1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:03,520 Speaker 1: Can you imagine traveling to the most desolate place on 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:07,880 Speaker 1: Earth with the goal of exploration, only to find yourself trapped, 3 00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:11,719 Speaker 1: completely cut off from any kind of help. Well, now 4 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:15,400 Speaker 1: imagine this happens in Antarctica more than one hundred years ago. 5 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:20,240 Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele, the renowned polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, and 6 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,240 Speaker 1: the stunning story of the endurance that's next on the backstory. 7 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: The backstory is back. Okay, it's nineteen fifteen. It's toward 8 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: the end of what they call the Heroic Age of 9 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: Antarctic Exploration. Sir Ernest Shackleton was one of the main 10 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,440 Speaker 1: figures of the age, leading three British expeditions to the 11 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: frozen continent, attempting to reach the South Pole and also 12 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 1: to cross Antarctica from c to sea and to be 13 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 1: the first guy to do it. It was that trip 14 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 1: that became a disaster. Shackleton dreamed of being the first 15 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: man to completelys Antarctica. Can you imagine what that trek 16 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:06,679 Speaker 1: would have been like. We're talking sub zero temperatures with 17 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 1: summer falling between October and April. The average high tempts 18 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:14,919 Speaker 1: are right around zero. And that's despite twenty four hours 19 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 1: of sunlight every day, winter averages forty five below with 20 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 1: lows as frigid as seventy five below zero, and utter 21 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,959 Speaker 1: darkness twenty four hours a day all year round. There 22 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:32,759 Speaker 1: are wild winds, oceans with massive icy waves and tremendous blizzards. 23 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:38,279 Speaker 1: Understand something, Until more recently than you'd actually think, people 24 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:40,840 Speaker 1: looked at the ocean pretty much the way we view 25 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:43,959 Speaker 1: the stars today. It was a world that seemed to 26 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 1: contain an infinite number of possibilities, but we just didn't 27 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:50,960 Speaker 1: know that much about it. Just as NASA and SpaceX 28 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,560 Speaker 1: are advancing our goal of planning a flag in outer space, 29 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,520 Speaker 1: hundreds of years ago, explorers devoted their lives to mapping 30 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: out the far corners of the world's oceans, and Antarctica 31 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 1: was a magnet for these types. In the late eighteen 32 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 1: hundreds and early nineteen hundreds, Shackleton was determined, and he 33 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 1: looked for the perfect crew. Legend has it that he 34 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:17,200 Speaker 1: posted an ad in a London newspaper that read men 35 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:22,080 Speaker 1: wanted for hazardous journey, low wages, bitter cold, long hours 36 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: of complete darkness, safe return, doubtful honor and recognition in 37 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 1: event of success. However, he did search for his crew 38 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,680 Speaker 1: were not sure that's actually it. We do know. Shackleton 39 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:39,240 Speaker 1: got more than five thousand applications, including a letter from 40 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: some women who called themselves three sporty Girls, who said 41 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 1: that if their feminine clothing was inconvenient, they would just 42 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,640 Speaker 1: love to don masculine attire. He set off on his 43 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,679 Speaker 1: trip on a ship called the Endurance, with a crew 44 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:56,239 Speaker 1: of twenty eight, none of them, by the way, female. 45 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: It was the fall of nineteen fourteen. Their mission was 46 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 1: to reach the Wettle Sea and then begin a perilous 47 00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:07,440 Speaker 1: trek across the frozen continent. The team was a mix 48 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:12,920 Speaker 1: of seasoned sailors, scientists, and adventurers, all handpicked by Shackleton 49 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: for their skills but also their resilience. Their spirits were 50 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: high as they left, but after reaching Antarctica, things went 51 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: very wrong, very fast. The Endurance encountered heavy pack ice 52 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: much earlier in the season than expected. By January of 53 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, the ship had become hopelessly trapped in the 54 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: thick ice of the Wettle Sea. The crew tried everything 55 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: to free her, but it was impossible, and eventually they 56 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:46,560 Speaker 1: had to accept their fate. They were completely trapped Now, 57 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:49,280 Speaker 1: as the weather worsened, there didn't seem to be much 58 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:53,000 Speaker 1: hope right. The ice wasn't just holding them captive, it 59 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:57,360 Speaker 1: was slowly crushing their ship. Shackleton and his crew watched 60 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,840 Speaker 1: as the Endurance creaked under the immense pressure of the ice. 61 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: By October of nineteen fifteen, after ten months stuck in 62 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: the ice, the ship was done for. The Endurance finally 63 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:12,400 Speaker 1: sank beneath the frozen surface of the sea, leaving the 64 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: crew stranded on drifting ice floes with no means of 65 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 1: escape and not much shelter. Shackleton had his men set 66 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:24,080 Speaker 1: up a more permanent camp on a large stretch of 67 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: floating ice, and he devised a plan to travel over 68 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,840 Speaker 1: the ice to reach open water and hopefully be rescued. 