1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:30,079 ♪ 4 00:00:37,199 --> 00:00:38,199 (Snow crunches) 5 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:54,079 Exploration has been the greatest driving force in my life, since I was young. 6 00:00:56,440 --> 00:00:58,800 ♪ 7 00:00:59,119 --> 00:01:01,599 And exploring this alien landscape of Antarctica 8 00:01:01,639 --> 00:01:05,639 is a challenge unlike anywhere else on Earth. 9 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:18,039 Over 100 years ago, Antarctica was more than just a challenge. 10 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,440 It was the very limit of human knowledge and scientific understanding. 11 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:30,400 The last unexplored continent on Earth. 12 00:01:38,639 --> 00:01:40,159 It's the beginning of the 20th century, 13 00:01:40,199 --> 00:01:43,000 the heroic era of polar exploration. 14 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,760 These are the astronauts of their time, 15 00:01:49,559 --> 00:01:52,639 and Antarctica was their moon. 16 00:01:52,679 --> 00:01:55,920 DISTANT VOICE OF CONTROLLER: Lift off, we have a lift off! 17 00:01:57,119 --> 00:01:59,159 Explorers from around the world, 18 00:01:59,199 --> 00:02:02,320 pit themselves against the immense wilderness of Antarctica, 19 00:02:03,639 --> 00:02:06,679 in search of glory and discovery. 20 00:02:08,039 --> 00:02:13,960 But this is a vast, cold, isolated and entirely unforgiving place. 21 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:15,480 (Loud rumbling) 22 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:23,440 What do you do when it all goes horribly wrong? 23 00:02:25,159 --> 00:02:29,880 The journals and film recorded by Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27, 24 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:32,679 answers that very question. 25 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:41,280 AS SHACKLETON: The story of our attempt, is the tale of the white warfare, of the south. 26 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:47,280 The struggles, the disappointments and the endurance of this small party 27 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:49,440 of Britishers, 28 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:54,320 make a story which is unique, in the history of Antarctic exploration. 29 00:03:10,519 --> 00:03:12,280 I ask myself, 'why on earth one comes to these parts of the earth?' 30 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:16,480 (Loud crashing) 31 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:27,800 (Radio chatter) 32 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:40,920 I think we all have a sense of adventure in us, 33 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:43,039 and it manifests in different ways with different people. 34 00:03:43,239 --> 00:03:46,599 Life's true adventure is understanding what the meaning of it all is, 35 00:03:47,199 --> 00:03:52,360 and I think that drives medical research, it drives artistic self expression, 36 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:56,159 it drives people's desire to cross ice caps or climb mountains. 37 00:03:56,199 --> 00:04:00,840 That has burnt brightly in me since childhood, and I've never grown out of it. 38 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:05,159 I've always just had that desire to keep on discovering. 39 00:04:05,199 --> 00:04:07,840 And it's seen me go to the far limits of human endurance 40 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,400 and to the ends of the world as a means to do that. 41 00:04:11,559 --> 00:04:14,559 VARIOUS NARRATIONS: Environmental scientist Tim Jarvis. 42 00:04:14,599 --> 00:04:16,880 Australian explorer Tim Jarvis lost more 43 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:18,639 than 50 pounds of body weight, 44 00:04:18,679 --> 00:04:21,320 recreating the journey of Sir Douglas Mawson. 45 00:04:22,159 --> 00:04:26,280 In doing the expeditions the old way, essentially disadvantaging yourself 46 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:30,159 by using 100 year old equipment, you get about as close as you can 47 00:04:30,199 --> 00:04:34,159 to experiencing that which they experienced 100 years prior. 48 00:04:36,239 --> 00:04:39,280 At least I could honestly say that I've 49 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:41,840 been served up the same sorts of conditions as he had. 50 00:04:43,079 --> 00:04:44,599 REPORTER: Explorer Tim Jarvis is the only man 51 00:04:44,679 --> 00:04:48,119 to have ever recreated the harrowing journey of Ernest Shackleton, 52 00:04:48,239 --> 00:04:52,400 using the same inadequate clothing and equipment as they had back in 1913. 53 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,360 There have been many instances 54 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,320 along the way, some falls in the mountains, 55 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:02,920 where you do wonder whether it'd be the last move you make. 56 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:07,760 ♪ 57 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:21,079 I'm so excited about getting down here, I mean, 58 00:05:21,119 --> 00:05:23,880 I feel I really come alive when I'm in a place like this, 59 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:26,880 you get much closer to the spirit of the great man if you're following 60 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,840 in his footsteps, but also you get closer to this more resourceful version of you 61 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:33,719 that emerges when you find yourself in these places. 