Sailing Today

TIME OUT

Shackleton’s Boat Journey – Frank Worsley

Shackleton’s Boat Journey charts the 1916 voyage that Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men undertook in the Antarctic ice after their ship, , became embayed in ice and was later crushed. With the ship gone, Shackleton and his 28-man crew took to three lifeboats between 22ft and 28ft long which they rowed and sailed through frigid, ice-strewn waters to Elephant Island, a desolate, uninhabited outpost in the Southern Ocean. Having the largest and most seaworthy boat, a further 715 nautical miles across the Southern Ocean to South Georgia. Having achieved this near-impossible feat and landed on the uninhabited western side of the island, aware that the was not fit to sail further, Shackleton decided that he, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean should traverse the mountainous interior of South Georgia in order to reach the whaling station and civilisation on the other side of the island. After 36 hours’ continuous tramping, the trio made it to the whaling station of Stromness. It then took three attempts to rescue the men stranded on Elephant Island, but this was eventually achieved and, remarkably, there were no casualties.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Sailing Today

Sailing Today3 min read
Time Out
Confession time. We have probably not paid enough attention over the past decade or more to the Strong Winds series of novels written and published by sailor and classic yacht owner Julia Jones. The story of the series starts in 2006, when Julia, own
Sailing Today6 min read
The Big Short
French boatbuilder Dufour has always sat slightly apart from rivals Beneteau and Jeanneau. Sure, they produce a similar flavour of cruising yacht but it has generally been the case that Dufour aims to be that bit different from their French neighbour
Sailing Today4 min read
Photographic Memories
This dreary winter weather has me reminiscing about warm summers spent sailing. You should see my phone photo library. A total of 35,000 images of seascapes, sunrises and sunsets. I’m like a crazy, obsessed paparazzi with an uncontrollable need to ta

Related Books & Audiobooks