Basic Information:
Author:
Alfred Lansing
Edition:
ePub on Overdrive from the Fresno County Public Library
Publisher:
Carroll & Graf Publishers
ISBN:
078670621X (ISBN13: 9780786706211)
Start
Date: June 14, 2019
Read
Date: June 23, 2019
282
pages
Genre: History, Biography, Science
Language
Warning: None
Rated
Overall 5 out of 5
History:
5 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
Lansing
starts with the destruction of the ship, the Endurance.
He then takes you through the chronology of the expedition. This
includes who Shackleton was and his need for continued fame. Lansing
talks about the fundraising and the planning. The plan was pretty
good. He and a small group of men would start from Weddell Bay and
travel across the continent. Another group could start from the
opposite side of Antarctica, leaving food and supply caches along the
way. After a couple of years and a buying spree, including purchasing
the ship, the Endurance-it
was renamed, the expedition begins.
They
make for the Weddell Sea. Shackleton had talked with whalers about
the situation they had found here. But he decided to chance it and
see if he could make his way through the ice fields of the sea.
Shortly
after arriving in the Weddell Sea, the sea iced up, locking the
Endurance
into its grip. After awhile, the pressure-when water freezes, it
expands, causing ice to buckle and/or crush whatever is in its path,
starts to cause problems for the ship. For close to a month, the
Endurance
stood against the pressure, but after a while, the pressure was too
great and it was destroyed. Shackleton had his men leave the ship
with as much of the supplies they could muster before the ship sank.
They had enough to keep them going.
Now
they survive on an ice floe in tents with their dogs. This goes on
for all winter. When the Southern hemisphere’s Spring and Summer
comes, they start looking for openings in the water. But then their
ice floe starts to shrink and split. There are many instances where
men were in danger of falling into the water when the ice cracked.
Finally open water comes to them and they are able to escape.
But
the escape to open water has its own peril. High seas, gale force
winds, and air and water cold enough to give you frostbite. They
have launched all three of their boats and the trick is to keep
together. Somehow they are able to, even when storms drive them miles
in one direction, then another one. But through their navigational
abilities, and knowledge of the weather and geography they finally
end up on an island.
Not
sure that the island is any safer. There is a narrow beach with a
glacier just above them. High winds can drive rocks air-bourne which
will damage a man. Plus there is no hope of rescue here. Shackleton
makes a decision-he and five others will set out for an inhabited
island. If they reach it, they will send back rescue ships.
This
group goes through some truly terrifying seas-90’ waves to start
with. And of course the usual storms and winds. They finally make the
island-but the wrong side of the island from where the towns are. So
Shackleton and two others set out to cross the island-which has only
been crossed once since then. They make it, but not without
super-human effort and some experiences which you will have to read
to believe.
They
find the village and explain who they are-some of the whalers in the
village know who Shackleton is. They send out rescue boats and find
the parties left behind. Shackleton starts out with 28 men in his
expedition. He brings back the same 28. Most are in fairly decent
physical health.
Cast of Characters:
Twenty-eight
people were on board the Endurance. Look at Part I, Chapter 5 for
paragraphs on each person.
-
Ernest Shackleton-expedition leader
-
Bakewell-seaman
-
Walter How
-
Thomas McLeod
-
Perce Blackboro-stowaway. Quiet but quick-witted
-
Earnest Holmes-fireman
-
Frank Wild-Second in Command
-
Worsley-third in command
-
Bobbie Clark-biologist. Scot, dour, hardworking
-
Tom Crean-sailorman, tall, knew the sea
-
Charlie Green-cook
-
Hudson-navigator
-
Leonard Hussey-meteorologist, practical joker
-
McIllroy-surgeon
-
George Marston-artist
-
John Vincent-young, bully
-
Orde-Lees-Storeskeeper
-
Frank Hurley-photographer
-
McNeish
-
Greenstreet
Expectations:
- Recommendation: (Referenced) Scott Kelly in his book, Endurance
- When: May 2019
- Date Became Aware of Book: Unknown, well before Scott Kelly’s book
- How come do I want to read this book: Scott Kelly referenced this book many times in his book Endurance. He tries to draw some parallels with his own experience. He acknowledges that Shackleton’s experience was much more dangerous.
