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From my first voyage with my brother in Akaroa, New Zealand,
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I knew I would spend my life on the ocean.
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Growing up as a colonial boy
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the freedom I enjoyed instilled in me a love of adventure that was to shape my destiny.
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I am fortunate to have lived in a golden age of exploration
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and doubly blessed to have played a part in one of the greatest expeditions of that time.
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It’s been said that early explorers were perhaps the astronauts of their day.
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And for people like captain Frank Worsley,
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his whole life was adventure
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and Antarctica was the last frontier.
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We set out to explore a continent but we became trapped by the ice.
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In today’s standards it’s like being on a space station, cut loose.
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And they thought, you know, there’s just no way of salvation.
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They had stepped off the planet.
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For nearly two years, we struggled to find the courage to survive in one of the cruellest places on earth.
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It’s a position that explorers often get into.
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Some how they have to find a reason for existence and a reason for carrying on.
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Through out our journey the hardships we suffered taught us,
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it takes more strength to live than to die.
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Lord and Lady Heyward,
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Ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured to have been asked to speak with you
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this evening.
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My story begins in London.
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It was 1914.
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I had been a sailor all my life and had Captained many ships.
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One night I dreamt I was navigating between icebergs down a city street.
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The dream was extremely vivid
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I recognized I was in Burlington Street.
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When I awoke I went there immediately and
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stumbled upon the headquarters of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
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where I met the great Explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton
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who was hiring men to join him.
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Shackleton had been twice to Antarctica before.
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He’d got within a whisker of the south pole in 1909.
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When he came back, he was knighted.
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He was a big celebrity.
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Hugely ambitious.
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Huge ego.
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A great buccaneering adventurer.
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When Shackleton hired men,
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he did it completely with a gut instinct.
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Worsley was so full of exuberance and enthusiasm for things.
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And I think Shackleton would recognise that
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as something that would give a phenomenal amount of lift to an expedition.
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And he had a very good background as a captain.
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He had had by then 25 years experience at sea.
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He had sailed most of the major oceans
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Shackleton hired Frank Worsley then and there as the captain of the ship.
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Sir Ernest’s plan was to set off from Argentina,
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collect supplies from a whaling station on South Georgia,
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and then sail on to the Antarctic coast.
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From there a team of six men
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would attempt to be the first to traverse Antarctica by way of the pole.
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Another ship would land on the Ross Sea side of the continent
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leaving provisions for the second half of the trek.
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The early 20th century, Antarctica was the next great frontier.
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It was just a huge unknown land just waiting to be explored.
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Amundsen had got to the south pole in 1911.
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Scott had got there in 1912 and died.
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So crossing the Antarctic was the last great challenge in the last place on earth.
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Every time I give this talk I’m struck by the irony
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that while I’ve commanded many ships
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I seem destined to be remembered for the one I lost.
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Her name was Endurance.
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And I don’t believe I shall ever sail a pluckier vessel.
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On October 26th, 1914 we set off from Buenos Aires.
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On board was Australian photographer and filmmaker Frank Hurley.
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Whose wonderful images both still and moving
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make it possible for me to share my story with you.
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Worsley was a good lecturer.
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He went on tours.
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The popular press loved him.
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He was a natural on the circuit.
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He had an agent.
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Shackleton was there at the top.
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Untouchable. Um, the great man.
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But he didn’t have the common touch that Frank Worsley had.
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And this was a good story.
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Shackleton knew that films would be absolutely key
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to selling the adventure that he was planning.
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It was just as it is these days.
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Sponsorship was key to being able to put anything together.
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And having a film, especially in those days when film was fairly new –
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was extremely important.
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Shackleton was a very early version of today’s PR man.
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He made sure that when you signed up for the expedition,
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you signed over the rights to your diaries and journals.
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He made sure that it was always the Shackleton expedition.
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Like many great leaders,
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Shackleton seems to have had an ability
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to gather around him a group of people who provided
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all the talents that he might not necessarily have had himself.
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And always with himself,
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Shackleton is the reflection of all those talents.
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The focus of attention.
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Of the 5000 men who applied,
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Of the 5000 men who applied,
Shackleton hired 26 to crew the expedition.
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Shackleton hired 26 to crew the expedition.
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There was also one stowaway,
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two pigs and 69 Canadian sled dogs.
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Even a hardened man like first officer Frank Wild
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enjoyed the company of our four legged shipmates.
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It took eleven days to sail
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from Buenos Aires to a Norwegian whaling station on South Georgia.
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It was a harsh place where the smell of blood and blubber permeated the air.
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The two tons of whale meat we purchased
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would help sustain both man and dog in the months to come.
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It was early summer but much colder than usual.
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When they got to South Georgia.
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The Norwegians warned Shackleton that the ice conditions
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to the south were worse than they’ve ever seen.
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And they advised him strongly not to go.
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Despite the whaler’s advice
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a determined Sir Ernest gave the order to set sail on December 5, 1914.
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At first it seemed as though the whalers’ warnings had been unfounded.
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For three days the conditions were favourable and we made good progress.
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Then, a thousand miles further North than expected we encountered the enemy…
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pack ice.
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By any rational analysis the decision
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to push on into the Weddell Sea was ludicrous.
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All the signs were against it.
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The Norwegian whalers on South Georgia told them before they set off.
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It’s crazy. You’re not going to get through.
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Worsley on several occasions spoke to Shackleton about the conditions of the ice
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and that he thought that it wasn’t going to get any better.
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But Shackleton elected to continue.
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You have to put into context where Shackleton was coming from.
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He was desperate to get away.
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He was openly having an affair with an American actress
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and so life at home can’t have been too rosy.
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And his brother,
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Frank Shackleton was implicated in a fraud
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so the shit was hitting the fan as far as Shackleton was concerned at home.
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And also it would have been a crushing blow to his ego to turn around and go back.
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And so against all common sense,
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he somehow persuaded his captain Worsley to push on regardless into the ice.
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Hurley captured our progress from all manner of precarious perches.
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More than once he used colourful Australian language
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to accuse me of trying to throw him into the frozen sea.
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We were travelling through a city of ice.
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Some of the bergs were miles wide,
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and loomed like white castles.
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Negotiating a route through pack was taking its toll
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and we began to fall well behind schedule.
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The continental crossing could only be achieved in the Antarctic summer.
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But rather than making landfall at the first opportunity
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the Boss wanted to push as far South as he could to shorten the trek.
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Then just 60 miles from our destination progress halted altogether.
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Shackleton didn’t take the opportunity of going to a relatively close point on the coast that they could see.
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Ah, he kept going.
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And Frank Worsley of course, he didn’t have much say in the matter
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in terms of the ambitious nature of Shackleton’s dream to cross the continent.
And Frank Worsley of course, he didn’t have much say in the matter
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in terms of the ambitious nature of Shackleton’s dream to cross the continent.
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So he was driven forward
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So he was driven forward
and that sealed the fate of the Endurance.
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and that sealed the fate of the Endurance.
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Worsley was the captain of the ship. But Shackleton was the leader of the expedition
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Worsley was the captain of the ship. But Shackleton was the leader of the expedition
and what the boss said, the boss got.
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and what the boss said, the boss got.
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The ice closed in around the Endurance.
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It was the height of summer
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but we could see no water in any direction.
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Worsley never ever criticises Shackleton for basically getting them into this terrible predicament.
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Worsley never ever criticises Shackleton for basically getting them into this terrible predicament.
He seemed to have had a willingness to present things in a positive light.
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He seemed to have had a willingness to present things in a positive light.
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I could not dwell on the gravity of our situation.
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My logbook entry reads simply,
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“We therefore lie to for awhile,
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to see if the Pack will open at all
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or when this North Easterly wind ceases.”
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…but it did not open.
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We were tantalisingly close to our destination
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but as our storekeeper put it,
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we were stuck “like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar”.
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They thought it was just a temporary hold up.
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May be having to winter over it meant that expedition was going to put, be well behind time.
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But Shackleton of course never actually admitted just how serious the situation was.
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A month later open water was spotted in the distance
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and a Herculean effort was made to free the ship.
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For two days we dug and chipped away at the ice
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For two days we dug and chipped away at the ice
in the hope of reaching the lane of water before it closed.
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in the hope of reaching the lane of water before it closed.
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I then drove into the pack with full engines.
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But the ice was too thick to penetrate and
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and we were forced to abandon this last desperate bid for freedom.
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Finally the ice just completely glued around them and
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really it’s a case of waiting for the next year,
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summer to come and the ice to move north
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summer to come and the ice to move north
and break up and then release the tension in the pack.
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and break up and then release the tension in the pack.
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But in the meantime there was nowhere to go. They would have to stay as they were.
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It’s a total trap.