62 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:36,800 They've been the theater for so many 63 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:39,559 fascinating journeys in the past that you can't help but be inspired. 64 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:46,320 We are 830 nautical miles southeast of the Falkland Islands, 65 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:50,239 headed to the whaling island of South Georgia 66 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:54,599 where Shackleton began his imperial trans antarctic expedition. 67 00:05:55,519 --> 00:05:58,239 SHACKLETON: There remained but one great main object 68 00:05:58,280 --> 00:06:03,000 of antarctic journeyings, the crossing of the south polar continent from sea to sea. 69 00:06:05,559 --> 00:06:09,400 The distance will be roughly 1,800 miles, 70 00:06:09,519 --> 00:06:10,880 and the first half of this, 71 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:16,039 from the Weddell Sea to the pole, will be over unknown ground. 72 00:06:16,079 --> 00:06:19,840 Every step will be an advance in geographical science 73 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:24,239 and this report will prove of great scientific interest. 74 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,719 An expedition of this scale would require a budget of millions in today's money. 75 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:37,960 To fund his dreams of the South, 76 00:06:39,039 --> 00:06:41,760 Shackleton would rely on his ability to convince people of the cause. 77 00:06:43,079 --> 00:06:45,519 Shackleton had this way of getting people 78 00:06:46,239 --> 00:06:48,320 excited about what they were going to know. 79 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:50,599 He offered them things that money couldn't buy. 80 00:06:50,639 --> 00:06:53,159 So if you were a wealthy benefactor 81 00:06:53,199 --> 00:06:56,320 thinking about maybe putting money into a polar expedition Shackleton could 82 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,559 name a mountain range or a coastline after you and you had immortality guaranteed. 83 00:07:00,599 --> 00:07:02,679 So it was a clever way of doing it. 84 00:07:03,559 --> 00:07:04,800 ♪ 85 00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:08,519 This wasn't Shackleton's first attempt to make history. 86 00:07:12,239 --> 00:07:16,119 In 1907, he was hired to lead the Nimrod expedition to the Antarctic. 87 00:07:17,679 --> 00:07:20,159 The mission was to be the first to reach the south pole. 88 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:24,599 Although they set a new record for the most southerly point ever reached, 89 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:29,559 they were forced to turn back just 97 nautical miles short of their target. 90 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:34,039 Shackleton and his men, starving and exhausted, 91 00:07:34,079 --> 00:07:37,960 returned to base inspired by what they'd seen, 92 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,480 but frustrated with how close they'd come. 93 00:07:42,159 --> 00:07:47,000 It would take Shackleton almost seven years to raise the funding and plan this expedition, 94 00:07:47,039 --> 00:07:50,679 personally putting everything on the line this time. 95 00:07:50,719 --> 00:07:52,320 The stakes couldn't be higher. 96 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:03,599 SHACKLETON: Long days of preparation were over, and the adventure lay ahead. 97 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,280 I gave the order to heave anchor at 08:45 a.m. 98 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:13,639 on December 5 1914, 99 00:08:13,679 --> 00:08:17,560 and the clanking of the windless broke for us, the last link with civilization. 100 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:25,880 (Dogs barking) 101 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:29,239 The fate of the expedition 102 00:08:29,279 --> 00:08:33,159 now rested on the shoulders of the 28 crew of the Endurance. 103 00:08:35,359 --> 00:08:38,239 Shackleton was a consummate leader of men 104 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:42,199 in those days on those early expeditions, a leader of people. 105 00:08:42,239 --> 00:08:45,920 And he got about 3,000 applicants for the 27 places on the expedition team. 106 00:08:48,039 --> 00:08:52,880 And his recruitment process involved interviews that involved him throwing 107 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:57,640 really curly, interesting questions at people, just to see how they would react. 108 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:00,439 And if there was someone who was too rigid in their thinking, 109 00:09:00,479 --> 00:09:05,960 perhaps again they weren't the kind of person who had the capacity for lateral thinking 110 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,880 and problem solving ability that he was looking for. 111 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:11,920 He always wanted people who saw a positive in any situation, 112 00:09:13,479 --> 00:09:20,479 and you need that for successful expeditioning, or indeed, life. 113 00:09:22,319 --> 00:09:25,560 And in the end, how relevant those skills turned out to be. 114 00:09:31,680 --> 00:09:33,880 The crew seemed a strong one, 115 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:36,560 and as I looked at the men, I felt confidence increasing. 116 00:09:42,119 --> 00:09:43,159 (Birds squawking) 117 00:09:49,439 --> 00:09:51,720 The Weddell Sea was notoriously inhospitable, 118 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:56,920 and already we knew that its sternest face was turned towards us. 119 00:10:02,039 --> 00:10:06,119 What welcome was the Weddell Sea preparing for us? 120 00:10:10,079 --> 00:10:12,840 ♪ 121 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:26,000 To navigate these southern waters, 122 00:10:26,079 --> 00:10:28,279 timing is everything. 