Land, ho! The National Geographic Explorer spotted our first sighting of land after our 740-nautical-mile crossing of the Scotia Sea from South Georgia. As calm as crossings come in the Southern Ocean we have been riding the swell ever so comfortably and enjoying a variety of talks along the way. After passing Cornwallis Island we headed for Point Wild on Elephant Island and had an incredible look at the camp where Shackleton’s 22 men spent four months waiting to be rescued. Shackleton and five other men made a last ditch attempt to save the rest of the crew by taking the 22-foot-long whale boat, the James Caird across the open ocean to South Georgia. Initially all the men landed seven miles down the coast at Cape Valentine where it was very obvious that the wave-swept beach was not high and dry enough to camp on. After looking along the coast for nine hours, Frank Wild returned to the men and said he had found a secure place to camp down the coast. Loading up their boats they made good progress for the first two miles before hurricane force winds laid down on them making their approach to Point Wild extremely challenging. Chinstrap penguins in a most foreboding landscape were the only signs of life on land, with not a boulder or small rock to protect them from the wind—“a more inhospitable place could scarcely be imagined” (said Alexander Macklin).
Food was a constant problem and while they had a few remaining boxes of provisions salvaged from the Endurance, the great bulk of their menu came from the meager resources of Point Wild. Upon arriving all hands were ordered to kill penguins which helped to fuel their fires and feed them. Since shelter from the elements was paramount the men started building their home using the two other boats, the Dudley Docker and Stancomb Wills. Overturned and laid side by side they provided walls, roof..a makeshift shelter. A totally unimaginable existence, one can only imagine the elation these men felt when they saw Shackleton on a Chilean rescue boat approaching the island. Shackleton having had his own epic took three attempts on three different boats to rescue his men. As the katabatic winds came barreling down the glacier from the ice dome we pulled away with a deeper admiration for these men and the incredible journey they endured throughout the trials and tribulations of the sinking of the Endurance.