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Sir Ernest and first officer Frank Wild
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confirmed what most of us already knew,
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any hope of crossing the Antarctic Continent was gone.
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Shackleton’s focus was now on our survival.
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He wanted to save everybody.
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It was important to him personally that he bought his men home.
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Close behind that would be his desire to get Frank Hurley’s pictures home as well.
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Shackleton needed those films because Shackleton needed money.
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The expedition was put together in bit of a hurry like most things Shackleton did.
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And it was a very, very ambitious project.
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These fellows were going to walk 1800 miles across mostly unchartered territory.
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Um and my own view is that ah,
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they would have all died if they had actually landed. They would have almost certainly would have perished.
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I was now Captain of a floating hotel
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we affectionately christened The Ritz…
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though I can assure you there were few similarities to the London establishment of the same name.
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We would settle in for the winter
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and sail home in the spring.
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We threw ourselves into the tasks required to sustain life on the ice,
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We threw ourselves into the tasks required to sustain life on the ice,
everyone pitching in regardless of rank.
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everyone pitching in regardless of rank.
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We collected snow for drinking and bathing.
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We hunted seal and penguin,
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and toiled to keep Endurance clean.
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Life was busy and even comfortable.
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Our situation was desperate,
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but we all put on a brave front
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and pretended otherwise.
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There were many diversions,
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we listened to grama-phone records,
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played games and held debates
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about the books we were reading.
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And Hurley gave a few lantern talks a little like this one.
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Every Saturday night we toasted our sweethearts and wives,
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and tried to convince ourselves we would soon return to them.
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Shackleton knew the need to keep men busy.
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Insanity wasn’t by any means unknown on a ship.
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You have very little room to escape.
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And um it’s quite common in those days
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to take a lot of women's frocks and things down.
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Just to put on plays and so on.
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It seemed to be regarded as pretty essential to keep moral up.
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Feeding 28 men from limited stores is no small task
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and though he was the victim of merciless ribbing,
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our cook, whom we affectionately called Doughballs…
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did a magnificent job.
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He baked a dozen loaves of bread a day,
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He baked a dozen loaves of bread a day,
and thankfully he developed a talent for preparing penguin.
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and thankfully he developed a talent for preparing penguin.
243
00:20:57,228 --> 00:21:00,771
Shackleton immediately realised that scurvy would be one of the
244
00:21:00,771 --> 00:21:09,142
major problems for them so they went to great efforts to kill penguins and seals where ever they possibly could find them.
245
00:21:10,142 --> 00:21:17,400
There is not an awful lot of vitamin C in meat but there is certainly some so that is what saved them from having scurvy.
246
00:21:22,142 --> 00:21:26,400
And let us not forget an Englishman’s best friend, the dog.
247
00:21:26,571 --> 00:21:30,085
Our canine crewmates became true companions.
248
00:21:33,457 --> 00:21:38,971
The dogs must have been such great companions and that would have helped them enormously.
249
00:21:39,342 --> 00:21:42,085
They were exercising them and
250
00:21:42,085 --> 00:21:44,542
the dogs were everything for them.
251
00:21:44,542 --> 00:21:47,914
Much more than they were working dogs. They were their pets.
252
00:21:50,685 --> 00:21:55,314
We gave them names like Samson, Nelson and Smiler.
253
00:21:55,771 --> 00:21:59,142
In this cold, barren place they provided us
254
00:21:59,142 --> 00:22:02,857
with an opportunity to express love and affection.
255
00:22:14,057 --> 00:22:18,971
But as the months passed it became more difficult to keep spirits up.
256
00:22:20,457 --> 00:22:25,000
There is no desolation more complete than the polar night,
257
00:22:25,657 --> 00:22:28,628
24 hours of darkness.
258
00:22:29,685 --> 00:22:32,514
Life without the sun is soul destroying,
259
00:22:32,514 --> 00:22:35,742
and it made our incarceration nearly unbearable.
260
00:22:47,942 --> 00:22:53,028
Sometimes cheering up the crew required drastic action.
261
00:23:00,857 --> 00:23:05,800
An ice bath at 29 degrees below freezing may not have been pleasant,
262
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,571
but it provided an entertaining distraction.
263
00:23:11,085 --> 00:23:13,828
When you had a naked snow bath,
264
00:23:13,828 --> 00:23:18,514
the carpenter, Harry McNish recorded in his diary,
265
00:23:18,514 --> 00:23:20,971
the poor old skipper’s gone mad.
266
00:23:21,657 --> 00:23:24,428
Worsley played many roles.
267
00:23:27,142 --> 00:23:31,085
I’m not sure that Frank Worsley ever totally grew up.
268
00:23:31,085 --> 00:23:34,285
The enthusiasms of youth stayed with him.
269
00:23:34,485 --> 00:23:37,371
I think the word laricken always comes to mind.
270
00:23:37,914 --> 00:23:41,085
All of these characteristics really came to the fore
271
00:23:41,085 --> 00:23:42,800
as the chips got down.
272
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:47,200
I’m not sure what it says about my character but from my logbook entry of the time,
273
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,342
it seems I was finding the situation rather jolly.
274
00:23:50,942 --> 00:23:56,450
“While looking ahead and planning to meet all possible dangers, I live comfortably and happy,
275
00:23:56,450 --> 00:23:56,457
“While looking ahead and planning to meet all possible dangers, I live comfortably and happy,
and can truly say that at present
276
00:23:56,457 --> 00:23:58,450
and can truly say that at present
277
00:23:58,450 --> 00:24:02,114
I am enjoying myself far more than in civilisation”.
278
00:24:05,342 --> 00:24:07,342
Despite being trapped
279
00:24:07,342 --> 00:24:10,228
I took solace in the fact we were moving.
280
00:24:11,828 --> 00:24:14,457
The currents were forcing the pack ice North
281
00:24:14,457 --> 00:24:16,457
carrying the Endurance with it.
282
00:24:21,228 --> 00:24:27,828
The Weddell sea has what they call a gyre and that is a current that rotates clockwise.
283
00:24:28,740 --> 00:24:35,110
And measuring that gyre was something that captain Worsley was doing all the time, even though the ship was in the ice,
284
00:24:35,110 --> 00:24:39,428
he was navigating and keeping a record of where she was.
285
00:24:40,514 --> 00:24:46,742
Well, these ice flows are so large and yet they are still moving in this, in this gyre.
286
00:24:46,942 --> 00:24:50,057
They’re rafting up on top of each other at times.
287
00:24:50,714 --> 00:24:53,228
Pressure just builds and builds and builds.
288
00:24:59,371 --> 00:25:03,771
They spent months hacking away at the ice and trying to keep the ship clear.
289
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,771
There are those who describe optimism as a kind of madness.
290
00:25:12,114 --> 00:25:16,971
If that is the case, then I was most certainly lunatic,
291
00:25:17,714 --> 00:25:23,714
because at no stage had I considered the possibility that I may lose my ship.
292
00:25:29,828 --> 00:25:32,742
But six months after our stranding,
293
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:38,200
the Boss and Wilde informed me I must face the horrible likelihood
294
00:25:38,485 --> 00:25:41,142
that Endurance was doomed.
295
00:25:46,857 --> 00:25:49,828
My ship was being strangled
296
00:25:49,828 --> 00:25:52,257
and I could do nothing to save her.
297
00:26:09,657 --> 00:26:12,942
The weight behind these ice flows was just immense.
298
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:17,057
The grip just got too strong of course and gradually started tilting the ship
299
00:26:17,057 --> 00:26:20,142
and being a wooden ship it eventually started crushing it of course.
300
00:26:28,685 --> 00:26:32,514
They could split apart at any time so really, really scary.
301
00:26:42,628 --> 00:26:47,057
I had to accept Endurance was mortally wounded.
302
00:26:50,885 --> 00:26:56,057
I think he would have struggled hugely knowing that he was going to lose it.
303
00:26:56,057 --> 00:27:00,971
Not only from the perspective of a captain losing any vessel
304
00:27:00,971 --> 00:27:03,885
but for the situation it was going to put them in.
305
00:27:03,885 --> 00:27:07,540
And I think he was well aware that if they lost the ship,
306
00:27:07,540 --> 00:27:07,542
And I think he was well aware that if they lost the ship,
they were likely to perish.
307
00:27:07,542 --> 00:27:09,800
they were likely to perish.
308
00:27:13,428 --> 00:27:16,971
On October the 27th, 1915.
309
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,228
Almost a year to the day since leaving Buenos Aires
310
00:27:20,857 --> 00:27:22,228
we abandoned ship.
311
00:27:29,457 --> 00:27:32,314
To be suddenly cast out on to the ice with
312
00:27:32,314 --> 00:27:35,200
the security of the ship no longer there
313
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,371
would be a big shock.