123 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:34,119 In the relative warm months of summer, the sea is less frozen 124 00:10:34,159 --> 00:10:38,039 and large lanes of open water, provide passage to the continent. 125 00:10:46,239 --> 00:10:50,399 I'm just staring out on a scene of brash ice and pancake ice. 126 00:10:50,439 --> 00:10:53,239 Pancake ice is when the surface just 127 00:10:53,279 --> 00:10:56,039 starts to freeze over, and that's what we're starting to see. 128 00:10:56,079 --> 00:10:59,239 And it's the beginning of the formation, of course, of pack ice. 129 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:07,680 As Endurance went south, they, of course, 130 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:11,560 started to experience pack ice, initially probably very much like this, 131 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:13,680 and then, of course, became thicker and thicker and thicker. 132 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:17,640 Worsley on board Endurance was a wonderful 133 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:19,720 skipper and Shackleton was no slouch himself. 134 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:21,239 So between them and some of the other sailors on board, 135 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:23,760 they knew what they were doing in terms of getting through pack ice, 136 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:27,520 but you're really pushing through leads, which are the gaps between 137 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:31,439 the bits of larger pack, and you try to force the ship through there, 138 00:11:32,079 --> 00:11:33,760 push the pack ice apart. 139 00:11:34,199 --> 00:11:35,199 (Cracking) 140 00:11:41,039 --> 00:11:45,159 Expedition cameraman Frank Hurley, recorded the efforts of the crew 141 00:11:45,239 --> 00:11:49,640 as they navigated their way through the ice. 142 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:53,600 The fearless Australian would perch himself 143 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:59,760 almost anywhere, to capture the dynamic imagery he was so famous for. 144 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:05,359 The last 250 miles had been through close pack, 145 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,840 alternating with fine long leads and stretches of open water. 146 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:15,560 Under the boughs and alongside, great slabs of ice were being turned over 147 00:12:16,479 --> 00:12:19,880 and slid back on the flow, or driven down and under the ice or ship. 148 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:25,079 In this way, the Endurance would split a two foot to three foot flow 149 00:12:25,119 --> 00:12:26,680 a square mile in extent. 150 00:12:29,199 --> 00:12:30,199 (Cracking) 151 00:12:31,479 --> 00:12:33,760 It was important that we should make 152 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:36,359 progress towards our goal as rapidly as possible. 153 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:40,840 (Wind whistles) 154 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:46,680 In order to keep the expedition on schedule, 155 00:12:47,359 --> 00:12:52,199 Shackleton had to make land before the ocean froze over for winter. 156 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:06,159 When the pack ice starts to form on the surface of the sea, 157 00:13:06,479 --> 00:13:09,439 ultimately it forms an apron around Antarctica, which actually almost doubles 158 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:12,439 the size of the continent, which is incredible when you think of it. 159 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:16,119 The ice can be anything from 20 cm thick 160 00:13:16,239 --> 00:13:18,680 all the way through to three or 4 meters thick. 161 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:20,439 And of course, the further south you go, 162 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:22,560 the thicker it gets, 163 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:24,520 and it comes a point where you need 164 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,119 to make a judgment about whether you're prepared to keep the engines running 165 00:13:29,159 --> 00:13:34,439 and push further south, or try and push further south 166 00:13:34,479 --> 00:13:36,800 into this incredibly thick ice, 167 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:39,359 all the while thinking, how are we going to get home at the end of this? 168 00:13:45,279 --> 00:13:50,239 I was anxious, for certain reasons, to winter the Endurance in the Weddell Sea. 169 00:13:50,279 --> 00:13:54,079 But the difficulty of finding a safe harbour might be very great. 170 00:13:54,680 --> 00:13:57,960 It was as though the spirits of the Antarctic were pointing us 171 00:13:58,119 --> 00:14:02,760 to the backward track, the track we were determined not to follow. 172 00:14:03,359 --> 00:14:06,039 Our desire was to make easting as well as southing, 173 00:14:06,439 --> 00:14:10,359 so as to reach the land, if possible, 174 00:14:10,399 --> 00:14:14,600 east of Ross's, farthest south and, well east of Coats Land. 175 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:21,600 The unusually abundant sea ice, ground their progress to a crawl, 176 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:26,520 with the rapidly freezing seawater trapping them time after time. 177 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,319 The ice was only getting thicker and open water 178 00:14:29,359 --> 00:14:30,800 was slowly disappearing. 