November 13, 1915: Shackleton Forms a Plan

This Day in Founder History

November 13, 1915 · Ernest Shackleton

On November 13, 1915, with his ship already crushed and his men living on the ice, Ernest Shackleton told them he had a plan. Endurance had been stuck in the pack since January, about ten months, and they had abandoned her only two and a half weeks earlier. There was no rescue coming. Shackleton had been studying the charts, and their drift looked like it was carrying them toward Snow Hill Island, about 270 miles to the northwest. If they could launch the boats in time, they might land there, send a small party across the glaciers, and work their way to a bay the whalers used in summer. He could not promise it would work. He still wanted every real option on the table.

Alfred Lansing, Endurance

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