As Pelagic crosses the Drake Passage to reach the start point at Elephant Island for the South-Aris voyage to South Georgia, the early rough and tumble of the trip is of little significance compared to the hardships and twists of fortune endured by Shackleton and his crew to reach the same point.

Shackleton's intention for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was to make the first crossing of the continent from the Weddell Sea coast to McMurdo Sound. Endurance was to carry the Weddell Sea party. The vessel Aurora was to deliver a reception party to McMurdo, from where they were to lay depots towards the Beardmore Glacier.

Endurance sailed from London on the 1st of August 1914 and proceeded to Buenos Aries where Shackleton joined her, having stayed behind in England to attend to some last minute fund raising and administration. Shackleton's arrival brought coherence to the crew who had become fractious in the the absence of his leadership. The expedition departed Buenos Aries on 26 October 1914 and after final preparations in South Georgia sailed for the Wedell Sea on 5 December.

It was a spectacularly bad year for ice and Endurance entered the pack unexpectedly early on 11 December 1914. Shackleton began probing south to find a suitable landing point from which to begin his intended crossing of Antarctica. On the other side of the continent, at McMurdo Sound, the support party on the vessel Aurora were establishing themselves at Scott's old base camp in the shadow of Mount Erebus.

Having failed to find a suitable landing point from which to begin the expedition, the Endurance became stuck fast in the ice on 18th January 1915.

After 9 months and drifting 600 miles, Endurance was crushed by a pressure ridge and sank on 21 November 1915. The 28 crew established a camp on the ice with stockpiled supplies and Endurance's 3 lifeboats. After abortive attempts to sledge and drag the boats towards land, Shackleton settled the party in what became known as Patience Camp. Drifting on the ice for a further 5 months brought the party to the edge of the pack. Here unstable icebergs, and ice floes breaking up and compacting in the wind, caused many anxious moments until the party finally took to the boats permanently to sail to Elephant Island which they reached after 4 days on the 13th April 1916.

Skip Novak