On April 24, 1916, Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organize a rescue for the ice-trapped ship Endurance. After four rescue attempts, Shackleton made it back to Elephant Island on August 30.
The Endurance became trapped in the Weddell Sea in February 1915 and the expedition had to abandon ship at the end of October. The ice condition made it difficult to travelthan a mile a day so the party camped on the ice waiting for the ice to breakup. Finally in April 1916 the crew made it to Elephant Island and remained there until their rescue in August. It would be more than 40 years before the first crossing of Antarctica was achieved, by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955–58.
After some icy winter days here, there is no way I want to endure the Antarctic ice!
Icy Tree