314
00:27:37,371 --> 00:27:40,428
It must have been incredibly hard for them.
315
00:27:45,542 --> 00:27:48,828
We were exiled to a frozen wasteland
316
00:27:48,828 --> 00:27:51,000
that could soon become a graveyard.
317
00:27:51,685 --> 00:27:54,457
I overheard one of the men reciting a prayer
318
00:27:54,457 --> 00:27:56,457
while another whispered
319
00:27:56,457 --> 00:27:58,771
“will none of us see our homes again.”
320
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:23,542
Our situation was dire.
321
00:28:23,914 --> 00:28:28,200
We had nothing to keep out the cold save thin linen tent.
322
00:28:38,857 --> 00:28:42,770
That first night we were forced to move camp twice
323
00:28:42,770 --> 00:28:42,771
That first night we were forced to move camp twice
as the unstable ice flow we now lived on continued to shift and crack.
324
00:28:42,771 --> 00:28:48,228
as the unstable ice flow we now lived on continued to shift and crack.
325
00:28:59,371 --> 00:29:00,857
For the first time,
326
00:29:00,857 --> 00:29:03,228
it was possible to imagine
327
00:29:03,228 --> 00:29:05,685
the obstacles before us insurmountable.
328
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:14,142
The icy depths below us seemed to beckon.
329
00:29:23,514 --> 00:29:25,514
Imagine you've got 28 men
330
00:29:25,514 --> 00:29:30,057
on this this crust of ice. This thin crust, maybe two or three feet thick
331
00:29:30,057 --> 00:29:32,600
lying on top of an ocean
332
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,342
five hundred, five thousand feet deep, whatever it is.
333
00:29:35,742 --> 00:29:39,028
But that’s not just a smooth plain of ice.
334
00:29:39,028 --> 00:29:44,685
The ocean currents and waves cause it to buckle and crack and to rear up in great ridges and hammocks.
335
00:29:47,257 --> 00:29:48,885
Just unbelievable.
336
00:29:56,628 --> 00:30:01,142
I was now a Captain, in a frozen ocean, without a ship.
337
00:30:01,628 --> 00:30:05,685
My crew castaways with faint hope of survival
338
00:30:06,257 --> 00:30:09,600
but we could not succumb to despair.
339
00:30:10,371 --> 00:30:13,285
We had to determine a way forward.
340
00:30:14,028 --> 00:30:19,885
I felt we should wait for the flow to move towards open water and then set off in our lifeboats.
341
00:30:20,285 --> 00:30:22,114
Shackleton’s plan, however,
342
00:30:22,428 --> 00:30:24,542
was to march to Paulet Island
343
00:30:24,542 --> 00:30:29,800
which my calculations put at 346 miles away
344
00:30:30,228 --> 00:30:31,914
and where twelve years earlier
345
00:30:31,914 --> 00:30:34,171
a Swedish expedition had built a hut.
346
00:30:38,514 --> 00:30:39,971
Before setting off
347
00:30:39,971 --> 00:30:43,485
we were forced to dispose of anything that might weigh us down,
348
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:46,742
even our most precious belongings.
349
00:30:48,114 --> 00:30:50,628
McNish the carpenter had a cat.
350
00:30:50,628 --> 00:30:52,628
He was actually a male cat
351
00:30:52,628 --> 00:30:55,310
but he was called Mrs Chippy
352
00:30:55,310 --> 00:30:55,314
but he was called Mrs Chippy
and McNish loved this cat very much. And it was also a bit of a mascot
353
00:30:55,314 --> 00:31:01,170
and McNish loved this cat very much. And it was also a bit of a mascot
354
00:31:01,170 --> 00:31:01,171
and McNish loved this cat very much. And it was also a bit of a mascot
for the rest of the men.
355
00:31:01,171 --> 00:31:02,228
for the rest of the men.
356
00:31:02,228 --> 00:31:04,714
And that was the first animal to go
357
00:31:05,028 --> 00:31:11,457
because she couldn’t play any part in the rescue or just another mouth to feed, but
358
00:31:11,742 --> 00:31:14,057
I think there was a lot of resentment.
359
00:31:15,628 --> 00:31:21,085
McNish never forgave Shackleton for issuing the order to kill his cat.
360
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:26,542
The dogs were still a valuable part of the crew
361
00:31:26,542 --> 00:31:29,342
as they negotiated the treacherous terrain.
362
00:31:30,057 --> 00:31:33,057
When we reached open water we would need the lifeboats,
363
00:31:33,057 --> 00:31:37,771
so like the dogs we were also harnessed to sled.
364
00:31:41,228 --> 00:31:45,085
Despite the ruthless culling of our once prized possessions,
365
00:31:45,085 --> 00:31:47,914
each boat weighed more than a ton.
366
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:53,571
It was back breaking work.
367
00:31:53,571 --> 00:31:55,885
They were dragging in through hummocky ice.
368
00:31:55,885 --> 00:31:58,657
They were making maybe one mile a day.
369
00:31:58,657 --> 00:32:01,485
And then frequently they would have gone a mile forward
370
00:32:01,485 --> 00:32:05,480
but the ocean currents might have caused them to drift a mile backwards.
371
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:05,485
but the ocean currents might have caused them to drift a mile backwards.
And it became obvious within a few days that this was achieving nothing
372
00:32:05,485 --> 00:32:10,400
And it became obvious within a few days that this was achieving nothing
373
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:14,285
other than trashing the sledges, trashing the boats.
374
00:32:14,285 --> 00:32:16,285
And trashing the men.
375
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:22,914
Shackleton eventually had to admit to himself, ‘yes, it was a crazy idea.
376
00:32:22,914 --> 00:32:25,685
We’ve just got to basically stay put.
377
00:32:25,971 --> 00:32:29,114
And wait and see where the ocean currents take us.
378
00:32:32,942 --> 00:32:35,457
We established “Ocean Camp”.
379
00:32:35,742 --> 00:32:38,685
A home made miserable by the summer thaw.
380
00:32:40,571 --> 00:32:45,142
The surface of the flow a quagmire of melted snow and rotting ice.
381
00:32:45,657 --> 00:32:48,342
Our belongings constantly sodden.
382
00:32:55,628 --> 00:32:57,885
We were still in view of Endurance,
383
00:32:57,885 --> 00:33:00,257
and over the next two months
384
00:33:00,257 --> 00:33:03,857
we watched as she was slowly crushed by the pack.
385
00:33:31,057 --> 00:33:34,828
We visited her twisted hull on a number of occasions,
386
00:33:34,828 --> 00:33:36,828
pillaging what supplies we could.
387
00:33:41,857 --> 00:33:44,342
These were dangerous excursions
388
00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:46,971
because we knew it would not be long
389
00:33:47,142 --> 00:33:49,885
before she was swallowed by the ice.
390
00:34:22,885 --> 00:34:25,342
It was with great remorse
391
00:34:25,685 --> 00:34:30,285
but a little relief that I finally watched her go.
392
00:34:36,257 --> 00:34:39,200
He must have felt alittle bitter because he probably felt
393
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:43,714
if his advice had been followed they may not have got into that particular situation.
394
00:34:56,057 --> 00:35:01,285
Five weeks later we began our second attempt to cross the ice.
395
00:35:01,942 --> 00:35:04,571
We trekked at night when the ice was crisper.
396
00:35:04,571 --> 00:35:06,885
Once again it was a slow,
397
00:35:07,142 --> 00:35:09,085
soul destroying journey.
398
00:35:09,628 --> 00:35:11,371
And for the first time
399
00:35:11,371 --> 00:35:14,714
some members of the crew questioned Sir Ernest’s command.
400
00:35:17,857 --> 00:35:21,257
There were something like 300 miles to go
401
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,942
and McNish the chippie
402
00:35:24,942 --> 00:35:27,400
and for that matter, captain Worsley
403
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,171
really didn’t think that was a very good idea.
404
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:35,285
The lifeboats, which were going to save them, could not be damaged.
405
00:35:36,371 --> 00:35:38,514
And after about a week of that,
406
00:35:38,914 --> 00:35:41,171
Harry McNish, the carpenter,
407
00:35:41,171 --> 00:35:43,714
the oldest member of the expedition, a wryly old bird
408
00:35:43,714 --> 00:35:46,885
who was always critical of Shackleton’s leadership
409
00:35:47,457 --> 00:35:50,970
basically staged a mutiny and said ‘this is crazy.
410
00:35:50,970 --> 00:35:50,971
basically staged a mutiny and said ‘this is crazy.
We shouldn’t be doing this’.
411
00:35:50,971 --> 00:35:52,257
We shouldn’t be doing this’.
