member of the Cambridge, England based Scott Polar Research Institute in 1957. Born in Chicago on July 21, 1921, Lansing served the U.S. Navy during the Second World War and received a Purple Heart for being wounded during his service. Afterward, he enrolled at North Park College and later at Northwestern University, where he majored in journalism. And then he adds something even more central about his character, something almost superhuman in an Ahab-or- Santiago-kind-of-way: “Whatever his mood—whether it was gay and breezy, or dark with rage—he had one pervading characteristic: he was purposeful.” The Objective and the Plan of the ExpeditionA peculiar thing to stir a man—the sound of a factory whistle heard on a mountainside. But for them, it was the first sound from the outside world that they had heard since December 1914—seventeen unbelievable months before. In that instant, they felt an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment. Though they had failed dismally even to come close to the expedition’s original objective, they knew now that somehow they had done much, much more than ever they set out to do. We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.” And all the defenses they had so carefully constructed to prevent hope from entering their minds collapsed.” In March 1916, the ice floe where the Patience Camp is located successfully makes its way to about 60 miles from Paulet Island, but impassable conditions make floating to the island all but an impossible goal.

Lansing was a native of Chicago, Illinois, the son of Edward (1896–1949), a Chicagoan who worked as an electrician, and his wife Ruth Henderson (1896–1975), a native of New Jersey. After serving in the U.S. Navy from 1940 to 1946, where he received a Purple Heart, he enrolled at North Park College and later at Northwestern University, where he majored in journalism. [2] He edited a weekly newspaper in Illinois until 1949, when he joined the United Press and in 1952 became a freelance writer. [3] He spent time in New York, writing for the books section of Reader's Digest and Time Inc., eventually returning to Chicago to become the editor of the Bethel Home News. [4] Lansing settled in Bethel, CT where he was the editor of the Bethel Home News. He died there in the mid-1970's. And it’s not about merely reaching the South Pole, but about something even more daunting and unimaginable: crossing the entire continent from sea to sea, via the pole. The Endurance is trapped in the Antarctic ice. The ship’s condition worsens by the minute. Engineers are desperately trying to keep up with the rising water levels and failing pumps, but they know that it won’t be long before there’s no hope left for them or their comrades on board. BibGuru offers more than 8,000 citation styles including popular styles such as AMA, ASA, APSA, CSE, IEEE, Harvard, Turabian, and Vancouver, as well as journal and university specific styles. Give it a try now: Cite Endurance now! Publication detailsThe extremely dangerous journey lasts for two weeks. But finally, on May 10, the James Caird reaches the south coast of South Georgia! Unfortunately, they reach land there on the far side of the island. physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most that he can hope for is not to be defeated.” This, then, was the Drake Passage, the most dreaded bit of ocean on the globe—and rightly so. Here nature has been given a proving ground on which to demonstrate what she can do if left alone. The results are impressive.” The British didn’t take the news of the Norwegians reaching the South Pole before them lightly. Their record for exploration “had been perhaps unparalleled among the nations of the earth,” and now they had to take “a humiliating second-best” to a much less-renowned country. To make matters worse, soon the Antarctic summer (which coincides with our winter) ended and the endless polar nights began. “In all the world there is no desolation more complete than the polar night,” writes Lansing. “It is a return to the Ice Age—no warmth, no life, no movement. Only those who have experienced it can fully appreciate what it means to be without the sun day after day and week after week. Few men unaccustomed to it can fight off its effects all together, and it has driven some men mad.”