Into the Ice

"Pack-ice might be described as a gigantic and interminable jigsaw-puzzle devised by nature."

- Sir Ernest Shackleton, South

The Endurance set sail from South Georgia at 8:45 a.m. on December 5, 1914; on the evening of December 7, she encountered the first pack ice. For the next six weeks, the ship dodged and weaved between loose floes, or—particularly under the watch of her high-spirited captain, Frank Worsley—rammed through them. Judging from their surviving diaries, a majority of the men seemed to regard this journey as at worst incon-venient, at best thrilling.

"All day we have been utilizing the ship as a battering ram," Hurley wrote in his diary on December 17, 1914. "We admire our sturdy little ship, which seems to take a delight herself in combating our common enemy, shattering the floes in grand style." Few seem to have doubted that the Endurance would eventually win her way through to her destination—Vahsel Bay, on the Antarctic continent.