Rating: 
Summary: Could have been better
Review: The story of Shakleton's Endurance expedition is my all-time favorite, having discovered it after I found out that my ancestor was one of the heros (Tom Crean). This book's highlights were the extra unpublished photographs and the details of the lives of the survivors after they made it back to civilisation. However this books fault (and a major one) is that it details the time on the Endurance and on the ice floes at the expense of the stories about the two boat journeys and the crossing of South Georgia. The crossings of Drake passage and South Georgia are almost rushed through (I can't even remember Drakes Passage even being mentioned). All the drama of the voyage of the James Caird, probably the greatest boat voyage ever undertaked, and the brilliance of Worsley's navigation are completely lost in the authors effort to tell us about the lives of the men on Elephant Island, especially Hurley of whom she is particularly fond. Frank Worsley's 'Shackleton's Boat Voyage' conveys all the drama and excitement of the voyage of the James Caird in vivid detail, while Alfred Lansings' 'Endurance' is without a doubt the best book written on the subject, a book I couldn't put down for a second, and I knew how it ended.
Rating: 
Summary: Last Great Adventure of the Heroic Age
Review: There's lots of books written on the subject of Shackleton's extraordinary journey to the Antarctic. None really captures all the vividness and resilience of Caroline Alexander's, 'The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition.' She presents the astonishing work of Australian photographer Frank Hurley whose never-before-published visual record of the adventure recreates the terrible beauty of the Antarctic, the destruction of the ship Endurance and the heroic crew's daily struggle to stay alive with the miraculous, inspiring leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton. The survival of Hurley's awesome images are scarcely less miraculous. The original glass plate negatives are excellently reproduced. They were stored in sealed canisters that survived months of ice floes, in open boat of the polar seas and buried in the snows of a rocky outcrop called Elephant Island. In the final footage of the expedition Hurley had to abandon his professional equipment and with a pocket camera and three rolls of Kodak film captured some of the most unforgettable images of the thrilling struggle. The expedition began in August 1914 before the outbreak of the first World War. Renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail on thier ship the "ENDURANCE" for the South Atlantic from England in quest for the last unclaimed prize in history: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic interior.
It was by 1915 the men sailed into the frozen waters of the Weddell Sea where the Endurance became trapped in the icy floes and further ice conditions brought the Endurance to a halt. With no dangerous beasts or indigenous natives to tackle the harsh conditions of a savage Antarctic would put to the test the limits of these heroic men for a long, grueling 22 months. Beginning in 1914 and ending in 1917 the Endurance expedition is said to be the last in the Heroic Age of polar expedition. Most is owed to Shackleton's greatness in leadership and insane suffering of his earlier Antarctic experiences. Shackleton was the son of a physician, born near Ballitore, Co. Kildare, Ireland, lived briefly in Dublin as a child before his family moved permanently to England. At age sixteen soon began his life in the navy with romantic ambition took to exploration that appealed to his aspiration. Leading up to the fateful expedition, Shackleton had acquired the use of sixty-nine Canadian sledging dogs to aid in the journey. The dogs were not huskies but mixed collection of big dogs. These tough, brave animals helped the men across the icy terrain to their goal-the South Pole. Hurley writes of them in his book, 'Argonauts of the South.' Sadly, as the years of the expediton grew harsh the toll not only weaken the men but their canine companions. When food was scarce the men had to make grisly accommodations for their survival. Some of the members kept diaries of these unpleasant experiences. Every page you will hold your breathe to what will happen next to the end of the successful rescue by the "Yelcho"-not a life lost and yet been through Hell. This was an excellent and thrilling story that will probably never happen again in our lifetime as one of the last greatest adventures.
Rating:
Summary: First-rate
Review: This book is a first-rate telling of the Endurance story. Even better, the B&W photos are gorgeously reproduced, and Alexander tells some details of how they were taken and preserved.
Rating:
Summary: A Gripping and Beautiful Tale of Leadership
Review: This is a truly gripping and beautiful book. The story of the voyage and survival of the Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to traverse the Antarctic continent on foot, is truly awe-inspiring. The photographs of Frank Hurley, the expedition's photographer, are sublime and powerful. I can't recapture the magnitude or beauty of the book in a few words, but two things struck me as particularly moving. At one point, Shackleton and five men sailed 800 miles in a 22-foot boat through the tempestuous South Atlantic Ocean to reach help. I doubt that even Alexander's account of the voyage does justice to the courage, skill and fortitude exhibited by these men.
