Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance

Throughout the journey, Captain Worsley relies on chronometers to determine longitude. This was an essential tool for navigation before modern-day technologies were available. According to the book, a chronometer is a timepiece that compares the time at the starting point to the time of the current location as measured by the sun. The difference in time allows one to convert “distance into degrees” (73), therefore calculating longitude. Worsley’s chronometers are an updated version of a model invented over a century earlier by a British clockmaker named John Harrison. Harrison’s final version was small, accurate, and able to withstand the harsh conditions of the sea. The crew constantly relies on Worsley to tell them where they are and how far they have traveled.

Dump Camp is the name the men give to the “junk pile of most of the stores and the equipment the men had” (50), placed near Endurance after the ship sinks. It is piled high with dozens of items the men are not able to take with them, including clothing, science equipment, grooming accessories, silverware, tools, and games. It is a reminder of everything they must leave behind. Once they establish Ocean Camp, they periodically go back to Dump Camp to salvage whatever they can. The most essential items they retrieve are a third lifeboat and an abundance of food.

The Endurance is the ship commanded by Shackleton for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914. Originally called Polaris, it has 3 masts and is powered by coal. Shackleton purchases it from “a Norwegian firm that specialized in polar vessels” with the money he has raised for the expedition (5). The hull is designed with thick wood so it can more effectively plow through ice. He renames it Endurance after his family motto, “By endurance we conquer” (7). It becomes a major tourist attraction when it is docked in the River Thames before it departs. After a storm causes tremendous ice pressure, the men must abandon the ship, and The Endurance sinks in the Antarctic ice.

After the men break from the ice and brave the open water in the lifeboats, they reach Elephant Island. It is named after the numerous elephant seals that reside there, which make up the island’s main residents besides several different types of birds. The island is very small and is found at the farthest tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (90). Past it lies Drake’s Passage, a treacherous body of water that extends to South America.

Elephant Island is a cold, “desolate spot,” comprising primarily snowy mountains, the tallest of which reach 2,500 feet. The initial area where the men land is not safe from storm tides, so they are forced to relocate to another camp. After Shackleton and his rescue crew leave for South Georgia Island, the men who remain start calling it “Hell-ephan Island” (122).

Grytviken is the name of the Norwegian whaling station on South Georgia Island where the men stop after departing South America. It is also where Shackleton, Crean, and Worsley return to get help after leaving Elephant Island in the James Caird. It is located on Stromness Bay, “a natural harbor at the base of the island’s rugged alpine cliffs and glaciers” (12). Most of the roughly 200 employees of the station are Norwegian, but they hail from all parts of the world. The station is surrounded by whale carcasses, and the harbor is coated with blood and grease from the oil factory. Due to the smell, the crew jokingly calls the harbor “the Scent Bottle” (13).

The James Caird, Dudley Docker, and Stancomb Wills are the three lifeboats that the men use to sail the open water to Elephant Island after the Endurance sinks. Immediately after Endurance goes down, Shackleton decides to leave the Stancomb Wills behind and only take the other two, but Worsley eventually convinces him they need it to fit everyone. It is the boat that is in the worst shape and leads Shackleton to make the decision to tether all the boats together once they embark on the water and head to Elephant Island. When Shackleton sails back to South Georgia Island with his rescue crew, he takes the James Caird. The remaining men on Elephant Island flip over the other two boats to make the roof of their shelter.

Ocean Camp and Patience Camp are the names the men give to their two temporary camps on the ice after Endurance sinks. They establish Ocean Camp first on a large floe. It is near enough to Dump Camp that they can go back and gather essential items. Since Ocean Camp is on an ice pack drifting in the wrong direction, Shackleton decides to abandon it. Their attempt to trek out on the ice is unsuccessful, so they establish a second camp they call Patience Camp. The conditions are worse than at Ocean Camp as they have fewer items and less food. The ice is less firm, forcing them to crawl to get around. The crew remains at Patience camp until they hit open water, at which point they launch the lifeboats and continue on.

After the Endurance sinks, the men have difficulty launching their rescue boats in the water primarily because they are in the Southern Ocean, considered one of the most treacherous in the world. When they finally do attempt to head out, the ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, is “too much for their small fleet” and sends them back to the ice one again (81). It is prone to violent winds reaching 200 miles per hour (82), along with enormous, forceful waves called “Cape Horn Rollers” that reach 100 feet from bottom to crest and travel at 50 miles per hour (82).

The Southern Ocean also carries currents that “run against the prevailing winds” (82), creating rough waters and strong storms. The storms can kick up massive “rogue waves” that usually come three at a time. In winter, the weather becomes even worse as the Antarctic air produces cyclones. When it hits warm air blowing in from the tropics, the result is “gales, hurricanes, and blizzards” (82). The water coming off of waves turns into sleet. When the tubular iceberg the men retreat to begins to rapidly shrink, they must brave the water once again in their journey to Elephant Island.