South

by Ernest Shackleton
List(s):"Extreme Classics"
Category: "Travel"
Pages:347
Year of Publication:1919
Date Added:01/21/2010
Date Read:02/05/2015
Notes:Shackleton's own account of his famous expedition to Antarctica in the Endurance. His intent was to cross the continent. He sent part of his team on the Aurora to the other side to establish depots of supplies along the route he was planning on taking. His ship, the Endurance, never made it to the continent. It got stuck and then broke up in the ice. He and his lived on the ice until it broke up, then sailed in three small boats to a remote island. Most of the men stayed there while Shackleton and five others sailed in an open boat across the world's stormiest sea to South Georgia Island where there was a whaling station. All of the men on the remote island were eventually rescued alive. Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, the depot crew was landed without all their supplies because the Aurora also got caught in the ice and was carried away. The men did their best to lay the depots (that were unnecessary since Shackleton wasn't, in fact, crossing the continent). Before they were finally picked up, three of them died. The Aurora eventually made it out of the ice pack and back to New Zealand.
My Rating: 6

Reviews for South

Review - South

I'd already read about this expedition, so most of this was a repeat. What I was struck with this time around was how pointless it all was. First, World War I was in full swing, so why they were wandering about Antarctica is a question. Then, basically, it was the story of two ships that tried to land men on the continent and failed and got stuck in the ice. The few men that did make it ashore toiled for no purpose until three of them died.

Reviewed by Roger on 2016-02-05 18:21:25

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