179 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:40,279 They were reaching dead ends, 180 00:14:40,319 --> 00:14:45,520 having to turn around, chip their way through the ice, sit and wait it out sometimes, 181 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:47,000 when they became completely stuck, 182 00:14:47,039 --> 00:14:50,119 for the ice to open up again, break up and move. 183 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,600 And it was a pretty torturous process trying to get through. 184 00:14:56,199 --> 00:14:58,640 ♪ 185 00:15:02,279 --> 00:15:05,840 The name of the game was to keep pushing south as best one could, 186 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,359 and sometimes open leads of water in amongst the pack ice, 187 00:15:09,399 --> 00:15:11,920 would force you to go left and right, 188 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:14,119 not doing much in the way of southerly travel, 189 00:15:14,159 --> 00:15:18,920 but you were constantly focused on trying to get south as best you could. 190 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:25,840 The situation became dangerous that night. 191 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:29,560 We pushed into the pack in the hope of reaching open water beyond, 192 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:34,520 and found ourselves after dark in a pool which was growing smaller and smaller. 193 00:15:38,039 --> 00:15:41,680 Ultimately, they reached a dead end. 194 00:15:43,479 --> 00:15:45,760 Pack ice closed in around the vessel, 195 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:48,640 and no more leads were opening up. 196 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:50,600 The weather was getting colder and it was 197 00:15:51,199 --> 00:15:54,239 very clear that that was where they would remain. 198 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:04,640 I could not doubt now that the Endurance was confined for the winter. 199 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,560 The abandonment of the attack was a great disappointment to all hands. 200 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:21,680 The men had worked long hours without thought of rest, and they deserved success. 201 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,600 But the task was beyond our powers. 202 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,760 The land showed still in fair weather on the distant horizon, 203 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:38,159 but it was beyond our reach, now. 204 00:16:44,439 --> 00:16:45,439 (Metal whirring) 205 00:16:55,079 --> 00:16:56,079 (Wind blowing) 206 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:58,800 Much like the endurance, 207 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:02,279 we've reached as far south as the ice will allow us. 208 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,319 When it's clear, the Endurance is not going to go any further south, 209 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:16,439 it was one of those real defining moments of the expedition where I think you're 210 00:17:16,479 --> 00:17:18,359 hopeful, always right to the end, 211 00:17:18,399 --> 00:17:21,199 that you could just push, find a lead, 212 00:17:21,239 --> 00:17:25,399 push far enough to actually make landfall on the continent and set up your winter camp, 213 00:17:25,439 --> 00:17:29,840 to be prepared for the land crossing of the continent the following summer, 214 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:34,520 so the decision to ultimately stop short and set up winter camp on the ice 215 00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:36,279 must have been a really difficult moment. 216 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:41,880 Life is all about playing a bad hand of cards well, 217 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,359 and I think that sums it up fairly accurately. 218 00:17:44,399 --> 00:17:48,439 You've got to look positively at any situation you find yourself in. 219 00:17:50,039 --> 00:17:51,359 In many people's minds, 220 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:55,600 many of the expedition team felt, well, that's it, that's the expedition gone, 221 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:57,800 the rest is all about survival. 222 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,520 And Shackleton managed to keep them motivated through a sort of combination 223 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,840 of suggesting that things could still improve, 224 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:06,039 the ice might break up, 225 00:18:06,079 --> 00:18:11,600 there might be an opportunity to push south, as the ice began to thaw. 226 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:14,000 But in the meantime he had them doing 227 00:18:14,039 --> 00:18:18,640 language lessons and gathering food and playing soccer matches on the ice. 228 00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:23,479 And these are all sort of things that you don't do, if you're expecting to die. 229 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:30,159 And it was clever because the men felt that Shackleton had the measure 230 00:18:30,199 --> 00:18:32,680 of the circumstances in which they found themselves. 231 00:18:36,159 --> 00:18:38,439 The flat flows and frozen leads 232 00:18:38,479 --> 00:18:42,039 in the neighbourhood of the ship, made excellent training grounds. 