Book Review

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World

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Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong This is a biography of the 1915 Shackleton expedition to the South Pole. Shackleton and 27 sailors attempted to cross the Antarctic continent from one side to the other, but were trapped in an ice pack, their ship, the Endurance, eventually sunk, survived an Antarctic winter, escaped attacks from sea lions, and sailed 600 treacherous miles to the uninhabited Elephant Island in little boats. Shackleton and five others left the 22 sailors behind, sailed 800 miles across the southern Atlantic Ocean in a 20-foot open boat to a tiny island, where they hiked across unmapped mountains to a whaling station. Then, 19 months after the Endurance became icebound, Shackleton led a rescue party back to retrieve his men. Remarkably, every crew member survived. Read this book in hot weather! I cannot imagine two years of freezing cold weather and eating nothing but seal and penguin. I?ve watched a few movies about Shackleton and am still amazed by his leadership and by the men who followed him just for the sake of exploration. They weren?t looking for a new shipping route, oil, gold, etc ? just the thrill of mapping unchartered territory. Give me mapquest.com any day! Even if you don?t want to read the entire book, just looking at the photographs alone is worth checking out the book. Particularly when you consider that the photographer had to chose only a few as they left the Endeavor to begin their trek across the ice. He had to leave hundreds of photographs behind (this was in the day of the glass prints versus a roll of film or a digital chip) and those prints will never be found.

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Humor Ernest Shackleton's recruiting advertisement for his 1912 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success." If Shackleton were advertising in the 2000's: "Members wanted for adventure trek. Low cost, cool sights, lots of fun nights, thrills galore, insurance available. Get your picture in Outdoor magazine."

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