412
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:57,971
And Shackleton brought out his revolver and threatened to shoot McNish if he didn’t do as he was told.
413
00:35:58,942 --> 00:36:02,457
We marched on, and after seven gruelling days
414
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:04,942
we had only covered 10 miles.
415
00:36:05,857 --> 00:36:08,342
I explained to the Boss,
416
00:36:08,342 --> 00:36:11,914
at the rate we were moving our journey would take a year.
417
00:36:12,571 --> 00:36:16,228
If we continued we would all perish.
418
00:36:16,657 --> 00:36:19,485
So it was decided we would stop.
419
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:27,200
As I’d originally suggested our best chance was to wait for the moving ice to carry us to open water.
420
00:36:32,514 --> 00:36:34,680
We established our new home
421
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:34,685
We established our new home
ironically named “Patience Camp”.
422
00:36:34,685 --> 00:36:37,742
ironically named “Patience Camp”.
423
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,800
It was almost a year since Endurance first became trapped.
424
00:36:48,114 --> 00:36:50,771
I could no longer remember life on land
425
00:36:50,942 --> 00:36:54,220
and I fought against the mounting desperation
426
00:36:54,220 --> 00:36:54,228
and I fought against the mounting desperation
we were all experiencing.
427
00:36:54,228 --> 00:36:56,114
we were all experiencing.
428
00:37:05,885 --> 00:37:08,280
Then inexplicably
429
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:08,285
Then inexplicably
our main sources of sustenance
430
00:37:08,285 --> 00:37:10,514
our main sources of sustenance
431
00:37:10,514 --> 00:37:13,800
penguins and seals disappeared.
432
00:37:15,570 --> 00:37:19,970
Our rations were reduced to a mere nine and a half ounces a day.
433
00:37:25,542 --> 00:37:28,000
Hunger was a constant companion
434
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,800
and we became obsessed with food.
435
00:37:33,428 --> 00:37:37,400
Facing starvation we could no longer spare meat for the dogs.
436
00:37:40,028 --> 00:37:42,371
We were left with no choice
437
00:37:42,742 --> 00:37:45,057
but to shoot and eat them.
438
00:37:46,171 --> 00:37:48,342
A decision so distressing
439
00:37:48,342 --> 00:37:51,657
it felt worse than anything we’d endured so far.
440
00:38:15,914 --> 00:38:21,742
On the days when currents meant fast progress I was greatly relieved.
441
00:38:22,142 --> 00:38:25,571
It seemed the men held me responsible for the camp’s advancement
442
00:38:25,571 --> 00:38:28,571
as if I was Skipper of the floe itself.
443
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:36,600
Eventually
444
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:40,685
the day came when the ice broke up and open water was sighted.
445
00:38:42,942 --> 00:38:45,371
We could finally launch the lifeboats
446
00:38:45,371 --> 00:38:47,971
and set off in search of land.
447
00:38:56,342 --> 00:39:00,371
After 15 months some of the men had lost their sea legs,
448
00:39:00,371 --> 00:39:03,542
but I was glad to be back on the water.
449
00:39:16,428 --> 00:39:19,000
We faced the constant threat
450
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:24,057
of being crushed by moving bergs as they ploughed through the ice pack.
451
00:39:51,885 --> 00:39:56,200
Our expedition Artist, George Marsden captures, I believe,
452
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,914
the vulnerability of our situation.
453
00:40:00,971 --> 00:40:05,857
I was to navigate all three craft from my boat, the Dudley Docker
454
00:40:08,342 --> 00:40:10,228
We thought our best chance
455
00:40:10,228 --> 00:40:12,800
was to head for the South Shetland Islands
456
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:14,457
50 miles away.
457
00:40:16,171 --> 00:40:21,142
It would have been extremely difficult because they weren’t yet in open sea.
458
00:40:21,257 --> 00:40:24,171
They had all the risks of the ice
459
00:40:24,514 --> 00:40:28,371
and this is where they had to have faith in Captain Worsley.
460
00:40:30,857 --> 00:40:33,800
Shackleton was the big picture man and
461
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,571
in terms of small boats, Worsley had far more experience.
462
00:40:37,857 --> 00:40:40,485
And of course he knew how to navigate.
463
00:40:43,285 --> 00:40:48,142
Until we cleared the pack ice it was too dangerous to travel at night.
464
00:40:48,285 --> 00:40:50,914
And so we camped on bergs
465
00:40:51,685 --> 00:40:54,514
Sleep was almost impossible.
466
00:40:58,200 --> 00:40:59,542
They weakened
467
00:40:59,885 --> 00:41:01,657
without sleep and without
468
00:41:01,657 --> 00:41:04,142
warmth and very inadequate food.
469
00:41:04,142 --> 00:41:06,142
And some of them so sea sick as well.
470
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:21,228
The weight of responsibility was onerous.
471
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:25,428
I had to navigate from glimpses of the sun in my sextant.
472
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:34,250
Yes, it’s a little bit of a black art
473
00:41:34,250 --> 00:41:34,257
Yes, it’s a little bit of a black art
because there’s a huge skill
474
00:41:34,257 --> 00:41:36,250
because there’s a huge skill
475
00:41:36,371 --> 00:41:40,971
to what they call bringing the sun down onto the horizon.
476
00:41:45,942 --> 00:41:49,171
If you’re on a boat that’s leaping from wave top to wave top,
477
00:41:50,428 --> 00:41:52,714
the horizon is all over the place.
478
00:41:56,142 --> 00:41:58,285
And the sun is in your sextant
479
00:41:58,285 --> 00:42:00,600
because you see it through a smokey mirror.
480
00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:07,228
This little green thing is leaping around and you have to take two sights before you can get a complete fix of where you are.
481
00:42:19,542 --> 00:42:24,828
So you’ll be able to imagine my distress when after three days of rowing
482
00:42:24,828 --> 00:42:30,600
my calculations indicated that the currents had pushed us back 30 miles towards our starting point.
483
00:42:31,285 --> 00:42:34,085
Information we felt best kept from the crew.
484
00:42:35,714 --> 00:42:37,914
After several false starts
485
00:42:37,914 --> 00:42:40,257
the conditions dictated our only hope
486
00:42:40,257 --> 00:42:43,628
was to head for the uninhabited Elephant Island.
487
00:42:45,314 --> 00:42:47,400
Elephant Island is a dot.
488
00:42:47,885 --> 00:42:49,828
It’s like a grain of sand on a beach.
489
00:42:49,828 --> 00:42:53,057
It’s just a lump of rock sticking out of the Southern Ocean
490
00:43:06,171 --> 00:43:08,114
As the days passed
491
00:43:08,114 --> 00:43:11,114
some of the men struggled to maintain their sanity.
492
00:43:12,057 --> 00:43:14,314
Their fragile conditions made worse
493
00:43:14,542 --> 00:43:19,114
by Killer Whales who cruised beneath us like black torpedoes.
494
00:43:25,285 --> 00:43:27,800
That would have been extremely frightening
495
00:43:27,914 --> 00:43:30,457
and the day length getting shorter obviously.
496
00:43:31,285 --> 00:43:33,857
Every day the temperature is dropping
497
00:43:33,857 --> 00:43:35,314
and dropping and dropping.
498
00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:37,314
And that was doubly scarey.
499
00:43:37,828 --> 00:43:39,650
I believe it was Napoleon
500
00:43:39,650 --> 00:43:39,657
I believe it was Napoleon
who said it takes more courage to suffer than to die,
501
00:43:39,657 --> 00:43:43,628
who said it takes more courage to suffer than to die,
502
00:43:44,285 --> 00:43:48,171
and as such my men were truly courageous.
503
00:43:55,885 --> 00:43:57,857
After five days
504
00:43:57,857 --> 00:43:59,571
we were freezing to death.
505
00:44:00,057 --> 00:44:02,450
Fresh water was in short supply
506
00:44:02,450 --> 00:44:02,457
Fresh water was in short supply
and we resorted to chewing on raw seal meat
507
00:44:02,457 --> 00:44:05,485
and we resorted to chewing on raw seal meat
508
00:44:05,485 --> 00:44:07,142
for the sake of the blood.
509
00:44:10,685 --> 00:44:16,171
There is a state that you get into when it’s completely grim.
510
00:44:17,285 --> 00:44:20,085
Life just doesn’t seem that important.
511
00:44:21,742 --> 00:44:24,514
That’s where the leadership was so key.
512
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:30,028
Captain Worsley who was on the helm for
513
00:44:30,028 --> 00:44:32,714
40 hours, non-stop.
514
00:44:33,828 --> 00:44:36,800
They had to bend him back into position
515
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:38,800
to straighten him out so that he could sleep.