233 00:18:42,079 --> 00:18:44,399 Hockey and soccer on the flow were our chief recreations, 234 00:18:44,439 --> 00:18:48,880 and all hands joined in many a strenuous game. 235 00:18:50,239 --> 00:18:52,439 Worsley took a party to the flow on the 26th, 236 00:18:52,479 --> 00:18:58,000 and started building a line of igloos, and dog loos around the ship. 237 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:02,640 The dogs seemed heartily glad to leave the ship, 238 00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:07,840 and yelped loudly and joyously, as they were moved to their new quarters. 239 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:28,560 The sun, which had been above the horizon for two months, 240 00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,880 set at midnight on the 17th. 241 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:33,479 And although it would not disappear until April, 242 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:38,399 its slanting rays warned us of the approach of winter. 243 00:19:43,279 --> 00:19:45,760 Pools and leads appeared occasionally, 244 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,560 but they froze over very quickly. 245 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:56,560 ♪ 246 00:19:59,079 --> 00:20:03,920 Psychologically, the unending nature of Antarctica is always difficult to deal with 247 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,119 but more so when you've got the darkness of winter to deal with, 248 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:09,600 so the sun disappears, quite literally for, 249 00:20:10,279 --> 00:20:14,119 when you get further, further south to the pole itself, 250 00:20:14,159 --> 00:20:17,720 six months of the year you're in brutally low temperatures, 251 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:20,159 and complete darkness. 252 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:24,760 More important than that, psychologically, 253 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:28,600 your whole world shrinks back into that little area of light around 254 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:30,279 the stove at night. 255 00:20:30,319 --> 00:20:35,640 Or candles or blubber stove lit fires that you could keep going. 256 00:20:36,199 --> 00:20:41,560 And it would be very difficult in that situation to think positively about 257 00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:42,920 the journey ahead. 258 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:45,359 You're there, it's cold, 259 00:20:45,399 --> 00:20:48,800 the chances of your survival are low. 260 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:51,079 And the chances of you sailing out when 261 00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:53,920 the ice is getting thicker and thicker rather than the other way around. 262 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,439 It would have been a very bleak time for many of them. 263 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:01,600 Trapped on the frozen surface of the sea, 264 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:04,199 isolated and cut off from the world, 265 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,279 they may as well have been on the surface of the moon. 266 00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:15,359 The disappearance of the sun is apt to be a depressing event in the polar regions. 267 00:21:17,159 --> 00:21:21,199 But the Endurance's company refused to abandon their customary cheerfulness 268 00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:25,560 in strange contrast with the cold, silent world that lay outside. 269 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,960 Shackleton knew they had no control over the situation they were in. 270 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:41,039 So he focused the men's attention on the things they could control. 271 00:21:44,479 --> 00:21:47,560 All crew, regardless of rank, were required to clean the ship. 272 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:52,760 Ongoing scientific research was collected and catalogued. 273 00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:57,720 The sharing of duties kept everybody on an even keel. 274 00:21:58,079 --> 00:22:00,399 It made all of the men, regardless of their position, 275 00:22:00,439 --> 00:22:02,720 feel that everyone was in this together. 276 00:22:05,399 --> 00:22:08,000 Shackleton had a genius, 277 00:22:08,039 --> 00:22:13,600 it was neither more nor less than that, for keeping those about him in high spirits. 278 00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:15,079 We loved him. 279 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,079 The men had felt the cold, that is true, 280 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:23,039 but he had inspired the kind of loyalty which prevented them 281 00:22:23,079 --> 00:22:26,359 from allowing themselves to get depressed over anything. 282 00:22:27,439 --> 00:22:30,159 And they had stood up to the hardships 283 00:22:30,199 --> 00:22:32,680 inseparable from antarctic exploration, 284 00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:34,640 without a murmur. 285 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,880 A form of midwinter madness has manifested itself. 286 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:44,319 All hands being seized with the desire to have their hair removed. 287 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:46,840 It caused much amusement. 288 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:52,399 We are likely to be cool headed in the future, if not neuralgic. 289 00:22:55,520 --> 00:23:00,800 During the night, I took a flashlit photograph of the ship beset by pressure. 290 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:02,039 (Explosive sound) 291 00:23:03,439 --> 00:23:04,720 This necessitated some 20 flashes... 