Description
This boat journey has as recently as 2001 been described as the longest and most arduous small boat journey on record. The author, Captain Frank Worsley, was a New Zealander who was also the Captain of Shackleton’s ship Endurance. He was selected to accompany Shckleton and three others on the 800 mile boat journey because of his superior navigational ability, his considerable experience in sailing and handling small boats, and his great stamina, strength and positive attitude.
It is a miracle that the journey succeeded, concluding as it did with the crossing on foot of South Georgia to summon help from a whaling station. This has only been accomplished once since then, by expert climbers using modern equipment and starting from a fitness base of rest, excellent health and proper feeding.
Worsley was known as an excellent story-teller (one reason why he appealed to Shackleton), and his book is an absorbing narrative. It complements Shackleton’s own account in South – the only other contemporary record of these events. It is very well illustrated with large photographs taken by Frank Hurley, inluding some of the final pictures taken with a “hand-held”.
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