The story of the Endurance is a real life epic. It is hard to imagine another story so engrossing and so impossible that also happens to be true. When Ernest Shackleton assembled 27 men to join him in his quest to cross Antarctica, he began a journey that would stand as a testament to mankind’s indomitable will to survive. It was a disaster practically from the moment the Endurance reached the ice floe of the frozen continent. Trapped in ice, the ship was crushed and on Nov. 21, 1915, sank to the bottom of the Weddell Sea.
Endurance under sail trying to break through pack ice, Weddell Sea, Antarctica, 1915, by Frank Hurley, from original Paget Plate, 1914–1915, State Library New South Wales. Public Domain
