Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage details what still stands today as one of the greatest adventures ever undertaken by man.
Notable Excerpts
Shackleton rechristened her Endurance, in keeping with the motto of his family, Fortitudine vincimus—“By endurance we conquer.”
In the matter of selecting newcomers, Shackleton’s methods would appear to have been almost capricious. If he liked the look of a man, he was accepted. If he didn’t, the matter was closed. And these decisions were made with lightning speed. There is no record of any interview that Shackleton conducted with a prospective expedition member lasting much more than five minutes.
The waters are hid as with a stone…And the face of the deep is frozen.
The adaptability of the human creature is such that they actually had to remind themselves on occasion of their desperate circumstances.
Their position was 68°38½´ South, 52°28´ West—a place where no man had ever been before, nor could they conceive that any man would ever want to be again.
“I read somewhere that all a man needs to be happy is a full stomach and warmth,
“Hope tells a flattering tale.”
Unlike the land, where courage and the simple will to endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most that he can hope for is not to be defeated.