292 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,000 ...one behind each salient pressure hummock 293 00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:12,199 to satisfactorily illuminate the ship herself. 294 00:23:18,279 --> 00:23:19,880 ♪ 295 00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:29,520 Half blinded by the successive flashes, 296 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,760 I lost my bearings amidst hammocks bumping shins, 297 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:34,159 against projecting ice points 298 00:23:34,199 --> 00:23:36,720 and stumbling into deep snow drifts. 299 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:47,399 ♪(Triumphant music) 300 00:23:51,039 --> 00:23:53,680 SHACKLETON: All cheered, by the indication that the end 301 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:59,960 of the winter darkness is near, 79 days after our last sunset. 302 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,239 All the winter, the drifting pack changes, 303 00:24:05,199 --> 00:24:10,840 grows by freezing, thickens by rafting, and corrugates by pressure. 304 00:24:11,239 --> 00:24:15,520 If finally in its drift it impinges on a coast such as the western shore of the 305 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:18,840 of the Weddell Sea, 306 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:23,279 terrific pressure is set up, and an inferno of ice blocks, 307 00:24:23,319 --> 00:24:25,159 ridges and hedgerows results, 308 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:30,000 extending possibly for 150 or 200 miles offshore. 309 00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,239 The effects of the pressure around us, were awe inspiring. 310 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:41,239 Mighty blocks of ice, gripped between meeting flows, 311 00:24:41,279 --> 00:24:45,399 rose slowly, till they jumped like cherry stones squeezed between thumb and finger. 312 00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:50,600 The pressure of millions of tons of moving ice, 313 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:52,119 was crushing and smashing inexorably. 314 00:24:52,479 --> 00:24:56,000 If the ship was once gripped firmly, a fate would be sealed. 315 00:24:57,640 --> 00:24:58,640 (Rumbling) 316 00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:01,880 We could see from the bridge, 317 00:25:03,079 --> 00:25:05,640 that the ship was bending like a bow under titanic pressure. 318 00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,479 The onslaught was all but irresistible. 319 00:25:13,319 --> 00:25:15,399 Well, the noise of thousands and thousands 320 00:25:15,439 --> 00:25:18,680 of tons pushing in around the beams of a ship, 321 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:20,479 creaking and groaning and 322 00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:23,720 desperately trying to withstand that pressure would have been like 323 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,399 the final death throes of an animal, or a person, 324 00:25:26,439 --> 00:25:28,920 and indeed, I think that's the way they tended to think of it, 325 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:32,119 it was this guttural kind of roars 326 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,880 and almost pleas for help coming from the vessel as it trying to withstand 327 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:36,920 this pressure, 328 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,680 because these sort of unseen forces are closing in around them 329 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,439 and it must have been a really hellish kind of situation to find themselves in. 330 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:46,920 (Creaking) 331 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:50,920 The roar of pressure could be heard all around us. 332 00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:55,239 Almost like a living creature. 333 00:25:55,439 --> 00:25:57,880 She resisted the forces that would crush her. 334 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:00,960 But it was a one sided battle. 335 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:05,359 Millions of tons of ice pressed inexorably upon the little ship, 336 00:26:05,399 --> 00:26:10,479 that had dared the challenge of the Antarctic. 337 00:26:15,239 --> 00:26:17,520 The men were listening to the structural damage for weeks, 338 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,760 as the pressure of the pack closed in around the hull. 339 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:23,840 Fearing the ship was not going to take them home, 340 00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:27,159 they were powerless to do anything. 341 00:26:28,399 --> 00:26:30,159 It must have felt hopeless. 342 00:26:34,399 --> 00:26:38,479 The plans for abandoning the ship in case of emergency had been made well in advance, 343 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,520 and men and dogs descended to the flow and made their way 344 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:47,640 to the comparative safety of an unbroken portion of the flow, without a hitch. 345 00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:53,800 It was a sickening sensation to feel the decks breaking up under one's feet. 346 00:26:55,319 --> 00:27:01,800 She is crushed and abandoned after drifting more than 570 miles during the 281 days, 347 00:27:02,199 --> 00:27:06,119 since she became locked in the ice. 348 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,119 It is hard to write what I feel. 349 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,800 The attack of the ice reached its climax at 04:00 p.m. 350 00:27:20,159 --> 00:27:26,560 The flows, with the force of millions of tons of moving ice behind them, 351 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:28,439 were simply annihilating the ship. 352 00:27:37,079 --> 00:27:40,359 The men were left with, quite literally a pile of driftwood. 