Two comments put this one piece of the survival struggle into perspective. Alexander comments, "They would later learn that a 500-ton steamer had foundered with all hands in the same hurricane they had just weathered." And upon reaching civilization for the first time, the captain of the Endurance, Frank Worsley records the reaction of some of the hardiest seamen in the world: Three or four white-haired veterans of the sea came forward. One spoke in Norse, and the Manager translated. He said he had been at sea over 40 years; that he knew this stormy Southern Ocean intimately, from South Georgia to Cape Horn, from Elephant Island to the South Orkneys, and that never had he heard of such a wonderful feat of daring seamanship as bringing the 22-foot open boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia.... All the seamen present then came forward and solemnly shook hands with us in turn. Coming from brother seamen, men of our own cloth and members of a great seafaring race like the Norwegians, this was a wonderful tribute. (The Endurance, pages 166-167). The second thing I found so moving about Alexander's account was the skillful and authentic way she weaves Hurley's unbelievably stark and beautiful photographs into the fabric of this story. Most moving of all, though, is the absence of photographs during the voyage described above. Shackleton, who lived and led for his men, left them to bring help, and it is somehow fitting that we have the same sense of solitude and lack the tangibility of a photograph to reassure us about the well-being of the 22 men left behind. Shackleton ("the Boss") to his men, was a true leader. In her conclusion, Alexander writes of him, "He would be remembered not so much for his own accomplishment -- the 1909 expedition that attained the farthest South -- as for what he was capable of drawing out of others." She goes on to quote Worsley: Shackleton's popularity among those he led was due to the fact that he was not the sort of man who could do only big and spectacular things. When occasion demanded he would attend personally to the smallest details.... Sometimes it would appear to the thoughtless that his care amounted almost to fussiness, and it was only afterwards that we understood the supreme importance of his ceaseless watchfulness. (The Endurance, pages 193-194). Alexander goes on to say, "Behind every calculated word and gesture lay the single-minded determination to do what was best for his men. At the core of Shackleton's gift for leadership in crisis was...the fact that he elicited from his men strength and endurance they had never imagined they possessed; he ennobled them." I think the most interesting passages with respect to his leadership are those that deal with the obvious INCREASED strain that Shackleton experienced after HE was safe but 22 of his men remained stranded on Elephant Island, even after 2 attempts to reach them. Again, Worsley's insight is revealing: "The wear and tear of this period was dreadful. To Shackleton it was little less than maddening. Lines scored themselves on his face more deeply day by day; his thick, dark, wavy hair was becoming silver. He had not had a grey hair when we started out to rescue our men the first time. Now on the third journey, he was grey-haired." When Shackleton finally reached Elephant Island and realized that all his men had survived, Worsley writes, "He put his glasses back in their case and turned to me, his face showing more emotion than I had ever known it show before...we were all unable to speak. It sounds trite, but years literally seemed to drop from him as he stood before us." In my estimation, this is the true quality of a leader: he leads his people, but more than anything, he leads FOR his people.
Rating:
Summary: Correction of other reviews
Review: To start with let me say I found this book more interesting than any other book I have read. Why I think some of the other reviewers are off target:
This isn't a story of Shackleton, it's the story of the whole crew and the voyage. Also this isn't a story of a life or death struggle of people hanging on for dear life. What is so facinating is that the men live their lives for a couple of years. The crew celebrated holidays, entertained themselves, made friendships... They continued to live their lives, even though they were in a very extreme situation. This is demonstrated by the fact that Shackleton and a couple of his men tried to go back to Antartica years later, wanting to recreate the adventure. They looked back on the trip with happy memories, not heartbreak. I would bet for many of the crew, the years on the voyage were the best years of their lives (strange as it sounds). I would have loved to meet any of the men. I hope I am fortunate enough to make a friend or two in my life with the same attitudes and character of the men of the Endurance.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on Shackleton's Voyage
Review: Unlike the original manuscripts by S and his men, this compilation draws on a variety of sources and provides a balanced picture. A compelling story.
| 
