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ENDURANCE by Alfred Lansing

ENDURANCE

By

ISBN: 0842308245
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

The demand for good true adventure is insatiable- and here is a good candidate. Based on diaries and interviews, this is an absorbing account of Ernest Shackleton's third expedition to Antarctica. Shackleton had tried and failed twice before, in 1901 and 1907, to reach the South Pole. His third attempt involved sailing the Endurance as far into Antarctica as possible, then finishing the expedition on foot. But almost from the beginning the expedition was beset by difficulties. The ship had to be abandoned because of the ice-crush and the party had to camp on a drifting ice floe, their only goal now being rescue. They had to kill their own dogs for food but they did manage, eventually, to hunt seals, sea leopards and penguins. Their greatest danger was always the weather. They were finally forced back to the Endurance when their ice floe began to break up. After they reached the island of South Georgia, they formed two groups, one to maintain a camp, the other to look for help. The expedition which began in 1914 took 17 months and Shackleton's goal was only achieved last year by Vivian Fuchs, whose book The Crossing of Antarctica (see p. 892) should spark some additional interest in this one. Here too is adventure handled with professional deftness.