516
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:40,942
because physically he had just
517
00:44:41,228 --> 00:44:45,485
formed into that frozen V shape of clutching the tiller.
518
00:44:51,885 --> 00:44:56,257
Several of the men had simply given in,
519
00:44:56,857 --> 00:44:58,428
they had no spirit.
520
00:44:59,542 --> 00:45:01,628
They were doomed.
521
00:45:02,285 --> 00:45:03,400
And then,
522
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:05,514
Ladies and Gentlemen,
523
00:45:05,742 --> 00:45:07,714
to my great relief,
524
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:10,885
Elephant Island appeared.
525
00:45:12,571 --> 00:45:16,657
But we weren’t to make landfall that night.
526
00:45:23,371 --> 00:45:27,314
A gale blew in and we lost sight of land.
527
00:45:33,257 --> 00:45:37,857
I am certain that had we not known Elephant Island was out there,
528
00:45:38,342 --> 00:45:40,942
the storm would have defeated us.
529
00:45:42,428 --> 00:45:46,480
And that’s when I think his true seamanship would have come to the fore.
530
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:46,485
And that’s when I think his true seamanship would have come to the fore.
And this is where they began to realise
531
00:45:46,485 --> 00:45:48,657
And this is where they began to realise
532
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:52,257
just what a very, very special man he was.
533
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:57,771
After fifteen months on the ice,
534
00:45:57,771 --> 00:46:00,142
and seven gruelling days at sea,
535
00:46:00,485 --> 00:46:03,085
all 28 men made landfall
536
00:46:03,085 --> 00:46:06,285
on April the 15th, 1916.
537
00:46:06,542 --> 00:46:10,714
How they got through without losing anybody
538
00:46:11,228 --> 00:46:12,714
was a miracle.
539
00:46:21,742 --> 00:46:23,685
Having been through Hell
540
00:46:23,685 --> 00:46:29,057
this desolate, uninhabited, lump of rock seemed to nothing short of Heaven.
541
00:46:32,371 --> 00:46:35,600
The Boss congratulated me for getting us there
542
00:46:35,828 --> 00:46:41,114
and for a brief moment I allowed myself to enjoy our success.
543
00:47:10,171 --> 00:47:14,314
It would seem that having reached land we should have been saved.
544
00:47:14,742 --> 00:47:17,942
But unfortunately I am unable to end the story here.
545
00:47:18,285 --> 00:47:20,057
For our new home on the “beach”
546
00:47:20,057 --> 00:47:22,885
was by no means the Riviera .
547
00:47:32,457 --> 00:47:36,250
Most of the island is guarded by hundred foot high ice cliffs;
548
00:47:36,250 --> 00:47:36,257
Most of the island is guarded by hundred foot high ice cliffs;
very steep glaciers come right down into the sea.
549
00:47:36,257 --> 00:47:39,114
very steep glaciers come right down into the sea.
550
00:47:39,514 --> 00:47:43,342
Elephant island is an unbelievably violent place.
551
00:47:51,828 --> 00:47:56,485
We’d landed on one of the most inhospitable islands on earth,
552
00:47:56,914 --> 00:48:00,942
and we had only ourselves to look to for salvation.
553
00:48:06,485 --> 00:48:12,685
Nobody was interested or searching for the missing explorers.
554
00:48:12,771 --> 00:48:16,800
There was a war on. More important things were happening.
555
00:48:19,142 --> 00:48:22,742
Winstone Churchill was on record as snaring at them,
556
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:24,742
calling them penguins.
557
00:48:26,457 --> 00:48:31,828
The fortunes of this particular expedition were not regarded as terribly important
558
00:48:32,057 --> 00:48:36,942
against the background of thousands of men dying in the trenches of France almost every day.
559
00:48:39,914 --> 00:48:46,114
I think the assumption by those who even thought about them was that they were dead.
560
00:48:49,828 --> 00:48:53,514
Sir Ernest, First Officer Frank Wild and I
561
00:48:53,514 --> 00:48:54,942
discussed the options
562
00:48:54,942 --> 00:48:58,457
and determined a rescue mission was our only hope.
563
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:01,742
I tried to convince the Boss to stay with the men
564
00:49:01,742 --> 00:49:03,428
but he would not hear of it.
565
00:49:03,714 --> 00:49:06,685
Wilde would be left in charge on the Island.
566
00:49:09,057 --> 00:49:13,942
Worsley had already been planning way back on the ice before the Endurance sank.
567
00:49:13,942 --> 00:49:18,714
He’d been planning contingencies, possibilities. He’d been calculating distances
568
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:23,514
thinking of how they were going to escape from this terrible predicament.
569
00:49:27,028 --> 00:49:30,971
The closest settlement was Port Stanley on the Falkland Islands,
570
00:49:30,971 --> 00:49:35,450
but I determined the winds favoured an attempt at South Georgia
571
00:49:35,450 --> 00:49:35,457
but I determined the winds favoured an attempt at South Georgia
800 miles away.
572
00:49:35,457 --> 00:49:37,771
800 miles away.
573
00:49:39,457 --> 00:49:43,228
We would attempt to reach the whaling station we'd visited
574
00:49:43,228 --> 00:49:45,257
what seemed like a lifetime before.
575
00:49:46,428 --> 00:49:47,457
Then
576
00:49:47,628 --> 00:49:50,342
in a dramatic scene which I shall never forget,
577
00:49:50,885 --> 00:49:52,685
the Boss addressed the men.
578
00:49:56,514 --> 00:49:58,600
He outlined the plan to them
579
00:49:58,714 --> 00:50:05,142
and made it clear this journey promised to be even more difficult than anything we’d experienced to date.
580
00:50:07,857 --> 00:50:12,542
He was also honest about the slim chance of success.
581
00:50:15,200 --> 00:50:18,514
Despite the great risk of failure,
582
00:50:18,971 --> 00:50:22,171
every single man volunteered.
583
00:50:25,142 --> 00:50:29,171
Four were chosen to join Shackleton and myself,
584
00:50:30,685 --> 00:50:32,571
McNish the carpenter,
585
00:50:34,285 --> 00:50:35,828
John Vincent
586
00:50:35,828 --> 00:50:39,000
and two Irishmen, young Tim McCarthy
587
00:50:39,342 --> 00:50:41,000
and Tom Crean.
588
00:50:43,114 --> 00:50:45,914
Shackleton was a great persuader.
589
00:50:46,057 --> 00:50:49,971
He had this amazing ability to gather around him a group of people
590
00:50:49,971 --> 00:50:52,200
and to inspire them, to lead them,
591
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:56,657
into danger, to take colossal risks but some how to keep them with him.
592
00:50:56,857 --> 00:51:00,257
And always with himself as the centrepiece, the head.
593
00:51:05,571 --> 00:51:09,428
We threw ourselves into preparing the James Caird.
594
00:51:09,628 --> 00:51:12,114
At 22 feet 6 inches long,
595
00:51:12,114 --> 00:51:15,228
she was the largest of our three lifeboats.
596
00:51:20,171 --> 00:51:26,114
First and foremost was the importance of covering in the lifeboat by McNish the carpenter,
597
00:51:26,114 --> 00:51:30,457
who’d already fallen out with Shackleton. And Shackleton purposely took him on that voyage
598
00:51:30,457 --> 00:51:33,257
to make sure that he didn’t cause further trouble for Frank Wilde.
599
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:42,200
It was McNish of course who was openly critical of the boss for getting them into this mess,
600
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:45,371
who made the James Caird sea worthy.
601
00:51:46,428 --> 00:51:48,710
He recorked the planking
602
00:51:48,710 --> 00:51:48,714
He recorked the planking
and cannibalised the other two smaller boats,
603
00:51:48,714 --> 00:51:51,685
and cannibalised the other two smaller boats,
604
00:51:52,028 --> 00:51:56,685
which was such a sacrifice because it meant that the men left behind,
605
00:51:56,685 --> 00:52:00,142
the two boats that they had were really not useable.
606
00:52:03,140 --> 00:52:05,771
And they ballasted her more heavily.
607
00:52:05,771 --> 00:52:12,600
Shackleton wanted very heavy ballast. Worsley didn’t but Shackleton’s word won out.
608
00:52:16,971 --> 00:52:18,628
Ladies and Gentlemen
609
00:52:18,628 --> 00:52:23,885
as we reach this part of the story I must admit to a slight swell of emotion
610
00:52:24,457 --> 00:52:28,800
for to say goodbye to those truly courageous men
611
00:52:29,485 --> 00:52:32,628
was one of the most difficult moments of my life.
612
00:52:34,514 --> 00:52:36,628
The evening before we left
613
00:52:36,628 --> 00:52:38,857
there was a sort of farewell “party”.
