Cape Valentine, Elephant Island
Imagine yourself a member of the British Imperial Transantarctic Expedition, under the command of Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. You left London on 1 August, 1914, just as war was breaking out. Your mission was to travel deep into the Weddell Sea and drop off a party that would march to the South Pole and continue across the Antarctic continent to the Ross Sea, where food depots and rescue would be waiting. You sailed to Buenos Aires, then to South Georgia Island. The whalers on South Georgia warned you of severe ice in the Weddell Sea, but you pushed on. They were right. On January 18, 1915 your ship, Endurance, is caught in the ice. Helplessly, you and the imprisoned ship drift with the ice. On October 27 the ship is hopelessly crushed and you take to the ice. You attempt to drag the ship’s three boats over the ice to open water. The attempt fails. Passively, you drift northward with the ice, 1200 miles. Finally, on April 9, 1916 the ice breaks up and you take to the boats. Seven days later you and your shipmates land safely on an isolated, rugged piece of rock and ice. It is Elephant Island, the easternmost of the South Shetlands. Your first view and your landing place is Cape Valentine, the easternmost point of Elephant Island. It has been sixteen months since your feet last touched land. You are cold, tired, sore, and hungry. You will spend four more long months living under two overturned boats, while Shackleton, The Boss, makes his incredible open boat journey to South Georgia Island and walks across South Georgia to the whaling station at Stromness. He attempts to organize your rescue. On his fourth attempt he succeeds in the Chilean tug Yelcho. You and all of your shipmates have survived. It is an epic tale of survival, leadership, and the human spirit.
Imagine yourself a member of the British Imperial Transantarctic Expedition, under the command of Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. You left London on 1 August, 1914, just as war was breaking out. Your mission was to travel deep into the Weddell Sea and drop off a party that would march to the South Pole and continue across the Antarctic continent to the Ross Sea, where food depots and rescue would be waiting. You sailed to Buenos Aires, then to South Georgia Island. The whalers on South Georgia warned you of severe ice in the Weddell Sea, but you pushed on. They were right. On January 18, 1915 your ship, Endurance, is caught in the ice. Helplessly, you and the imprisoned ship drift with the ice. On October 27 the ship is hopelessly crushed and you take to the ice. You attempt to drag the ship’s three boats over the ice to open water. The attempt fails. Passively, you drift northward with the ice, 1200 miles. Finally, on April 9, 1916 the ice breaks up and you take to the boats. Seven days later you and your shipmates land safely on an isolated, rugged piece of rock and ice. It is Elephant Island, the easternmost of the South Shetlands. Your first view and your landing place is Cape Valentine, the easternmost point of Elephant Island. It has been sixteen months since your feet last touched land. You are cold, tired, sore, and hungry. You will spend four more long months living under two overturned boats, while Shackleton, The Boss, makes his incredible open boat journey to South Georgia Island and walks across South Georgia to the whaling station at Stromness. He attempts to organize your rescue. On his fourth attempt he succeeds in the Chilean tug Yelcho. You and all of your shipmates have survived. It is an epic tale of survival, leadership, and the human spirit.
