Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance

I’ve seen the movie. I've read the book. I’ve heard the stories. I still can’t believe it. Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, was trapped in the Weddell Sea ice on January 19, 1915, almost 100 years ago. The crew stayed with the ship until it was finally crushed 10 months later. 10 months in Antarctica. Including winter. Extreme dark, cold, wind. They journeyed over ice and with essentially lifeboats to Elephant Island beyond the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Most of the men (22) overwintered in an overturned lifeboat and ate penguins and seals. Shackleton and five men took the James Caird (picture above) on an amazing journey of 17 days in (Antarctic) fall weather to South Georgia Island, 800 miles to the northeast. Surviving the crossing of the roughest seas on earth is one thing. Navigating their way to an island so far away in those conditions with a sextant is quite another thing (Worsley only got four sightings on the sun during the entire trip).

The journey didn’t end when they landed. They were on the “wrong” side! South Georgia Island is oriented along a NW to SE axis, perfectly angled to capture the worst of Antarctica’s weather. No one lives on the west coast on this island. The lee side of the huge mountain range, an extension of the Andes, is the place to be. Our ship is just skipping from one bay to the next along the east coast of South Georgia – I won’t see the west coast at all.

Shackleton, Worsley (the captain of the Endurance), and Crean hiked through waist-deep snow, slid (without a sled) down a mile-long snow face, and made their way down a waterfall with the help of a top rope to (finally!) flat land below and a whaling station within sight. At Stromness whaling station, a rescue mission was mounted and all of the men at Elephant Island, led by Shackelton’s second in command, Frank Wild, and the three men left in a cave on the wrong side of South Georgia Island, survived.

Seventy-five people on our trip hiked the last four miles of Shackleton’s 30+mile trip. We started out on a beautiful afternoon (sunny, not too breezy) on Fortuna Bay’s SE side, and hiked straight up hill through a maze of tussock grass, fur seals, and elephant seals, each turning their heads towards us with a bit of a bark or false charge, giving up by the 28^th person in line (me, according to multiple count-offs before starting – don’t want to leave anyone behind!). I was amazed at how high up the seals went!


Elephant Seals (Phocids – true seals, pictured above in foreground at Fortuna Bay) in particular can’t rotate their limbs under them like fur seals can. How these “weaners” bounce their massive bodies up the slope is beyond me. They are called weaners because they’ve recently been weaned from their mother’s milk. Mom and dad are back at sea so even though these animals are so young, they are already massive.

Fur seals (pup pictured below) are Otarids, or eared seals, like our California Sea Lions in the Columbia River, famous for eating salmon gathered at the base of Bonneville Dam. 

OK, back to the hike. Three miles up and down a saddle of loose shale followed by one mile of soft, mossy, beautiful tundra. The very end of the hike offered multiple routes (everyone went their own way at this point). Some chose to walk down to the gravel riverbed and head back to the base of the waterfall that Shackelton went down. Had Shackelton’s group gone just to the right, they would have had the steep slope we had, although everything was covered in snow for their journey, both because of the time of year and because there is much less snow, ice, and glacier coverage on South Georgia now due to global warming.

I chose to keep my feet dry. We do all of our Zodiac landings in knee-high rubber boots. They are comfortable enough but for a four-mile hike over rock, I wanted my hiking boots. By choosing my path around marshes and rivulets carefully, I made it to the Stromness Whaling Station pick-up site with dry feet. Along the way, I stopped by two Gentoo Penguin colonies on top of hills in the middle of the valley with a perfect view of the mountains, exactly where you’d situate your dream house if you were so inclined. But why aren’t they in a more sensible valley or nook at the base of the slope? The exposure up there was great. Maybe they really do need to keep cool! [The picture of the hikers shows Stromness Whaling Station on the right and the red dot indicates where the penguin colonies are. Note the pond en route to the beach mentioned below.]

I followed the penguin path for ½ mile back to the beach, taking a detour around their shortcut, a meltwater pond they swam across before making the final climb over a ridge to the marsh to the beach. Stromness Station itself is rusting and off limits due to asbestos. Each of the three bays in this area has an old whaling station. Shackleton knew enough, having visited South Georgia’s east coast many times on his expeditions, to go to the only open whaling station with the onset of winter. It’s a beautiful area. I couldn’t drag myself down to dinner until we set anchor because I was transfixed by the sight of each of these picturesque bays and the thought of all the whales that once were here. The whalers used to catch whales in the bays because they were so thick with them. I am grateful that humans finally stopped whaling here around the time I was born, but also bitter that their greed deprived all of us of what once must have been a magical sight.

A King Penguin youngster molting out of its brown fluffy coat at Fortuna Bay.