For the beset Endurance, the only real disturbances came from the restless ice outside. 'Amongst gentlemen quarrels should and can be avoided,' wrote Orde-Lees in his diary. On the Endurance, he took pains to defer to the sailors, ensuring that they received the first allotments of winter clothing and respecting that, no longer the crew of a working ship, they were not required to perform night watchman duties. Most importantly, from his early days in the merchant marine, Shackleton was known for his social ease with both officers and men. Sports, occasional entertainment 'events' and ship duties were shared by both groups. Although living in separate quarters and taking meals apart, the men of the wardroom and fo'c's'le were not entirely segregated. The sailors remained in the fo'c's'le, the forward quarters, which was already insulated between decks. All day the wind screams in our rigging.' The alluring cosiness of the Ritz being too enticing. It is bitterly cold and no one is allowed away from the ship. '7-14-15 A mild blizzard set in during the morning. This was one man more than Shackleton at first realized-a day out of Buenos Aires, he discovered a young stowaway, who joined the ship's company as steward. The ship's company included 28 men, 69 Canadian sledging dogs and the carpenter's cat, Mrs. Here, Shackleton replaced four unsatisfactory members of the crew before heading for South Georgia Island. On leaving England, the Endurance made ports of call at Madeira, Montevideo and Buenos Aires, where she was joined by Shackleton himself he had delayed his departure to attend to business. The expedition was a failure–yet the unimaginable saga of survival that followed ensured that it was for this, the failed Endurance expedition, that Shackleton is ultimately most remembered. Shackleton and his men became castaways in one of the most hostile environments on earth. But while deep in the pack of the Weddell Sea, the ship was trapped and slowly crushed by the ice. Leaving the island of South Georgia in December, his ship Endurance battled her way through pack ice toward the continent. In 1914, with the prize of the Pole having been claimed, Shackleton embarked on a new challenge–to cross the entire continent on foot, from the Weddell to the Ross Sea. In 1911, the race was finally won by Roald Amundsen of Norway. Here, taking stock of his party's failing supplies and health, Shackleton made the heartbreaking decision to turn back. Six years later Shackleton set out again, leading his own expedition to 88° south and coming within approximately 100 miles of his goal, further south than anyone had gone before. Scott on an unsuccessful bid for the Pole. Shackleton first headed south in 1901, accompanying Robert F. And although these early expeditions were intent on scientific advancement, the grand prize was the South Pole–unclaimed territory, where no human had ever stood. Like a handful of other explorers at the beginning of the 20th century, Shackleton had been determined to venture to the mysterious continent at the bottom of the earth. This was not Shackleton's first journey to Antarctica. Sir Ernest Shackleton, Expedition Prospectus “From the sentimental point of view, it is the last great Polar journey that can be made.”

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Shackleton endurance photos