$16.95 (E-mail pennington@powerweb.com to
request special autographed personalizations in book.)
64 pages, 8 x 10 inches, hard cover
From the back cover:
SOUTHWARD
BOUND Journey to the Bottom of the
World
In
1913, British newspapers published the following advertisement at the
request of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who was organizing an expedition to
Antarctica:
"Men wanted
for hazardous journey.
Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of
complete darkness. Constant danger.
Safe return doubtful. Honor and
recognition in case of success."
Almost 5,000 men replied to the ad - and to the opportunity
to be among the first to cross the Antarctic continent - including surgeons,
engineers, meteorologists, physicists and geologists.
Shackleton chose 26 men, each according to his degree of strength, patience
and, most importantly, optimism. Shackleton believed the mindset of an
individual superseded every other quality he possessed, including his
intelligence, experience and physical condition.
The ship, Endurance, became trapped in the rapidly forming winter ice, 100
miles off the coast of Antarctica. The crew, stranded 11,000 miles from
home, waited for the spring thaw through nine long months of blizzards, gales
and temperatures nearing 100 degrees below zero. They were alone at the end of
the earth. With food scarce, the men watched in horror as their ship
finally succumbed to the pressure of the frozen ocean, breaking to rubble
before sinking to the bottom of the sea.
Their only hope of survival was to travel by foot across hundreds of miles of
broken and jagged ice in search of open waters, wary of the killer whales that
could nose up through the ice and swallow a man with ease. Realizing that
hope of rescue was impossible, Shackleton took five volunteers and sailed the
largest of the three lifeboats (salvaged from the wrecked ship) through the
most treacherous waters in the world, to the nearest inhabited island, home
only to a small whaling station, 800 miles away. Once on shore, Shackleton
and his men then traversed an uncharted mountain range - "The Alps of the
Southern Ocean" - in order to finally reach the whaling camp, and
rescue. It would take months of battling the seas to bring the remainder
of his crew to safety.
Nearly two years were spent on ice and ocean, and the journey was recognized as "the greatest survival story of all time." Endurance was more than
the name of the ship, it was the Shackleton family motto: "By endurance
we conquer." Everyone aboard the vessel journeying southward with
Shackleton had to believe these words were true, for the southern seas would
show them no mercy.
