The Endurance_ Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition - Caroline Alexander [54]
To Frank Wild, Shackleton wrote a somewhat cryptic last letter:
April 23rd, 1916 Elephant Island
Dear Sir
In the event of my not surviving the boat journey to South Georgia you will do your best for the rescue of the party. You are in full command from the time the boat leaves this island, and all hands are under your orders. On your return to England you are to communicate with the Committee. I wish you, Lees & Hurley to write the book. You watch for my interests. In another letter you will
Hurley called this photograph “The landing on Elephant Island,” but it is clear from the landscape (and identical pattern of snowfall) that this was taken on the day the Caird was launched. In fact it depicts the Stancomb Wills preparing to set out on her fourth and last trip to supply the Caird. The object roped in the water is one of the two breakers of water for the Caird, which was floated in tow. The figure in the bow (facing the shore) holding the tow rope is probably Shackleton.
The Stancomb Wills supplying the Caird. “The Wills made heavy weather every time she came inshore, and most of the hands got wet loading her” (Wordie, Diary). Hurley called this photograph “Rescuing the Crew from Elephant Island”; but the boat is unmistakably the Stancomb Wills, and the photograph part of the sequence of loading the Caird.
find the terms as agreed for lecturing you to do England Great Britain & Conti nent. Hurley the U.S.A. I have every confidence in you and always have had, May God prosper your work and your life. You can convey my love to my people and say I tried my best.
Yours sincerely
E. H. Shackleton
Frank Wild
“The men ashore formed a pathetic group,” wrote Worsley. “As long as they thought that we could see them they kept up a wonderful appearance of optimism and heartiness.”
When the Caird had gone, the men turned back to their lonely camp on the wind-blasted beach; what their private thoughts were at this moment, they did not reveal even to their diaries. Wild's responsibilities were unenviable. He was in charge of the care of twenty-one demoralized, partially incapacitated, and perhaps rebellious men, with one man, Blackborow, gravely ill. The deserted, barren rock on which they would have to live was, as they had slowly come to realize, daily raked by gale-force winds and blizzards. They had insufficient clothing and no shelter. They had no source of food or fuel except for penguins and seals, which could not be counted on to be around forever. They were well beyond all shipping lanes. If the James Caird was unsuccessful, there was, as Shackleton himself wrote, “no chance at all of any search being made…on Elephant Island.”
South Georgia Island
“The outlook was disappointing. I looked down a sheer precipice to a chaos of crumpled ice 1,500 feet below.” ( Shackleton, South)
The Voyage of the James Caird
Tues 25th Fine WSW breeze running all day sky overcast.
Wed 26th W.SW gale squally & cloudy run 105 mile
Thurs 27th Northerly gale overcast & heavy squalls hove too.
Friday 28th Light N.W to W winds misty high NW swell
Sat 29th Fresh W to SW breeze sqaly running high seas
Sunday 30th hove too at 8 AM & put out sea anchor at 3 PM heavy sprays breaking over the boat & freezing solid.
Mon May lst SSW gale laying to sea anchor & mizzen
Tues May 2nd—
—HENRY MCNISH, diary
“The tale of the next sixteen days is one of supreme strife amid heaving waters,” wrote Shackleton. The crew of the Caird had departed on a day of rare sunshine that made the water sparkle and dance, and the peaks and glacial slopes of Elephant Island glittered with deceptive beauty as they slowly fell away behind the boat. An hour and a half after taking leave of the line of dark figures on the lonely beach, the Caird 's crew ran into their old enemy, the