Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage

Reviewing the Book “Endurance“ By Alfred Lansing

This book tells the story of the British explorer Ernest Shackleton’s in 1914, who attempted to reach the South Pole, during the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Their ship crashed, and they had to abandon it, 850 miles away from any civilization in one of the worse conditions that can be imagined.

It is one of the best books I have ever, and I had a tough time putting it down. It is a great story about heroism, perseverance, and perhaps what struck me the most: leadership. Not only is the story of their hardships already incredibly valuable, but the crew itself was full of incredible people. Not perfect people. People who make mistakes, and people who despair, but incredible nevertheless.

The story itself is unbelievable, and the number of obstacles they had to endure is barely comprehensible. They had several “phrases”, and with each one, I thought that was already an incredible feat. I enjoyed that the story was told chronologically and without trying too much to summarize or skip to certain highlights.

While some parts of the book glue you to your chair, some are quite boring. But they are boring because that’s what they experienced. If it’s boring for you to read, then imagine living it. That, in some sense, almost violates the categorization of boredom. It allows you to peek at their experience in the first person. Imagine yourself surrounded by nothing but ice, unable to go anywhere, having absolutely nothing to do but deplete your stored food, knowing it will eventually run out. And unable to do anything about it, except wait. This was simply one of the many fascinating parts of the book, most were not “boring” in this sense, but for me, it was a memorable one.

The crew itself and how they handled the situation, aided by the fantastic leadership of Ernest Shackleton, strike pure awe. Their determination, compassion, and stoicism in the most horrible of situations imaginable, are certainly one of the most inspiring things I have read. Even more so because the journey was most definitely not constant progress towards their escape. There were often periods and phrases where it seemed obvious that they wouldn’t make it. Many times there was no apparent solution to their impending doom, and in a few cases, they even went backwards, which must have been soul-crashing.

It’s certainly one of the most inspiring journeys in history, and I highly recommend it. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it is deeply rewarding. Almost any problem that you may have, can’t help but shrink to nothingness compared to what these men have gone through.

It also heavily features quotes from the notebooks of the crew, which to me greatly enriched the story. It adds a crucial first-person element that can’t possibly be captured in a typical 3rd person description. The book makes you feel like you’re there, part of the crew, enduring what they endured and feeling what they felt.

“They were for all practical purposes alone in the frozen Antarctic seas. It had been very nearly a year since they had last been in contact with civilization. Nobody in the outside world knew they were in trouble, much less where they were. They had no radio transmitter with which to notify any would-be rescuers, and it is doubtful that any rescuers could have reached them even if they had been able to broadcast an SOS. It was 1915, and there were no helicopters, no Weasels, no Sno-Cats, no suitable planes. Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out — they had to get themselves out.”

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