Shackleton’s Antarctic Trip

In 1914, the explorer Ernest Shackleton went on a journey to the Antarctic. Shackleton’s plan was to cross the Antarctic continent from sea to sea, passing through the South Pole. It was a journey of more than 2,500 kilometers.

Preparations for the journey started in the middle of 1913 when Shackleton placed a small poster in a national newspaper looking for people to join him on his journey. More than 5,000 people wanted to join. Only 56 men were picked.

Shackleton's ship was called the Endurance and it sailed from London on Friday, August 1st, 1914. However, a few days later Shackleton read in the newspaper that the First World War had started. He quickly sent a telegram offering the ship, stores and sailors. In an hour, Shackleton received another telegram from Winston Churchill thanking him for his offer, but telling him to go on.

In December the Endurance passed the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. It was around here that they first saw icebergs. Soon they ran into pack ice, and on the night of December 6th they found themselves in a small pool of water. It was quickly turning to ice all around them. By January 19th, the Endurance was frozen and couldn’t move. Shackleton tried to make the ship break through the ice, but it was no use. They were trapped.

The ship was trapped in the ice for 281 days. The sailors had to leave the ice and land on a snow-covered island called Elephant Island. As for the ship, it finally sank in November 1915.