Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

The men set up tents on the large floe and fall into an exhausted sleep, while Shackleton paces around the ice. At 1:00 am, he experiences a jolt and observes a crack widening in the area of the tents. He wakes the crew and they transfer to the larger, safer part of the floe. The plan is to march and portage boats to Paulet Island, over 300 miles northwest, in order to find stores left behind by a stranded expedition in 1902. The crew is encouraged by the idea that they are camped on a thick ice floe rather than on a sinking ship. Like Robinson Crusoe, they make repeated trips back to the ship to retrieve stores before it sinks. All crewmembers remain companionable and acquiesce readily to Shackleton’s order that they bring only those personal items mandatory for survival; they are each allowed two pounds of personal gear.

The men adjust well to the frigid conditions on the ice floe after one week. Macklin notes in his diary, “It has been a lovely day, and it is hard to think we are in a frightfully precarious situation” (86). The sole element to which they are unable to reconcile themselves is the lack of food, which they discuss constantly, as they are surviving on cooked blubber.