Note: I did not draw this or take this but it is one of Frank Hurley's photos that I scanned from the book.
I finished an interesting book called "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World". It was a true story.
It was 1914. WWI was starting in the heart of Europe, but the drama isn't there, it's at the bottom of the world. It takes place in Antarctica.
So there was a man named Ernest Shackleton. He was in London and was planning to be the first to cross the Antarctic. He finally picked his men and left for the Antarctic aboard his ship Endurance (an Australian ship named Auroa was to be a rescue ship at the other end of Antarctica).
They sailed south to South Georgia island and stopped at Grtviyken whaling station for a few supplies and went on. As they were on their way, their ship got stuck in the pack ice just 25 miles away from the coast of Antarctica. They had to just wait for the ice to break up and let them free. Instead of breaking up, the ice actually tried to destroy them. Their ship creaked and groaned and finally broke down (see the picture).
They started marching on the ice floes (with their lifeboats) and headed north. They made camps on the ice and gave them names like Dump Camp, or Camp Patience. They finally got to the edge of the ice and sailed to Elephant Island. Life in their lifeboats, the James Caird , the Dudley Docker , and the Stancomb Wills , however was very uncomfortable and their stowaway , Percy Blackboro had lost all the feeling in his feet. When they did get to Elephant island Shackleton picked a few men and set off in the James Caird towards South Georgia island. They got to South Georgia island but they had to trek across unexplored mountains to get to Grtviyken. They encountered a terrible slide down the mountains, a frozen waterfall, and bitter cold on their trek. When they did get to Grtviyken they got a rescue ship and saved the rest of the crew back at Elephant island.
I think this is amazing because they encountered so many obstacles and lost no men.