69 00:04:31,279 --> 00:04:33,480 Speaker 1: They had to wait, though, for the ice to break up, 70 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: for months. They survived on seal and penguin meat and 71 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: the last of their supplies. Shackleton's leadership kept morale high 72 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:52,479 Speaker 1: and everybody focused on survival. Now it's April of nineteen sixteen, 73 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,559 Speaker 1: almost a year and a half after their initial wreck, 74 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: and the ice begins to break up. The crew took 75 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,560 Speaker 1: to the three small lifeboats that they had pulled off 76 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,920 Speaker 1: the ship before it sank and headed for Elephant Island, 77 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: a remote speck of land in the southern Ocean. They 78 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:14,279 Speaker 1: faced freezing temperatures, huge waves, and storms, but after seven 79 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:18,040 Speaker 1: days they finally reached the little island. But now they 80 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 1: had to get help, and that meant that Shackleton had 81 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:23,679 Speaker 1: to take a small group of men and attempt another 82 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:27,799 Speaker 1: journey across the sea eight hundred miles to an island 83 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:32,160 Speaker 1: where they could find help. It was epic. For sixteen days, 84 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:37,160 Speaker 1: they battled hurricane force winds, freezing temperatures, and monstrous waves. 85 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,680 Speaker 1: Navigation was only a sextant and the stars. They made 86 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: it to the island, but they had to cross glaciers 87 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:49,440 Speaker 1: in its uncharted, mountainous interior. They finally reached whaling stations 88 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:52,920 Speaker 1: two days later on the other side of the island. Finally, 89 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: on May twentieth, nineteen sixteen, Shackleton and his men arrived, 90 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:01,160 Speaker 1: with the explorer simply saying to the whale, my name 91 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 1: is Shackleton, Can you save my men. Three months later, 92 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 1: on August thirtieth, nineteen sixteen, Shackleton and the rescue team 93 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:15,200 Speaker 1: returned to Elephant Island. The remaining crew were finally rescued. Amazingly, 94 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:19,719 Speaker 1: every single member of the Endurance Expedition, all twenty eight, 95 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: had survived. What's fascinating is that even though Shackleton and 96 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,599 Speaker 1: his crew never accomplished their goal to cross Antarctica from 97 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 1: sea to sea, they became iconic for their ability to 98 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:36,719 Speaker 1: survive with pure Endurance, ironically the name of their lost ship. 99 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:40,159 Speaker 1: It's a story that can inspire many of us dealing 100 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,920 Speaker 1: with what feels like a hopeless situation to never give up, 101 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:48,520 Speaker 1: to endure and get this in twenty twenty two, Though 102 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,840 Speaker 1: one hundred forty four foot long wooden ship, the Endurance 103 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:56,960 Speaker 1: was finally found more than a century later, almost completely intact, 104 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:01,920 Speaker 1: close to ten thousand feet down under the ICC, its 105 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:23,560 Speaker 1: name Endurance still crystal clear on the stern. Hope you're 106 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:27,840 Speaker 1: enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for 107 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free 108 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:33,840 Speaker 1: to dm me if you have a story you'd like 109 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 1: me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on 110 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:42,960 Speaker 1: Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is 111 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:47,119 Speaker 1: a production of iHeartMedia Premiere Networks. The Elvis Durand Group 112 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 1: and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our 113 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:55,120 Speaker 1: writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. 114 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:57,720 Speaker 1: Feel free to reach out to me with comments and 115 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,720 Speaker 1: even story suggestions on Instagram at real Patty Steele and 116 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:04,800 Speaker 1: on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the 117 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,560 Speaker 1: Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't 118 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:09,760 Speaker 1: know you needed to know.