614
00:52:39,314 --> 00:52:45,571
For the occasion we made “wine” from ginger, sugar and methylated spirits.
615
00:52:46,257 --> 00:52:49,714
I did my best to appear festive that night,
616
00:52:49,914 --> 00:52:51,485
but it took some effort,
617
00:52:51,857 --> 00:52:54,028
as I felt anything but.
618
00:52:55,114 --> 00:52:59,600
I think Frank Worsley knew that it was a very risky thing to do.
619
00:53:00,828 --> 00:53:02,857
In terms of the odds,
620
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:05,542
maybe a ten percent chance.
621
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:09,057
But I think they knew it was the only chance.
622
00:53:12,171 --> 00:53:15,342
My mate’s put on a show of optimism
623
00:53:15,485 --> 00:53:18,600
joking about how much beer we should bring back
624
00:53:18,771 --> 00:53:21,171
planning our homecoming celebrations.
625
00:53:21,914 --> 00:53:24,714
But we all knew it was more likely
626
00:53:24,971 --> 00:53:27,142
that we would never see each other again.
627
00:53:31,371 --> 00:53:33,742
Haggard and bedraggled
628
00:53:34,428 --> 00:53:37,542
these men were the best I had known.
629
00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:46,000
I was haunted by images of
630
00:53:46,514 --> 00:53:49,314
their fate if our mission should fail.
631
00:53:56,057 --> 00:53:59,942
On the 24th of April, 1916
632
00:53:59,942 --> 00:54:02,457
we launched the James Caird.
633
00:54:12,342 --> 00:54:14,428
I was woefully aware
634
00:54:14,428 --> 00:54:17,428
that no matter what adversity we would face,
635
00:54:17,542 --> 00:54:20,371
we were embarking on an adventure.
636
00:54:20,942 --> 00:54:23,171
The men we were leaving behind
637
00:54:23,342 --> 00:54:26,600
were condemned to wait and hope,
638
00:54:27,171 --> 00:54:29,400
with no way of knowing our progress.
639
00:54:32,114 --> 00:54:35,171
I especially felt for Wilde who’d be in charge,
640
00:54:35,342 --> 00:54:39,085
a role which could ultimately amount to a suicide watch.
641
00:54:40,057 --> 00:54:42,800
I don’t think anyone else could have kept those men together
642
00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:44,028
as well as he did.
643
00:54:45,085 --> 00:54:49,028
If the plan failed, they’d all perish. There’s no doubt about that.
644
00:54:59,742 --> 00:55:04,514
The men kept waving for as long as they thought we could see them.
645
00:55:09,771 --> 00:55:14,742
I think they had a pretty good idea of what was ahead. Um 800 miles.
646
00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:18,571
of the world’s worst ocean in winter;
647
00:55:19,114 --> 00:55:22,657
a lot of ice at first to work their way through;
648
00:55:22,857 --> 00:55:25,171
a lot of overcast weather which meant
649
00:55:25,171 --> 00:55:28,114
difficulty in getting sights and knowing where they were;
650
00:55:28,828 --> 00:55:33,628
and after 800 miles, an island only a hundred miles long,
651
00:55:34,285 --> 00:55:37,171
um which isn’t that big a target.
652
00:55:42,257 --> 00:55:44,571
By darkness on that first night,
653
00:55:44,571 --> 00:55:47,171
we’d cleared the ice surrounding Elephant Island
654
00:55:47,171 --> 00:55:49,171
and reached open water.
655
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:54,080
Below deck
656
00:55:54,080 --> 00:55:54,085
Below deck
any hopes we had of sheltering from the wet and freezing conditions were dashed.
657
00:55:54,085 --> 00:55:59,028
any hopes we had of sheltering from the wet and freezing conditions were dashed.
658
00:55:59,571 --> 00:56:03,314
The cramped space forced us to lie on the ballast rocks.
659
00:56:04,085 --> 00:56:09,685
That night conditions confirmed that this would be an arduous journey.
660
00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:24,800
I think at this point the responsibility was still shared between Shackleton and Worsley, but
661
00:56:25,257 --> 00:56:32,914
I think Worsley probably knew that it was his talents that would be the defining reason for survival.
662
00:56:34,314 --> 00:56:36,742
Shackleton confessed to Worsley,
663
00:56:36,742 --> 00:56:39,200
I don’t know anything about small boats.
664
00:56:39,200 --> 00:56:43,057
I’ve never been in this situation before. I’m counting on you.
665
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:45,800
I think Worsley probably knew that.
666
00:56:48,314 --> 00:56:50,228
Shackleton at least admitted
667
00:56:50,228 --> 00:56:55,542
that he knew nothing about sailing so they were totally in the hands of Frank Worsley.
668
00:57:02,257 --> 00:57:07,971
Once again our lives depended on the sextant. And once again nature conspired against us.
669
00:57:14,257 --> 00:57:18,085
It was three days before I glimpsed the sun.
670
00:57:18,485 --> 00:57:22,228
When I managed to take a sight I shouted to Sir Ernest below.
671
00:57:23,885 --> 00:57:24,914
He'd yell "mark"
672
00:57:24,914 --> 00:57:26,914
and Shackleton in this case
673
00:57:26,914 --> 00:57:30,485
would take the time because the time is also very important
674
00:57:30,485 --> 00:57:33,171
for any longitude sightings.
675
00:57:38,200 --> 00:57:43,571
And then to go down below and sit on these moving rocks of ballast with water swilling about the place
676
00:57:43,571 --> 00:57:45,400
and do his calculations
677
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:47,400
to make sure that he was on track
678
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:51,485
um was yeah, very, very crucial to the whole thing.
679
00:57:53,714 --> 00:57:57,514
Worsley had four sights in 16 days
680
00:57:57,514 --> 00:58:02,428
but he seemed to have a unique instinct for dead reckoning,
681
00:58:02,828 --> 00:58:09,428
which is the seamen’s term for finding out where you are without relying on celestial navigation.
682
00:58:10,085 --> 00:58:13,142
So he knew which way the currents were going.
683
00:58:13,285 --> 00:58:16,400
He felt what the speed of the boat was.
684
00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:21,371
And this they were stopping and starting and and changing course because of the winds.
685
00:58:21,371 --> 00:58:25,485
But he had in his brain some kind of a map
686
00:58:25,485 --> 00:58:28,371
that he could say at the end of the day,
687
00:58:28,371 --> 00:58:34,571
well, we’ve made about 56 miles in a north easterly direction or whatever it should be.
688
00:58:34,571 --> 00:58:37,428
And to do all of that in his head,
689
00:58:37,428 --> 00:58:42,685
it’s um it’s a gift far more than a science.
690
00:58:52,228 --> 00:58:56,114
Ice built up on our hull, and threatened to sink us.
691
00:59:00,342 --> 00:59:03,428
They didn’t have any sailing clothes.
692
00:59:03,685 --> 00:59:06,000
They didn’t have any sea boots.
693
00:59:06,485 --> 00:59:09,428
They didn’t have any water proof gloves.
694
00:59:09,742 --> 00:59:13,542
This is on a boat that’s been thrown around 20 feet in the air.
695
00:59:13,542 --> 00:59:16,714
So they very easily could've lost a man over board.
696
00:59:22,714 --> 00:59:26,285
These freezing conditions were so bitter
697
00:59:26,285 --> 00:59:30,142
we could only bear to work on deck for five minutes at a time.
698
00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:36,085
Those bodies must have been aching.
699
00:59:37,828 --> 00:59:39,885
They were getting no rest
700
00:59:39,885 --> 00:59:43,485
and what rest they were getting was lying on rocks.
701
00:59:52,800 --> 00:59:57,228
Frank said the only good part of the day was when they were served hot hoosh.
702
00:59:59,714 --> 01:00:03,057
The hoosh sounds very unpalatable
703
01:00:03,057 --> 01:00:05,228
but was a life saving mixture.
704
01:00:10,514 --> 01:00:14,285
It was a hot milk mixed with something called pemmican,
705
01:00:14,285 --> 01:00:17,285
which is a high fat compressed meat
706
01:00:17,771 --> 01:00:22,457
for combatting hypothermia because of the fat content.
707
01:00:27,542 --> 01:00:30,657
And even that was difficult because they had to try and
708
01:00:30,657 --> 01:00:32,742
keep the prim ace upright
709
01:00:33,171 --> 01:00:36,171
and they were bent double underneath this canapé.
710
01:00:38,314 --> 01:00:40,171
Unable to sit sit upright
711
01:00:40,171 --> 01:00:43,057
we suffered stomach pain and cramps.
712
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:46,942
Our misery threatened to overwhelm us.
713
01:00:54,885 --> 01:00:58,657
By the second week I had grave concerns for the crew.
