Summary of Alfred Lansing's Endurance

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The order to abandon ship was given at 5 P. M. For most of the men, however, no order was needed because by then everybody knew that the ship was done and that it was time to give up trying to save her. They accepted their defeat almost apathetically.

#2 The dog-team drivers had made a canvas chute down to the ice alongside the ship. They took the forty-nine huskies from their kennels and slid each one down to other men waiting below. The whole scene was one of calm, but far away to the south, a gale was blowing toward them.

#3 As the ship continued to struggle, the men could hear ice breaking off and hitting the ship’s side. It looked like some giant vise was being applied to the ship and was slowly tightening until she could no longer hold out against its pressure.

#4 The ice pierced the Endurance’s sides within an hour of the last man being off the ship. The ship was listing heavily to the side, and the entire starboard side of the deckhouse had been crushed by the ice with such force that some empty gasoline cans had been pushed through the deckhouse wall.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669355861

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Alfred Lansing's Endurance

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The order to abandon ship was given at 5 P. M. For most of the men, however, no order was needed because by then everybody knew that the ship was done and that it was time to give up trying to save her. They accepted their defeat almost apathetically.

#2

The dog-team drivers had made a canvas chute down to the ice alongside the ship. They took the forty-nine huskies from their kennels and slid each one down to other men waiting below. The whole scene was one of calm, but far away to the south, a gale was blowing toward them.

#3

As the ship continued to struggle, the men could hear ice breaking off and hitting the ship’s side. It looked like some giant vise was being applied to the ship and was slowly tightening until she could no longer hold out against its pressure.

#4

The ice pierced the Endurance’s sides within an hour of the last man being off the ship. The ship was listing heavily to the side, and the entire starboard side of the deckhouse had been crushed by the ice with such force that some empty gasoline cans had been pushed through the deckhouse wall.

#5

The nearest land was the Palmer Peninsula, which was 182 miles west of the Endurance. The island of Paulet, which was 346 miles northwest across the pack ice, was the only place where they could find food and shelter.

#6

The goal of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, as its name implies, was to cross the Antarctic continent overland from west to east. It was never achieved, and it remained untried for forty-three years until 1957.

#7

Shackleton’s plan was to take a ship into the Weddell Sea and land a sledging party of six men and seventy dogs near Vahsel Bay, approximately 78 degrees south, 36 degrees west. At more or less the same time, a second ship would put into McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea, almost directly across the continent from the Weddell Sea base.

#8

Shackleton was a great leader, but