Indeed. That he did it without loss of life is nothing short of miraculous. The other journey that comes to mind is Bligh’s 4,000 mile survival trip to Timor after being thrown off the Bounty with his 18 loyal crew members; and he did it by dead reckoning.
John Franklin’s Erebus and Terror have also both been found.
I read a book (can’t remember specifically which one – there have been a bunch, and it was years ago) about Shackleton, and it’s still one of the most amazing true life stories I’ve ever read. Just got a NatGeo notification about the discovery of Endurance and got goose pimples.
The wreck of Capt. John Paul Jones’s ship has never been found with certainty: USS Bonhomme Richard (1765) - Wikipedia
There’s some dispute as to whether one of James Cook’s ships has been located, either: HMS Endeavour - Wikipedia
Likewise Christopher Columbus’s: Santa María (ship) - Wikipedia
Listened to the audiobook a month ago. Unbelievable (and written in the slightly breathless prose of the fifties). Question–the party only survived because they could kill so many seals and sea lions. Why in the heck did they have SO MUCH ammunition on a polar expedition? It must have been thousands of rounds. Other than sea lions there are no predators in the antarctic, right? (And sea lion predation on humans is not exactly common).
One of The Endurance’s crew was a man named Tom Crean, the “Irish Giant”. While my husband was alive we had a big picture of Tom holding four big puppies- they brought pregnant Newfoundland looking dogs with them. I took it down- never could look at it without grimacing. They ate dogs. I get it, but still, the damn poster was in the kitchen…
Battleship USS Oklahoma. Sank somewhere between Hawaii and San Francisco. I guess there’s probably not a lot of historical interest in it.
Simple answer; So they could shoot many seals and sea lions (and penguins) for food. They were prepared for this even without an emergency. This was the primary food for the dog teams too.
I highly recommend the TV show Shackleton. One bit that said a lot about the man was his instruction to the men as they were setting off on foot to only carry the absolute essentials: the expected survival gear, and… their journals.
Sure, but once they were away from the edge of the ice, the opportunity would be gone. I guess it makes sense for the folks left on the Endurance, but that was a lot of ammo. Of all the scarcity, that was not mentioned once.
The plan was to take very little food for the dog teams; and to hunt seals and penguins to put in a large store of meat. Then this meat could be carried by dogsled teams to the pole and then on to the Ross sea. Carrying a few thousand bullets over the ocean instead of several thousand pounds of meat made a lot of sense.
It was used in my school woodworking class in the 1960s/70s, to mean a part standing slightly above its neighbours. Sometimes intentionally, mostly not!
Interesting - I hadn’t known that: USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Wikipedia
He must have played the Oregon Trail video game as a kid.
The NASA starship in Interstellar had a familiar and time-honored name, by the way: Endurance | Interstellar Wiki | Fandom
The condition of that ship is simply amazing. wow.
This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time.
The 2000 George Butler documentary The Endurance quotes the whaler who answered Shackleton’s knock on the door: “Who the Hell are you?”
And also film gear, and thousands of glass plates, much of which survived.
I read that Frank Hurley the expedition photographer selected the best photographic plates and smashed the rest so he would not be tempted to go back for them.
Cold water can really keep wooden ships in surprising good condition. The Swedish ship Vasa sunk famously soon after being launched into the water back in 1628. It wasn’t until recently they pulled her out practically fully intact. (Holes where they went after the cannon and her masts were cut.