The Endurance in the ice: explorer Shackleon's Antarctic trauma
You're looking at one of the incredible photographs taken by Australian Frank Hurley in 1915 of the ship Endurance, trapped in ice during British explorer Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition. Many more were lost to sea when the ship had to be abandoned.
Shackleton - with the help of his 27-man crew - had planned to cross Antarctica from coast to coast with sledges, picking up supplies left by a second team as he neared the other side.
Disaster struck this expedition when the Endurance became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed.
The crew escaped by camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated, then by launching the lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately South Georgia Island, a stormy ocean voyage of 830 miles and Shackleton's most famous exploit. Shackleton's entire crew survived the disaster (though not the ship's cat, unfortunately).
Frank Hurley, the expedition's photographer and film-maker, managed to rescue some of his material - resulting in an amazing set of images that show us barely believable scenes from the age of exploration and sail.
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