Episode Details

Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 aimed to cross Antarctica on foot, and its ship began life in Norway as the Polaris, a polar tourist yacht with ten cabins and a darkroom that went unsold after its Belgian and Norwegian backers fell out. Shackleton bought it cheaply and renamed it Endurance after his family motto. Its keel was over 85 inches of stacked oak and its bow over 50 inches thick, but its straight sides could not ride up out of squeezing ice. Leaving South Georgia in December 1914, it was trapped in the Weddell Sea in January 1915, about 200 miles from Vahsel Bay, after a six day gale packed the ice. A day spent cutting a 150 yard trench failed, and Shackleton shut down the boilers.

For nine months the ship drifted as pressure ridges bent its oak beams, and on October 27, 1915 the crew abandoned it at 15 below zero. Shackleton kept routines, music, and morale going on the floes, then led the men by boat to Elephant Island in April 1916. He and five others sailed the 20 foot James Caird more than 800 miles to South Georgia in 16 days on Frank Worsley's navigation, then crossed the island's glaciers in 36 hours. On his fourth attempt, aboard the Chilean tug Yelcho under Luis Pardo, he reached Elephant Island 128 days after leaving, and all 22 men there were alive.

• The famous hazardous journey recruitment ad has never been found in any newspaper.
• Crews thawed frozen pump pipes with boiling water and blowtorches as the hull flooded.
• The James Caird crew chipped ice off the boat to keep it from capsizing.
• Shackleton made sure the logbooks and glass negatives were saved to help pay his debts.
• In March 2022 the Endurance22 expedition found the wreck upright at about 3,000 meters, its name still visible.