- What do I think I will get out of it? I enjoy the outdoors. There is something to be learned by looking at other’s experiences.
Thoughts:
The
book is based upon diaries, articles, and interviews with expedition
members. Remember, the book was written in the late 1950’s, about
40 years after the expedition.
The
purpose of the expedition was to cross the Antarctic continent. To
this end, he had planned out what he would need. He would take a
small contingency of men and start at one place. Another group of men
would lay supplies at the other end so that he would not carry
everything with him. Sounds like a good plan to me. Apparently
planning works only so far. Then one must work to figure out
alternatives.
I
am pretty confident that if I was one of Shackleton’s men that I
probably would not have survived.
Today,
whalers are a pariah. But to Shackleton, they were a source of
information. Also they were his salvation at the end of his journey.
Was
Shackleton right in risking his men’s lives when he knew of the
danger which he was warned about? On the other hand, these men had
signed up for this adventure, knowing that there was danger. How much
risk does this allow Shackleton to make?
Shackleton
made the decision at least three times that some of the dogs had to
be killed. This was to preserve the scarcity of their rations. The
last time was before they were going to launch their boats-the boats
could barely hold the men, let alone the dogs. I do not know if I
could have killed the dogs. Which probably means I was not a good
candidate for being on the expedition.
Introduction
Alfred
Lansing was inspired by the fictional novel, Delilah.
Delilah
is about a ship pre-WW I protecting the United States interests in
the Philippines.
For
an author, posterity is the toughest of proving grounds. Only a
handful of books are so firmly connected to the timeless
underpinnings of life that they survive into the future. Nathaniel Philbrick
Part
I, Chapter 2
Two
parts to who Shackleton was: …
it was typical of Shackleton--purposeful, bold, and ___. He had not
the slightest doubt that the expedition would achieve its goal.
And then ..if
it hadn’t been audacious, it wouldn’t have been to Shackleton’s
liking.
It is the confidence of the man which enables his goals to be
achieved, even when the original goals fail. But it is the lack of
planning for failure which almost dooms him. It is the confidence
which inspires him and his men to survive. Later on Lansing said that
he
had one pervading characteristic: he was purposeful.
Lansing
goes on and said that the basic purpose of the expedition was to
further the glory of Ernest Shackleton. It is said that a man as
great as Shackleton was could not do things for something greater
than himself. As Patton noted, glory
is fleeting.
Once you die, what good is glory?
A
tribute which Lansing quotes notes that Scott was better in science,
Amundsen for speed, but
when there seems no way out, get down on your knees and pray for
Shackleton.
Part
I, Chapter 3
Interesting
reaction by Shackleton on finding out that he has a stowaway on
board. He chews them out. Then ends the chewing out by saying
Finally,
if we run out of food, and anyone has to be eaten, you will be first,
do you understand?
The stowaway realizes at this point he has been accepted as a crew
member.
Ice
was the enemy. It would be the fight of life and death.
Great
description of an iceberg. Until this book, I had a very fuzzy
picture of an iceberg. More of a mound of hard snow. But now this is
something as big and hard as a rock which floats.
Part
II, Chapter 1
Shackeleton
had his people well prepared and trained. When an emergency came,
people knew what to do and did it.
Part
II, Chapter 2
They
were without hope. No ship would be sent to find them, let alone a
helicopter. Yet, the men seemed to adapt well, even cheerful. They
knew their situation and had adapted to living in it.
Part
II, Chapter 3
They
even had informal groups, whether it was signing with a banjo or
readings from their limited supply of books. Some of it was because
of the confidence that this situation was only temporary.
Part
II, Chapter 4
It
seemed like many men on that expedition had more than one skill.
Part
II, Chapter 5
Lansing’s
observation is that as they progressed through their hardship, they
started to know themselves better. This lead to a contentment to
accept what they were dealing with. Not a contentment which said we
can do nothing, but one where they knew they were doing the
impossible and making things, such as their survival, possible.
Some
of it is that Shackleton had made sure each person had a task which
lead to a sense of well-being.
Shackleton
knew that of the enemies which included snow, ice, cold, the sea, and
the wind, the biggest enemy was demoralization and discontentment.
Seemed like Shackelton was a strong leader, but also was one which
would listen to his men and change if the argument was good enough.