353 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,199 The images Hurley captured are dramatic. 354 00:27:44,279 --> 00:27:46,880 Everything above the hull just fell to pieces, 355 00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:48,640 leaving a collection of cables and wires, 356 00:27:50,159 --> 00:27:52,840 ropes and split timber on the ice. 357 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,960 It was barely recognizable as a vessel. 358 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:08,000 The task is to reach land with all the members of the expedition, 359 00:28:08,039 --> 00:28:12,399 and to that I must bend my energies and mental power and apply every bit 360 00:28:12,439 --> 00:28:14,760 of knowledge that experience of the Antarctic had given me. 361 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:25,680 ♪ 362 00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,159 The task was likely to be long and strenuous, 363 00:28:33,199 --> 00:28:37,880 and an ordered mind and a clear program are essential, 364 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:41,399 if we were to come through without loss of life. 365 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:04,439 Once the Endurance had sunk and they hadn't obviously managed to make landfall 366 00:29:04,479 --> 00:29:06,920 on the continent, the original expedition goal was off. 367 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,159 And so this required a complete reframing. 368 00:29:10,199 --> 00:29:14,760 And as Shackleton famously said, 'a man must adjust to a new mark directly 369 00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:16,239 'the old one goes to ground.' 370 00:29:16,319 --> 00:29:20,800 And it was all about then looking positively at the changing circumstances. 371 00:29:21,079 --> 00:29:22,399 And this is where I think there was just a critical, 372 00:29:22,439 --> 00:29:26,840 kind of inflection point, really, where he said, 'look, 373 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,479 'the original goal of crossing Antarctica is not possible. 374 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,399 'The new goal is saving ourselves, 375 00:29:31,439 --> 00:29:35,239 'but the good news is that even though our mission has changed. 376 00:29:35,279 --> 00:29:37,159 'our vision of doing something memorable together, 377 00:29:37,199 --> 00:29:41,920 'surviving, testing ourselves, pushing ourselves beyond the limits 378 00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:46,119 'of human endurance to, in this case, now save ourselves 379 00:29:46,159 --> 00:29:48,239 'rather than cross Antarctica, as was the original goal, 380 00:29:48,279 --> 00:29:51,239 'will still allow us to come home as heroes. 381 00:29:51,359 --> 00:29:52,960 'We will achieve our vision. 382 00:29:53,439 --> 00:29:55,079 'It's just that the mission has changed.' 383 00:29:55,119 --> 00:29:59,079 And I think this was really a kind of masterstroke, in the way that he managed 384 00:29:59,119 --> 00:30:02,720 to reframe and reposition the direction of the whole endeavour. 385 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:08,159 Essential supplies had been placed on the flow about 100 yards from the ship, 386 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,239 and there we set about making a camp for the night. 387 00:30:12,159 --> 00:30:16,199 Now it's a case of anything we take off the ship, we've got to carry. 388 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:18,279 So weight was critical, 389 00:30:18,319 --> 00:30:21,680 and Shackleton said, each man has two pounds, two pounds of gear. 390 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,279 And he set a wonderful example here 391 00:30:25,039 --> 00:30:28,760 by basically discarding a whole series of things that might, in the normal world, 392 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,760 be perceived as valuable things like watches and rings and jewelry, 393 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,319 and chucked them down on the ice and said, 'none of this matters. 394 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,279 'We need to just take what we need to survive.' 395 00:30:39,319 --> 00:30:41,359 And indeed, the guitar made it, 396 00:30:41,399 --> 00:30:44,920 just a masterstroke in thinking about what really makes somebody tick. 397 00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:47,600 And it made the men feel that, again, 398 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:49,760 at some level, he had circumstances under control. 399 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:51,800 They're taking a musical instrument. 400 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:53,359 What a thing to take. 401 00:30:55,159 --> 00:30:58,239 We are now 346 miles from Paulet island, 402 00:30:59,279 --> 00:31:03,000 the nearest point where there is any possibility of finding food and shelter. 403 00:31:04,279 --> 00:31:08,239 I mustered all hands and explained the position to them briefly, 404 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:13,600 and I hope clearly, and have stated that I propose to try to march with equipment 405 00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:15,960 across the ice in the direction of Paulet Island. 