The Voyage of the James Caird

Continued from February 16th post...

Ernest Shackleton and five of his best men sailed from Elephant Island in the 22-foot James Caird.  Their destination: South Georgia Island, 800 miles to the northeast, where they hoped to obtain a ship to return to Elephant Island and rescue the remainder of the crew of Endurance. After pushing off the desolate beach, Worsley set a course for the gap in the ice that they had spotted from the lookout.  They made good time sailing due north, through the ice and into the Drake Passage.  By noon on April 26th, they were 128 miles from Elephant Island.  Here they encountered the massive rolling waves the circle the globe unobstructed by land.  The little boat rose 80 feet up the front of a wave, dangled in the foam at the top before sliding down its backside.  The cockpit of the boat was constantly inundated with water and had to be constantly pumped out with a hand-pump.  The men’s woolen clothing was wet and decaying.  Worsley’s navigational charts were also soaked, endangering their only chance of finding South Georgia Island.  On April 28, four days out, an huge southwesterly gale began to blow.  For four days, the 60-knot winds force the Caird’s bow down into the waves where it threatened to founder again and again.  Finally, the skies cleared.  By May 4^th, they had covered 450 miles with less than a third of their voyage to go.  Another gale struck from the Northwest filling the boat with water with every wave.  But their exhaustion was matched by their resolve. After the gale, Worsley estimated that they were within 50 miles of South Georgia Island.  All hands surveyed the misty horizon hoping that they had not sailed right past.  Finally, McCarthy shouted “Land.”  There it was.  They were only 16 miles from the western tip of the island.  But in a cruel twist, they were unable to find a safe landing and forced to spend two more days at sea.  On May 10^th, with their water supply exhausted, they rowed against the wind and into King Haakon Bay.  They ran the Caird onto a little rocky beach, jumped ashore, and fell to their knees to drink from a small stream.  They were finally on the island they had left 522 days before.

The six men were too weak to pull the boat out of the surf.  They hung on as the waves repeatedly threatened to drag the Caird out to sea.  In the struggle, the rudder was lost.  Shackleton had intended to sail around the island to Leith Harbor.  But now he decided to take a party of three overland to get help.  The distance was only 29 miles but no one had ever crossed the island because it simply couldn’t be done.  The island is a steep, impenetrable razorback of mountain and glacier.  On May 19^th, Shackleton, Worsley and McNeish set out to cross the island on foot.  They had two compasses, a pair of binoculars, an ice ax, and a 50-foot length of rope.  They climbed peak after peak, often backtracking when their route proved impassable.  At the summit, with the sun going down, it was evident that they would freeze to death unless they could get lower - fast.  Shackleton suggested they slide.  Worsley and McNeish were incredulous but Shackleton wasn’t joking.  The three men got into a toboggan position (without the toboggan) and pushed off.  They tore down the mountain at a blinding speed.  They dropped 2000 feet before the ground leveled and they slowed to a halt.  The march continued through the labyrinth of ridges and valleys.  Finally, Stromness Whaling Station was below them.  “Let’s go down” said Shackleton.

After the shock wore off from meeting this long-assumed dead explorer, the head of the station made every resource available to Shackleton.  The three men waiting with the James Caird were rescued by the whaling-catcher Samson.  At first they didn’t recognize Worsley, now in clean clothes and clean-shaven.  Shackleton arranged to take the large whaler Southern Sky to return to Elephant Island but ice forced her back to port.  Next, a small survey vessel was borrowed but this attempt also failed.  A third attempt was made by the schooner Emma but she didn’t even get close.  It was late August now and Shackleton was desperate.  The Antarctic winter would be closing in on Elephant Island and it wasn’t likely that his men would survive it.  He borrowed an ancient steel-hulled tugboat, the Yelcho, for another attempt. 

Photograph by R. Hurley

On August 30^th, 1916, the twenty-two men on Elephant Island were just sitting down to lunch in their crude hut when someone sighted a ship on the horizon.  They tumbled over each other and ran to the shore.  Soon, the tug had come to within a few hundred yards of shore.  A small boat was launched.  As it approached, the men cheered as they recognized Ernest Shackleton in the prow.  An hour later, with everyone aboard, the Yelcho steamed north.  Worsley logged, “All Well!  At last!”

Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Carroll & Graf, 1959.

Question of the Day: How many men were lost during the incredible voyage of the Endurance?