Part
III, Chapter 1
Not
all the time was Shackelton doing the right thing. Such as he thought
they would be getting out of their predicament a lot sooner, so there
was no need to lay in seal meat for a longer stay-it would just slow
them down. Instead, they would come to want that meat later on.
Lansing notes that Shackleton
was not an ordinary individual. He was a man who believed completely
in his own invincibility, and to whom defeat was a reflection of
personal inadequacy.
In other words, he thought that he could overcome any obstacle and do
it in his terms. This self-image of invincibility has caused many an
outdoors person to die.
The
men had become attached to their dogs. So they no longer looked at
them as tools. So with food running out, Shackleton had decided they
needed to be killed. They had become devoted to the men. But there
was also a question of survival for all. The dogs would have starved
to death.
Part
V, Chapter 2
Sometimes
survival does not depend on you. It depends on forces outside of you.
Such as in the expedition’s case, they needed open water to launch
their boats. They could see it, but not get to it. Their job was to
be prepared for that chance. But in the end, once prepared they could
only wait.
Part
V, Chapter 3
When
they got to open water, they now needed to make towards land. After
four nights, Shackleton could only read in the men’s faces how much
more of the cold, the water, these men could take. In the end, their
fate was left to God, the controller of the forces of wind, cold and
storm.
Part
V, Chapter 5
Over
time, there was a sense that each was equal. They had suffered
equally and felt they could argue their cases the same as anybody
else. The sense of unity did depend somewhat on the weather. On
beautiful days, this might be the best place in the world to be
stranded. On the days when the wind blue cold and a storm roared
through, their sense of community suffered.
Part
V, Chapter 6
Optimism
it is, and if not overdone, it is a fine thing.
Wrote by Orde-Lees
When
would rescue occur? The person who was left in charge tried to make
the date as far away as possible so that the men would not get
dispirited.
Part
V, Chapter 6
There
is a section in this chapter which has got to be a classic. I hope I
do not get into trouble, but I would like to quote two paragraphs of
this chapter:
The
truth was that he [Shackleton]
felt rather out of his element. He had proved himself on land. He had
demonstrated there beyond all doubt his ability to pit his matchless
tenacity against the elements--and win. But the sea is a different
sort of enemy. Unlike land, where courage and the simple will to
endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is
an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle
against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most
that he can hope for is not to be defeated.
It
gave Shackleton a feeling of uneasiness. He now faced an adversary so
formidable that his own strength was nothing in comparison., and he
did not enjoy being in a position where boldness and determination
count for almost nothing, and in which victory is measured only in
survival.
Part
VI, Chapter 2
Lansing
describes a mountain of water rising above them and then somehow not
having the water crash on them. And then this happened not once more,
but every 90 seconds or so, thousands of times each day. How could
men live with this happening? Lansings says that after a while, it
was just in the background, it
lost all elements of awesomeness and they found it routine and
commonplace instead.
Sort of like beauty which we become accustomed to so we discount it.
Life
was reckoned in periods of a few hours, or possibly only a few
minutes-an endless succession of trials leading to deliverance from
the particular hell of the moment.
Very potent statement.
Part
VII, Chapter 2
Amazing
the mountaineering they did on the final leg of their journey to
reach a place where rescue was possible. The sound of their return to
civilization? A factory whistle!! A
peculiar thing to stir a man--the sound of a factory whistle heard on
a mountainside.
Evaluation:
Wow!
Written in 1959 from diaries and accounts in 1915/1916, Alfred
Lansing makes the Shackleton expedition’s Antarctic adventure come
alive! From the self-confidence of Shackleton setting forth on
crossing the seventh continent, to being trapped by an ice pack and
eventually having it crush his ship, to surviving on an ice flow, to
being in three small boats heading towards a small island, and then
setting out to find an inhabited island.
This
is a book to read even if you are not an outdoors person. You
understand what people can do when heroic situations are called for.
Also why having a group who will live and cooperate is so important
to survival.
As
I reread my review, I realize that occasionally my review is better
than the book. This is not one of those times. The book far exceeds
my words.
Notes from my book group:
Would
you have survived the situations these mean found? Why did they
survive them? What influence does the unity which they felt versus
the type of people they were?
