I thought I was pretty familiar with the Shackleton expedition. But not really. For one thing, I wasn't even aware of this book - available for over 60 years - and I didn't know that so many diaries and logbooks were available. The author relies on those sources - detailed, intimate; he's skillful at working with this.
The chairman of the board of a publicly-held company that I represented was a direct descendant of Shackleton, and it was interesting talking to him back in the day; he had traveled to Antarctica. Neither here nor there.
I was pretty far into this book when hanging out with my dad during his last days. We talked about this in quite a bit of detail - he had great recall about aspects I hadn't known about, such as crossing the island. Like most of us, I think he was most impressed by the navigation skills - just incredible that the island was found - even more incredible when considering the description in this book of some of the details of the navigation challenges (not that I understood them very well).
General courage and good spirits through so much; perhaps author being a bit kind, but numerous time he states when folks faltered - impressive.
Building the ship; its fight against pack ice; a good follow-on to "Six Frigates."
The magnitude of the drift and life on an ice floe in that part of the world; the complete isolation - wow.
The photos - I had no idea these survived - incredibly interesting.
The challenge for the author of writing day after day of highly similar things - yet it did not feel repetitive. Somehow. Episodes -
--living on icebound Endurance
--Mark Time Camp - near the boat
--Patience Camp
--a few days on a floe
--Boat trip to Elephant Island
--boat trip to South Georgia Island
--Crossing the center of the Island
--Traveling through ice back to Elephant Island
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