14 January 2022

This is a truly remarkable adventure story


This is another book I've just given a "goodbye read" to, after having first read it decades ago.  Unlike my typical format with recommended books posts, I'm not going to insert any excerpts, because it would be hard to know what to select.  Notably, this is not a tale of discovery or the "conquest" of nature - on the contrary it's an extended narrative about human survival in the world's most inhospitable environment.

Addendum:  The BBC has an extended article with pix about current attempts to locate the wreck of the Endurance.

9 comments:

  1. I've read this one many times and given it to many people. My dad brought it home after he went to Antarctica and I still have the copy. One of the best reads of all time.
    http://dammerr.com/Antarctica/index.html
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Mountains

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  2. Such an amazing story.
    One of those spoiler thingees: What could, and maybe should, have been one of the worst disasters all time ended up with no one lost!
    Sliding down a frozen mountain (after one of the most fraught sea voyages ever) for the penultimate leg defied imagination.
    Good choice. I hope you have a good recipient in mind.
    And, oh yeah, the photographs.

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    1. It's going to a neighbor down the street who worked for the DNR and loves the outdoors. And I agree re the photos - amazing that the crew continued to lug those presumably heavy photo plates with them.

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  3. There's a gazillion books about Shackleton because, well, he and his men did a pretty damned important thing. Here is an excerpt from the most recent book: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/shackleton-endurance-elephant-island Remembering a Little-Known Chapter in the Famed Endurance Expedition to Antarctica (from Ranulph Fienne - Shackleton: The Biography, January 2022)

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  4. Just added it to my A***zon next time list.
    On a similar theme, I presume you've read In The Heart Of The Sea, by Nathaniel Philbrick. An even greater voyage of endurance, with some of the crew surviving thanks to their shipmates.

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    1. Yes - as well as books by the Essex survivors that are on archive dot org. See the Essex wikipedia page for more links.

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  5. I read this book about 15 years ago. Woke my wife twice a night for five nights with, "Oh, my god, you've got to hear this." Still the most astonishing real life adventure story ever.

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  6. I read this years ago. Woke my wife three times a night for a week with, "M - you gotta hear this."
    Astonishing, amazing, thrilling and true. Loved it.

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  7. And on the 100th anniversary of Shackletons's death the Endurance was found 10,000 feet down.
    It is well preserved and safeguards hopefully in place to explore it very carefully.
    I'll bet some of Frank Hurley's photographic plates are there intact.

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