Endurance Expedition

¶ … endurance" Alfred Lansing "To Stand Pole" William R. Hunt "Wonderful Life" Stephen J. Gould "The Burgess Shale" Harry Whittington "Desert Solitaire" Edward Abbey "The End Nature" Bill McKibben "Flu" Gina Kolata "The Hot Zone" R. Alfred Lansing's story of the "Endurance" Alfred Lansing's book "Endurance" tells one of the most impressive journeys that people have ever taken on with the purpose to reach Antarctica -- Ernest Shackleton's failed 1914-1915 expedition onboard the Endurance.

Lansing's book provides a complex description of the fateful campaign and of the feelings experienced by people on board as they went from being thrilled with the thought of reaching a new continent to being horrified with the thought of losing their lives in the process. At the moment when it started, Shackleton's mission was one of the most daring expedition that mankind had ever embarked on.

Even with this, the journey was carefully planned and individuals part of the crew were among the world's top experts in their fields of work. The ship's crew was composed of a wide range of individuals from carpenters to photographers -- Shackleton wanted to be sure that he put his life (and the fate of the field of exploring in general) in the hands of the best people he could find.

Given his scientific nature, the researcher intended to go across the Antarctic continent and to perform an in-depth study of it. This would have obviously been significant for society as a result of the fact that the researcher would reach areas and ecosystems that people could only imagine previous to that moment. Lansing lauds Shackleton's bravery and his interest in making sure that the expedition would have everything it needed.

Even with this, the writer does not hesitate to emphasize the fact that nothing could have prepared the explorer for what he was about to come across. The Antarctic climate and the harsh conditions ever were too much for someone having access to resources available to relative amateurs in the early twentieth century. Such an expedition needed tools and expertise that were not widely available during the time and that Shackleton could not have access to.

In spite of his determination, he did not have the expertise or the tools required to take on the journey that he was considering. While things like a radio currently seem indispensable when considering an expedition, matters were different at the time when Shackelton and his companions decided to cross the Antarctic continent.

"There was, in fact, a notable lack of interest in the radio, primarily because it was considered not only a novelty but an unserviceable one." (Lansing 32) People on board the Endurance believed that it would be of little to no assistance to them and the expedition actually proved them right. The fact that they could not consider actually having a transmitter in order to provide the rest of the world with their experiences played an important role in their failure to accomplish their goal.

One of the most impressive things about Lansing's account of the Endurance expedition is the fact that the book is unlikely to be interpreted as a novel. Instead, the writer's research made it possible for it to be readable as a complex description of stories that present true facts and that are almost scientific in character. Instead of helping Shackleton reach his goal, the Endurance became trapped in ice and eventually cracked the boat.

The explorer and his companions were thus left with no choice but to escape their icy prison and attempt to reach civilization. Consequent to several months of trying to stay alive while advancing to the first inhabited island, they managed to find it and survived. To a certain.