714
01:00:59,485 --> 01:01:03,485
Our hands and knees were raw from crawling over the ballast rocks
715
01:01:03,600 --> 01:01:07,200
and our limbs were swollen; covered with sores.
716
01:01:07,914 --> 01:01:11,314
Worse, the sleeping bags were rotting.
717
01:01:13,085 --> 01:01:23,800
Their reindeer sleeping bags had become so sodden with salt water that the hairs of the reindeer skin were disintegrating.
718
01:01:23,800 --> 01:01:27,142
They were in their food, in their hair, in their mouths.
719
01:01:27,142 --> 01:01:31,771
The discomfort was just extraordinary. Not to mention the cold.
720
01:01:32,514 --> 01:01:34,857
They were never warm the whole time.
721
01:01:39,914 --> 01:01:42,942
It was exasperated badly
722
01:01:42,942 --> 01:01:46,914
when one of the casks of what they thought was fresh water
723
01:01:46,914 --> 01:01:48,600
was found to have leaked.
724
01:01:48,600 --> 01:01:52,228
And was not fresh water anymore. It was a salty mess.
725
01:01:53,028 --> 01:01:55,114
Everything was cutting against them.
726
01:01:56,771 --> 01:01:59,200
McNish was severely frostbitten,
727
01:01:59,200 --> 01:02:00,914
suffering from exposure,
728
01:02:02,628 --> 01:02:05,571
while Vincent seemed to have lost the will to live.
729
01:02:09,885 --> 01:02:17,857
To be in a boat like the James Caird which would have been hard to, hard to steer; the ballast was shifting all the time;
730
01:02:18,285 --> 01:02:22,485
and they were hit by rogue waves that could have finished them in seconds.
731
01:02:31,971 --> 01:02:35,200
There was nothing nature hadn’t thrown at us,
732
01:02:35,485 --> 01:02:37,342
however by the 13th day,
733
01:02:37,514 --> 01:02:41,171
despite having only managed three sun sights with the sextant
734
01:02:41,171 --> 01:02:44,971
I was confident that we were nearing our destination.
735
01:02:45,657 --> 01:02:51,400
By my reckoning South Georgia was only about 15 miles away.
736
01:02:53,400 --> 01:02:58,057
I began watching for the tell tale signs land was ahead.
737
01:03:07,371 --> 01:03:10,142
Then on the 7th of May
738
01:03:10,142 --> 01:03:14,085
young Tim McCarthy, whose optimism had never wavered,
739
01:03:14,085 --> 01:03:17,114
spotted the peaks of South Georgia.
740
01:03:21,114 --> 01:03:22,542
However,
741
01:03:22,542 --> 01:03:24,542
as you now all know,
742
01:03:24,542 --> 01:03:29,885
the nature of this journey was that we were to be tested at all times,
743
01:03:29,885 --> 01:03:33,342
and making landfall was to be no different.
744
01:03:43,942 --> 01:03:47,571
The weather turned and we were hit by a severe gale.
745
01:03:55,028 --> 01:04:02,257
In that same storm there was a hurricane force blow that sank a 500 ton steamer,
746
01:04:02,485 --> 01:04:04,971
who was on her way to South Georgia with coal.
747
01:04:05,228 --> 01:04:07,885
And she disappeared without a trace.
748
01:04:11,200 --> 01:04:13,857
For two days we battled the storm
749
01:04:14,028 --> 01:04:18,457
and after all we’d endured I feared we would not have the strength to fight on.
750
01:04:18,685 --> 01:04:23,628
We would be smashed against the coast we had so longed to reach.
751
01:04:24,371 --> 01:04:29,657
And a little boat like that doesn’t go into the eye of the wind very easily.
752
01:04:29,657 --> 01:04:35,000
He alone had the knowledge of how to beat off a lee shore.
753
01:04:35,000 --> 01:04:40,542
Which is one of the most terrifying thing a seaman can ever encounter.
754
01:04:47,057 --> 01:04:49,514
If they were swept straight past South Georgia that was it. And they knew that.
755
01:04:49,514 --> 01:04:56,342
They knew that from the outset that they had to make land fall as quickly as they possibly could. And they landed at a place that they called Cape Cove.
756
01:04:58,600 --> 01:05:01,800
Frank’s 20 plus years under sail
757
01:05:01,800 --> 01:05:04,228
and operating small boats around New Zealand –
758
01:05:04,228 --> 01:05:05,628
that was crucial to the whole deal.
759
01:05:09,800 --> 01:05:12,600
It was a masterpiece of navigation. No question.
760
01:05:15,342 --> 01:05:22,000
They had set their feet on real land. Not Elephant Island’s rocky, icy, little, shingly beach.
761
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:25,000
But this was land that had tussock grass,
762
01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:27,400
fresh clear water.
763
01:05:27,742 --> 01:05:32,800
This was real heaven by comparison to anything they had had for the last 18 months.
764
01:05:39,057 --> 01:05:42,628
They ate Elephant seal heart and Albatrosses.
765
01:05:42,942 --> 01:05:50,171
They had to spend a few days just building up their strength because they knew they still had to save 22 other men, so
766
01:05:50,171 --> 01:05:56,800
even in that moment of absolute joy, it wasn’t the end of the story. They still had to go on beyond that.
767
01:06:01,714 --> 01:06:06,771
The storm had forced us to land on the wrong side of South Georgia.
768
01:06:08,628 --> 01:06:10,485
We were on the Western shore
769
01:06:10,485 --> 01:06:13,571
while the Whaling Station was at Stromness Bay
770
01:06:13,571 --> 01:06:15,685
on the Island’s eastern side.
771
01:06:15,942 --> 01:06:17,228
To sail there
772
01:06:17,428 --> 01:06:22,914
would be a 150 mile passage round the blustery coast.
773
01:06:24,942 --> 01:06:31,371
The last storm had severely damaged the James Caird. Vincent and McNish were near death so going back to sea
774
01:06:31,542 --> 01:06:32,742
was not an option.
775
01:06:37,257 --> 01:06:39,114
The Boss and I agreed
776
01:06:39,114 --> 01:06:44,371
that walking across the Island’s uncharted interior was our only chance.
777
01:06:45,085 --> 01:06:50,228
The condition of the men was such that it would be impossible for all of us to make the journey.
778
01:06:51,457 --> 01:06:53,885
Sir Ernest, Tom Crean and I
779
01:06:53,885 --> 01:06:55,428
would attempt the crossing,
780
01:06:55,428 --> 01:06:58,400
leaving young McCarthy to care for the others.
781
01:07:03,485 --> 01:07:06,057
They waited for calm weather.
782
01:07:06,285 --> 01:07:11,514
They knew they were, their strength was running out. Um, they needed to be able to see
783
01:07:11,514 --> 01:07:14,714
more than anything because the outline of the map of the island
784
01:07:14,714 --> 01:07:17,542
had nothing. No one had been into the interior.
785
01:07:17,714 --> 01:07:20,828
So they needed clear weather and they waited for a full moon.
786
01:07:34,171 --> 01:07:38,742
In the middle of the night, nine days after making landfall we set off.
787
01:07:43,400 --> 01:07:46,400
After our previous ordeals we were thin,
788
01:07:46,400 --> 01:07:50,600
wasted, and poorly equipped for a mountain climbing expedition.
789
01:07:59,342 --> 01:08:02,885
They had a 90 foot rope with them but they didn’t have any ice axes. They had a rough
790
01:08:02,885 --> 01:08:06,628
carpenters adze which they could chop a few steps every so often perhaps but…
791
01:08:14,657 --> 01:08:19,228
They had screwed brass screws from the life boat through the soles of their shoes
792
01:08:19,228 --> 01:08:24,971
so they had rudimentary crampons to grip the ice but not being mountaineers – pretty damned frightening.
793
01:08:24,971 --> 01:08:27,200
And what’s particularly extraordinary is that they had no tent.
794
01:08:27,200 --> 01:08:31,000
They knew that if they got caught by a blizzard they’d probably die.
795
01:08:31,000 --> 01:08:32,657
So they just had to keep moving.
796
01:08:37,685 --> 01:08:40,514
Once again I was the navigator.
797
01:08:56,428 --> 01:08:59,400
No one had ever crossed the island before,
798
01:08:59,600 --> 01:09:04,057
and we knew the mountains to be at least 9,000 feet high.
799
01:09:04,685 --> 01:09:09,171
I estimated we were 25 to 30 miles from the whaling station,
800
01:09:09,171 --> 01:09:12,142
although I had no way of being certain.
801
01:09:14,542 --> 01:09:18,371
I’ve attempted to illustrate our journey from memory,
802
01:09:18,371 --> 01:09:22,628
my recollections I hope not too confused by the exhaustion I felt at the time.
