Summary of Alfred Lansing's Endurance

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The order to abandon ship was given at 5 P. M. For most of the men, however, no order was needed because by then everybody knew that the ship was done and that it was time to give up trying to save her. They accepted their defeat almost apathetically.
#2 The dog-team drivers had made a canvas chute down to the ice alongside the ship. They took the forty-nine huskies from their kennels and slid each one down to other men waiting below. The whole scene was one of calm, but far away to the south, a gale was blowing toward them.
#3 As the ship continued to struggle, the men could hear ice breaking off and hitting the ship’s side. It looked like some giant vise was being applied to the ship and was slowly tightening until she could no longer hold out against its pressure.
#4 The ice pierced the Endurance’s sides within an hour of the last man being off the ship. The ship was listing heavily to the side, and the entire starboard side of the deckhouse had been crushed by the ice with such force that some empty gasoline cans had been pushed through the deckhouse wall.

Sujets

• HIStory

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669355861
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Alfred Lansing's Endurance
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The order to abandon ship was given at 5 P. M. For most of the men, however, no order was needed because by then everybody knew that the ship was done and that it was time to give up trying to save her. They accepted their defeat almost apathetically.

#2

The dog-team drivers had made a canvas chute down to the ice alongside the ship. They took the forty-nine huskies from their kennels and slid each one down to other men waiting below. The whole scene was one of calm, but far away to the south, a gale was blowing toward them.

#3

As the ship continued to struggle, the men could hear ice breaking off and hitting the ship’s side. It looked like some giant vise was being applied to the ship and was slowly tightening until she could no longer hold out against its pressure.

#4

The ice pierced the Endurance’s sides within an hour of the last man being off the ship. The ship was listing heavily to the side, and the entire starboard side of the deckhouse had been crushed by the ice with such force that some empty gasoline cans had been pushed through the deckhouse wall.

#5

The nearest land was the Palmer Peninsula, which was 182 miles west of the Endurance. The island of Paulet, which was 346 miles northwest across the pack ice, was the only place where they could find food and shelter.

#6

The goal of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, as its name implies, was to cross the Antarctic continent overland from west to east. It was never achieved, and it remained untried for forty-three years until 1957.

#7

Shackleton’s plan was to take a ship into the Weddell Sea and land a sledging party of six men and seventy dogs near Vahsel Bay, approximately 78 degrees south, 36 degrees west. At more or less the same time, a second ship would put into McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea, almost directly across the continent from the Weddell Sea base.

#8

Shackleton was a great leader, but he was also out of place in many everyday situations. He had a talent for leadership, and he shared it with only a handful of men throughout history.

#9

The largest items needed for the expedition were the ships that would carry the two parties to the Antarctic. Shackleton bought the Aurora, a stoutly built ship of the type then used for sealing, from Sir Douglas Mawson. The Aurora had already been on two Antarctic expeditions.

#10

The crew of the Endurance was made up of volunteers who were motivated by the spirit of adventure. They were not paid until the end of the expedition, and the most experienced scientists were given little more than token payments.

#11

The early months of 1914 were spent acquiring the countless items of equipment, stores, and gear that would be needed. Sledges were designed and tested in the snow-covered mountains of Norway. A new type of rations intended to prevent scurvy was tried out, and specially designed tents were acquired.

#12

The Endurance was a beautiful ship by any standards. She was built in Norway by the Framnaes shipyard, and was designed by Aanderud Larsen so that every joint and fitting was cross-braced for the maximum strength.

#13

The trip from London to Buenos Aires was difficult for the crew of the Endurance. Half the scientists were seasick, and First Officer Lionel Greenstreet declared that she behaved in a most abominable way.

#14

The Endurance set sail from Buenos Aires for her last port of call, the desolate island of South Georgia off the southern tip of South America. She proceeded out the ever-widening mouth of the River Platte, and dropped her pilot the next morning at the Recalada Lightship.

#15

The crew of the Endurance was relieved to be on their way, but there was also a sense of tension among them. The crew list included the name of 27 men, but there were actually 28 men on board. Bakewell, How, and McLeod had smuggled Perce Blackboro on board.

#16

The whalers were very interested in the Endurance expedition, because their first-hand knowledge of the Antarctic seas gave them a real appreciation of the problems faced by Shackleton.

#17

The Endurance skirted the coast of South Georgia, and on December 7, the ship passed between Saunders Island and the Candlemas Volcano. They encountered the enemy two hours later, when they came up against a band of heavy pack ice.

#18

The pack began to shrink, and the ship made good progress. They passed close to a berg so magnificent they gave it a name: The Rampart Berg. They were now 400 miles northeast of Vahsel Bay, and Shackleton headed the ship that direction.

#19

The Endurance was beset by ice. As Orde-Lees, the storekeeper, put it, frozen, like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar.

#20

The Endurance was beset by a northerly gale, and no force on earth could open up the ice again except another gale from the opposite direction. The crew slowly began to realize that they were truly beset for good.

#21

The crew tried to free the ship several times in February, but they were never able to get close to the water.