South Shetland Islands, Antarctica
On a snow covered boulder beach on a rugged rocky island, a group of men survived for 4 months waiting for the return of their leader and a rescue party. Sheltered only by overturned boats and what little equipment they were able to bring from their crushed ship, the survival of these men is an incredible story of perseverance. Today, many people have heard of the epic journey of Sir Ernest Shackelton and the crew of the Endurance. Books and films have chronicled the extraordinary event. At the beginning of this voyage on the National Geographic Endeavour there is probably not a person on board that had even a small glimmer of hope that they would set foot on the ground where the determined group of Shakelton’s men held on to life. But today the conditions were aligned perfectly to allow such an unexpected experience.
In the morning fog, we passed along the southern side of Elephant Island, a daunting landscape of steep rocky ridges poking through a cover of snow persisting from the blasting winds of the past winter and a cap of ice fields from which glaciers poured to the sea. A strong southerly wind created a choppy sea until we turned around the eastern end of the island at Cape Valentine. It was at this end of the island where Shackelton’s group, tired of trekking across the Waddell Sea pack ice first tried to set up a camp. But realising the potential for higher water conditions decided to move on along the northwestern coast. About 7 miles further they settled in a spot called Point Wild and it was here that we were headed for the morning.
Even with a wind spilling over the spires of the mountains making up the island and the glaciers in front of us in the bay, the Captain brought us to a position where the Zodiacs could be safely lowered and we could board them bundled against the icy breeze. A scouting party had gone ashore to locate a possible landing site. Because of the persisting snow, there were few choices. Much of the beach that Shackelton’s group had camped and survived on, had been washed away over the ensuing decades. But the excitement of landing and the blue sky and bright sun was enough to stimulate most of us to brave a difficult landing on tidal boulders. Many helping hands and a few makeshift steps notched into the snow allowed us to stand where Antarctic history had taken place. The moment was also shared with a few hundred Chinstrap Penguins that had returned to nest but were impatiently waiting for the deep snow to melt so their nesting ground would be exposed and they could carry on their summer’s chore of raising successors.
After Zodiac cruising the rugged coastline and attempting to get a feeling of what it must have been like waiting for over 100 days to be rescued, our comfortable warm ship was greatly appreciated. During the afternoon we again rounded the eastern end of Elephant Island and crossed the Bransfield Passage to yet another phenomenal experience. Tim, the Expedition Leader and Captain Kruess in planning the voyage had seen a satellite image of the South Shetland Islands. On that image there was what looked like a huge tabular iceberg ground off the end of Clarence Island. Fortunately, in the afternoon the fog had dissipated to where we could see what looked like a wall of ice over 30 meters high. As we cruised off the ice wall we heard from the staff just how large this ice “island” was. Named B15d the ice island was about 29 nautical miles long and about 8 miles wide. Later at recap we learned that it had actually traveled counter clockwise around much of the continent having originated from the Ross Sea. The original “iceberg” had broken free from the Ross Shelf in March of 2000, at the time being the largest iceberg ever recorded. In its 7 year travel it had gone the long way around the Antarctic continent and took a diversion into the Waddell Sea before running aground at its current position. Steve did some mathematical and mental manipulations of the volume of water temporarily entrapped in this berg. Based on some assumptions and rough measurements the water enclosed could supply our ship for 11.5 million years or it could supply a city of 2 million people for about 1000 years.
To finish off the day we cruised along one of the smaller islands in the South Shetland Islands but only in size as the scenery was tremendous in the low light of the day. For those with binoculars a scanning of prominent rounded hills and sloping shorelines revealed more masses of small black backs either en route up or down or standing on the crusted snow fields - more Chinstrap Penguins, literally 10’s of 1000’s.. Today we had stepped in the path of adventurers and felt the sting of icy cold wind but even so our experiences will be warm memories of extraordinary experiences.
On a snow covered boulder beach on a rugged rocky island, a group of men survived for 4 months waiting for the return of their leader and a rescue party. Sheltered only by overturned boats and what little equipment they were able to bring from their crushed ship, the survival of these men is an incredible story of perseverance. Today, many people have heard of the epic journey of Sir Ernest Shackelton and the crew of the Endurance. Books and films have chronicled the extraordinary event. At the beginning of this voyage on the National Geographic Endeavour there is probably not a person on board that had even a small glimmer of hope that they would set foot on the ground where the determined group of Shakelton’s men held on to life. But today the conditions were aligned perfectly to allow such an unexpected experience.
In the morning fog, we passed along the southern side of Elephant Island, a daunting landscape of steep rocky ridges poking through a cover of snow persisting from the blasting winds of the past winter and a cap of ice fields from which glaciers poured to the sea. A strong southerly wind created a choppy sea until we turned around the eastern end of the island at Cape Valentine. It was at this end of the island where Shackelton’s group, tired of trekking across the Waddell Sea pack ice first tried to set up a camp. But realising the potential for higher water conditions decided to move on along the northwestern coast. About 7 miles further they settled in a spot called Point Wild and it was here that we were headed for the morning.
Even with a wind spilling over the spires of the mountains making up the island and the glaciers in front of us in the bay, the Captain brought us to a position where the Zodiacs could be safely lowered and we could board them bundled against the icy breeze. A scouting party had gone ashore to locate a possible landing site. Because of the persisting snow, there were few choices. Much of the beach that Shackelton’s group had camped and survived on, had been washed away over the ensuing decades. But the excitement of landing and the blue sky and bright sun was enough to stimulate most of us to brave a difficult landing on tidal boulders. Many helping hands and a few makeshift steps notched into the snow allowed us to stand where Antarctic history had taken place. The moment was also shared with a few hundred Chinstrap Penguins that had returned to nest but were impatiently waiting for the deep snow to melt so their nesting ground would be exposed and they could carry on their summer’s chore of raising successors.
After Zodiac cruising the rugged coastline and attempting to get a feeling of what it must have been like waiting for over 100 days to be rescued, our comfortable warm ship was greatly appreciated. During the afternoon we again rounded the eastern end of Elephant Island and crossed the Bransfield Passage to yet another phenomenal experience. Tim, the Expedition Leader and Captain Kruess in planning the voyage had seen a satellite image of the South Shetland Islands. On that image there was what looked like a huge tabular iceberg ground off the end of Clarence Island. Fortunately, in the afternoon the fog had dissipated to where we could see what looked like a wall of ice over 30 meters high. As we cruised off the ice wall we heard from the staff just how large this ice “island” was. Named B15d the ice island was about 29 nautical miles long and about 8 miles wide. Later at recap we learned that it had actually traveled counter clockwise around much of the continent having originated from the Ross Sea. The original “iceberg” had broken free from the Ross Shelf in March of 2000, at the time being the largest iceberg ever recorded. In its 7 year travel it had gone the long way around the Antarctic continent and took a diversion into the Waddell Sea before running aground at its current position. Steve did some mathematical and mental manipulations of the volume of water temporarily entrapped in this berg. Based on some assumptions and rough measurements the water enclosed could supply our ship for 11.5 million years or it could supply a city of 2 million people for about 1000 years.
To finish off the day we cruised along one of the smaller islands in the South Shetland Islands but only in size as the scenery was tremendous in the low light of the day. For those with binoculars a scanning of prominent rounded hills and sloping shorelines revealed more masses of small black backs either en route up or down or standing on the crusted snow fields - more Chinstrap Penguins, literally 10’s of 1000’s.. Today we had stepped in the path of adventurers and felt the sting of icy cold wind but even so our experiences will be warm memories of extraordinary experiences.