803
01:09:25,371 --> 01:09:30,171
We didn’t know where we were going or what obstacles lay ahead.
804
01:09:30,542 --> 01:09:33,514
Too often we had to double back.
805
01:09:34,457 --> 01:09:40,485
Retracing our steps was a devastating blow that tested our resolve to carry on.
806
01:09:52,514 --> 01:09:54,542
The going was so demanding
807
01:09:54,542 --> 01:09:57,200
we had to halt every twenty minutes.
808
01:10:00,057 --> 01:10:02,400
These brief rest stops
809
01:10:02,400 --> 01:10:04,400
were all we could allow ourselves
810
01:10:04,542 --> 01:10:07,800
as to sleep would be to die.
811
01:10:13,542 --> 01:10:19,171
They were so tired that at one point Shackleton told them he’d give them half an hour.
812
01:10:21,542 --> 01:10:25,771
And let them sleep for five minutes and woke them up and said they’d had their half hour
813
01:10:25,771 --> 01:10:29,428
because he was scared that they would not wake up at all.
814
01:10:45,828 --> 01:10:48,571
So they kept on going.
815
01:10:51,885 --> 01:10:55,457
And what normally happens when you’re traversing glacier roped up,
816
01:10:55,457 --> 01:11:01,485
is people don’t keep quite the same speed and then you trip up on the rope and you curse and swear at each other.
817
01:11:01,485 --> 01:11:10,742
And Worsley actually mentions this and says, how they were so careful not to lose their tempers, still to maintain that, that sort of calm cheerfulness.
818
01:11:19,542 --> 01:11:26,914
Through out the journey all three of us had a strong feeling of being accompanied by a fourth man.
819
01:11:27,942 --> 01:11:33,857
And perhaps it was this soul who kept us safe for there is one incident that defies explanation.
820
01:11:37,857 --> 01:11:40,657
16 hours after we’d set off
821
01:11:40,971 --> 01:11:43,542
we came to the edge of a precipice.
822
01:11:51,400 --> 01:11:53,771
We had no idea what lay below
823
01:11:54,085 --> 01:11:57,485
but time was running out and we could not turn back.
824
01:12:01,342 --> 01:12:07,057
It was decided that, using our rope as a sled, we would throw ourselves into the void…
825
01:12:08,028 --> 01:12:09,657
if we were to die,
826
01:12:09,800 --> 01:12:12,514
it would be on our own terms.
827
01:12:47,542 --> 01:12:52,914
Our toboggan ride took us a thousand feet down the steep slope.
828
01:12:54,628 --> 01:12:57,942
Yet again we had cheated death.
829
01:13:11,971 --> 01:13:16,457
By then of course they were utterly driven. They still had another range to cross.
830
01:13:18,885 --> 01:13:23,800
They ran out of kerosene half way across the crossing, so they had their last hoosh.
831
01:13:24,971 --> 01:13:26,942
And Shackleton heard
832
01:13:27,714 --> 01:13:33,914
the sound of the station whistle at Stromness, he thought. He wasn’t sure.
833
01:13:36,371 --> 01:13:39,714
That was at 6:30. At 7 o’clock they all listened.
834
01:13:55,914 --> 01:13:59,428
And there it was again. The whistle to turn to, to go to work.
835
01:14:13,657 --> 01:14:19,257
And this was the first sound that they’d heard for 17 months
836
01:14:19,485 --> 01:14:21,971
that haven’t been generated by themselves.
837
01:14:22,142 --> 01:14:24,142
So that was an absolutely
838
01:14:24,771 --> 01:14:26,257
marvellous moment.
839
01:14:27,657 --> 01:14:32,800
After 36 hours, half frozen and nearly unconscious
840
01:14:33,485 --> 01:14:35,714
we reached the whaling station.
841
01:14:41,771 --> 01:14:48,200
And the sight of men and buildings and all of those things that they’d been without for so long;
842
01:14:48,200 --> 01:14:51,714
and it meant safety; and it meant more than anything else
843
01:14:51,714 --> 01:14:57,600
rescue and safety for the other 22 men, which the burden of carrying them –
844
01:14:57,600 --> 01:14:59,228
their lives with them
845
01:14:59,228 --> 01:15:03,371
is what kept Shackleton, Worsley and Crean going.
846
01:15:06,171 --> 01:15:09,428
For the first time since abandoning Endurance
847
01:15:10,085 --> 01:15:11,885
I enjoyed a hot bath.
848
01:15:12,514 --> 01:15:14,971
A change of clothes and a shave.
849
01:15:15,914 --> 01:15:21,857
Then that same night the whalers took me back to collect the three men on the other side of the Island, because
850
01:15:21,857 --> 01:15:25,400
but we knew we could not rest until everyone was safe.
851
01:15:25,942 --> 01:15:30,600
That very night he didn’t stop to rest. He didn't stop to um...
852
01:15:30,600 --> 01:15:35,428
you know revel in the fact that he you know had made this journey and it was complete.
853
01:15:35,771 --> 01:15:40,857
He turned around and went straight back to pick up his three James Caird ship mates.
854
01:15:47,971 --> 01:15:49,685
In the months that followed
855
01:15:49,685 --> 01:15:52,685
Tom Crean, Sir Ernest and I
856
01:15:52,857 --> 01:15:58,200
were forced to abandon three separate attempts to reach Elephant Island
857
01:15:58,200 --> 01:16:01,257
and the 22 men waiting there.
858
01:16:04,685 --> 01:16:08,857
It was a gigantic frustration for Shackleton.
859
01:16:12,228 --> 01:16:19,228
The boats or ships were either too small or unsafe to take into icy waters.
860
01:16:22,371 --> 01:16:25,685
He was trying to get some help out from Britain.
861
01:16:27,257 --> 01:16:30,285
Nobody wanted to offer him any help at all.
862
01:16:34,628 --> 01:16:38,600
Sir Ernest knew that the men would be in a very bad way
863
01:16:38,600 --> 01:16:41,114
and worried that should they perish
864
01:16:41,114 --> 01:16:44,057
he would be accused of having abandoned them.
865
01:17:03,857 --> 01:17:05,971
Then, on our fourth attempt,
866
01:17:05,971 --> 01:17:08,057
in the Chilean boat, The Yelcho,
867
01:17:08,228 --> 01:17:10,057
we sighted the island.
868
01:17:10,542 --> 01:17:15,857
It had been 128 days since we’d left its shores.
869
01:17:18,971 --> 01:17:21,057
It seemed too much to expect
870
01:17:21,457 --> 01:17:26,942
that after four months of winter on a God forsaken lump of rock,
871
01:17:26,942 --> 01:17:29,942
that all our shipmates could still be alive.
872
01:17:32,742 --> 01:17:36,657
The whole spit could have been totally swept clear of everything.
873
01:17:37,000 --> 01:17:38,657
during winter storms.
874
01:17:38,657 --> 01:17:41,371
Ah no question there could have been nobody alive at all.
875
01:17:43,800 --> 01:17:45,628
As we neared the coast
876
01:17:45,628 --> 01:17:48,342
we watched the men gather on the beach
877
01:17:48,885 --> 01:17:50,800
as their number grew
878
01:17:51,142 --> 01:17:53,028
so too our hopes.
879
01:18:07,114 --> 01:18:10,228
The Boss counted anxiously and then said…
880
01:18:10,742 --> 01:18:12,828
they’re all there Skipper,
881
01:18:13,571 --> 01:18:15,200
"they’re all alive.
882
01:18:22,485 --> 01:18:24,314
…they’re are all alive Skipper,
883
01:18:26,228 --> 01:18:28,400
and they’re all coming home.”
884
01:18:33,314 --> 01:18:37,028
We had not conquered Antarctica, but
885
01:18:37,714 --> 01:18:40,171
I believe in our failure
886
01:18:40,942 --> 01:18:42,942
there was greater success.
887
01:18:43,971 --> 01:18:45,200
Thank you.
888
01:18:48,485 --> 01:18:50,400
Frank never lost hope.
889
01:18:50,714 --> 01:18:53,914
Somebody said once. ‘He was not born to be drowned’.
890
01:18:55,600 --> 01:18:59,200
He did believe he could get through everything and did.
891
01:19:00,485 --> 01:19:06,000
Getting everybody home was Shackleton’s responsibility as a leader
892
01:19:06,000 --> 01:19:09,485
but without Frank Worsley I don’t think he’d have managed it.
893
01:19:09,485 --> 01:19:13,000
All the credit went to Shackleton. That was the sort of man that he was
894
01:19:13,000 --> 01:19:19,200
but without question the journey could not have been achieved without Frank Worsley’s contribution.
895
01:19:20,305 --> 01:20:20,406
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