I remember watching a TV documentary about the Endurance expedition 10 years ago and being flabbergasted. First, the Endurance is trapped by ice for half a yea

I remember watching a TV documentary about the Endurance expedition 10 years ago and being flabbergasted. First, the Endurance is trapped by ice for half a year. Then she is crushed by the ice, and the crew camps on the ice. Then they start a 500 km march, over the ice, carrying the lifeboats, to reach an island. After over half a year (!), they finally decide to start a 160 km journey across the open sea in the three lifeboats. The crew of 27 manages to reach Elephant Island after 5 days on the open sea in wet clothes at temperatures below -20 degrees. The island is completely uninhabited and there is little hope to ever be rescued from there, so they build a new boat out of the three lifeboats, and Shackleton and five other men set out for a 1,300 km journey to South Georgia, which they know has a small whaling station. Here is an image of the boat [0]. This journey itself has is its own Wikipedia article [1] and is considered one of the greatest boat journeys ever accomplished. The rest of the crew is left behind on Elephant Island. Against all odds, they actually reach South Georgia after 17 days in extremely bad conditions. However, they are on the wrong side of the island. So Shackleton decides to cross the island by foot, with 2 others. It's a 40 km journey across a mountain range nearly 3,000 meters high [2]. They have no map and improvise their route. In what was actually the first confirmed crossing of South Georgia, they reach the whaling station after walking, without stop, day and night, for nearly 2 days. Just imagine being placed at that whaling station, at the end of the world, and suddenly seeing these 3 half-dead men come out of the mountains. They pick up the remaining crew on the other end of the island by boat. Then, Shackleton immediately tries to rescue the rest of his crew which is still 1,300 km back on Elephant Island (he has no idea whether they are still alive). This takes another 3 months and multiple ships. Only the fourth attempt is successful. But in September 1916, over 1.5 years after the Endurance was trapped in ice, Shackleton has saved his entire crew. Everybody survived. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird#/media/File:LaunchingTheJamesCaird2.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird#/med... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird [2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/PanoramaOfSouthGeorgia.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Panorama...