Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Wow. What a terrific written account of the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, and of the character of Ernest Shackleton and his crew. The name of the ship, “Endurance”, came from Shackleton's family motto Fortitudine vincimus (“By endurance we conquer”), but it was the ideal name for the vessel, which fought so hard against the crushing ice floes before ultimately succumbing and sinking to the bottom of the Weddell Sea. There were several major stages of the Shackleton expedition's escape from certain death - beginning with the loss of their ship. From there, they were cast adrift on various ice floes for months, before they were able to launch their lifeboats. This began the arduous sea voyage to the desolate Elephant Island. Once there, the group was as safe as they could be, and Shackleton took five others with him on board the best of the lifeboats, the James Caird, to sail to South Georgia Island - 1,200km's away. Using nothing more than a sextant, a compass, and some charts, with occupants that were tired, starving, freezing, wet, and suffering all manner of maladies, they found South Georgia - and the rest is history.

Lansing pulls from a variety of sources, and tells a fair and balanced narrative of the expedition. Brilliantly written, filled with excitement and tension, Endurance tells the most incredible survival story of the greatest antarctic explorer who ever lived.