Today
whalers are looked upon a destroyers of ocean life. But in the time
this book portrayed, there was not that stigma. How can we tell today
what occupation will be viewed as evil?
How
does hardship mold the people of this expedition? How does it mold a
person?
Was
Shackleton right in risking his men’s lives when he knew of the
danger which he was warned about? On the other hand, these men had
signed up for this adventure, knowing that there was danger. How much
risk does this allow Shackleton to make?
Shackleton
ordered that the dogs be killed. Why? Did he have alternatives? Would
you have killed the dogs? If not how would you have survived? If you
would release them, how would these dogs have lived?
Adventure
has a connotation of increased risk. Should a person place
themselves, and probably others, into more danger without necessity?
When there is a need to rescue a person, at what cost? Should those
who place themselves in danger be rescued?
The
people of this expedition survived through their own skill and
fortitude. What outside forces could have overcome these qualities?
To what degree are we all reliant on what is called “good fortune”?
What is required of a person to receive good fortune?
Many
of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
-
Why the title of Endurance?
-
Does this story work as an adventure story?
-
Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
-
Character:
-
Which character did you identify with?
-
Which one did you dislike?
-
-
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
-
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
-
Was there anybody you would consider religious?
-
How did they show it?
-
Was the book overtly religious?
-
How did it affect the books story?
-
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Why do you think the author wrote this book?
-
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
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What “take aways” did you have from this book?
-
What central ideas does the author present?
-
Are they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual, medical, or scientific
-
-
Describe the culture talked about in the book.
-
How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
-
-
How did this book affect your view of the world?
-
Of how God is viewed?
-
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
-
-
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
-
What was memorable?
-
New Words:
-
Percheron (I, 2): a breed of draft horse that originated in the Huisne river valley in western France, part of the former Perche province from which the breed takes its name. They were originally bred for use as war horses. Over time, they began to be used for pulling stagecoaches and later for agriculture and hauling heavy goods.
-
Barkentine (I,2): a sailing ship similar to a bark but square-rigged only on the foremast
-
Forecastle (I,3): the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters.
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Hummocky (I,4):a small knoll or mound above ground. They are typically less than 15 meters in height and tend to appear in groups or fields. It is difficult to make generalizations about hummocks because of the diversity in their morphology and sedimentology. An extremely irregular surface may be called hummocky
-
Timorously (III,2): showing or suffering from nervousness, fear, or a lack of confidence
-
Amenomania (III, 2): a disused psychiatric diagnosis that originally designated patients with delusional disorders which do not paralyse them, but who may have fixed bizarre delusions. [Lansing says that it means windmadness].
-
Bergschrund (VI,2): a crevasse that forms where moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice or firn above. It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineers, who sometimes abbreviate "bergschrund" to "schrund". Lansing says that it is cut by wind.
-
Delilah by Marcus Goodrich
-
South by Earnest Shackleton
-
The Perfect Storm by Sebastin Junger
-
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
-
Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer by Margot Morrel
-
Science from an Easy Chair by Edwin Ray Lankester
-
Marmion by Sir Walter Scott
-
Sailing Directions for Antarctica by the US Navy
-
Morte d’Arthur by Alfred Tennyson
-
Penny Cookbook by Prudence Penny
-
The Nautical Almanac
-
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Good Quotes:
-
First Line: The story that follows is true.
-
Last Line: I could still see my Burberry [jacket] flapping in the breeze on the hillside--no doubt it will flap there to the wonderment of gulls and penguins till one of our familiar [gales] blows it all to ribbons.
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For an author, posterity is the toughest of proving grounds. Only a handful of books are so firmly connected to the timeless underpinnings of life that they survive into the future. Introduction by Nataniel Philbrick
-
Optimism it is, and if not overdone, it is a fine thing. Wrote by Orde-Lees. Part V, Chapter 6
References:
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Publisher's Web Site for Book
-
Author's Web Site
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Wikipedia-Book
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Wikipedia-Author
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Amazon-Book
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Amazon-Author
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GoodReads-Book
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GoodReads-Author
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NOVA on the Shackleton expedition
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Cool Antarctica site
APNews - New book on finding the Endurance: Review: The hunt for Shackleton’s ’Ship Beneath the Ice’
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