406 00:31:16,319 --> 00:31:20,079 I thanked the men for the steadiness and good morale they have shown in these 407 00:31:20,119 --> 00:31:25,279 trying circumstances and told them I had no doubt that provided they continued 408 00:31:25,319 --> 00:31:29,800 to work their utmost and to trust me, we will all reach safety in the end. 409 00:31:47,399 --> 00:31:50,039 The first thought was, the ship's gone down. 410 00:31:50,079 --> 00:31:53,600 We have these lifeboats, let's take a couple of them. 411 00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:57,000 And with the 28 men, we have 14 men to a boat, 412 00:31:57,039 --> 00:32:01,159 pull them like a sled and see if we can find our way to the continent. 413 00:32:01,319 --> 00:32:03,840 And that was the original plan. 414 00:32:08,319 --> 00:32:11,159 It was with the utmost difficulty that we shifted our two boats. 415 00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:14,640 The surface was terrible, 416 00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,359 like nothing that any of us had ever seen around us before. 417 00:32:19,159 --> 00:32:22,279 We were sinking at times up to our hips and everywhere 418 00:32:22,319 --> 00:32:24,039 the snow was 2ft deep. 419 00:32:25,119 --> 00:32:26,319 And this they pursued for a couple of days 420 00:32:26,359 --> 00:32:28,359 until they realized it was just completely futile. 421 00:32:28,399 --> 00:32:33,600 In fact, it started to erode away people's morale very, very quickly, 422 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,479 just the physical effort of pulling these heavy, 423 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:40,359 heavy 22-and-a-half foot keelless whale boats through the, 424 00:32:40,399 --> 00:32:42,479 through the ridges of ice. 425 00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:52,760 In 2007 I dragged a wooden sled across Antarctica 426 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:58,439 in a bid to honour Australian explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, and it almost killed me. 427 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,239 Taking on such a physical challenge 428 00:33:04,279 --> 00:33:06,880 really is a race against time to achieve your goal. 429 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:11,000 The sled you're dragging is carrying all the food and fuel you need to survive. 430 00:33:11,039 --> 00:33:13,119 But the energy just to move that weight, 431 00:33:13,159 --> 00:33:16,439 to make those miles, it can exceed your daily rations. 432 00:33:16,479 --> 00:33:18,159 You can easily run out of food. 433 00:33:23,359 --> 00:33:26,640 Mentally, there's lots of places you go to when things are really tough. 434 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,159 Sometimes you're able to really appreciate 435 00:33:31,199 --> 00:33:33,279 the grandeur of what it is you're undertaking. 436 00:33:34,039 --> 00:33:36,479 Other times, you retreat back into just 437 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:40,000 the routine of doing things in a really kind of robotic way. 438 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,359 Anything that helps you take the next step. 439 00:33:51,039 --> 00:33:53,039 ♪ 440 00:33:56,479 --> 00:33:58,640 Considering how little result we had to show 441 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,199 for all our strenuous efforts of the past four days, 442 00:34:03,439 --> 00:34:06,960 it would be impossible to proceed for any great distance. 443 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:13,800 Taking into account also the possibility of leads opening close to us and so of our 444 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,479 being able to row northwest to where we might find land, 445 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,960 I decided to find a more solid flow 446 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,720 and their camp until conditions were more favourable for us to make 447 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:28,960 a second attempt to escape from our icy prison. 448 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,319 We call this 'Ocean Camp', 449 00:34:31,359 --> 00:34:33,159 this floating lump of ice, 450 00:34:33,199 --> 00:34:37,680 about a mile square at first, but later splitting into smaller 451 00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:42,520 and smaller fragments, was to be our home for nearly two months. 452 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:50,680 The consoling feature of the situation, was that our camp was safe. 453 00:34:51,359 --> 00:34:54,039 We could endure the discomforts. 454 00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:56,840 (Dogs barking) 455 00:34:59,119 --> 00:35:02,479 Having only travelled 4 miles from the crushed Endurance, 456 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,079 dog teams were sent back to the wreckage 457 00:35:05,119 --> 00:35:08,760 to salvage timber, rope, fuel, and the third lifeboat. 458 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:12,760 When the weather permitted, 459 00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:17,439 pieces of the ship and her cargo were ferried across to Ocean Camp, 460 00:35:17,479 --> 00:35:20,079 where the men set about building a supply depot, 461 00:35:20,119 --> 00:35:22,439 and even a kitchen. 462 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,239 But this is a precarious existence. 463 00:35:28,279 --> 00:35:30,560 There's not enough food to survive unless 464 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,920 they can find seals or penguins. 465 00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,479 At any time, the ice on which they camped could break up. 466 00:35:37,039 --> 00:35:40,479 A storm could wipe away their little tented encampment on the ice. 467 00:35:42,319 --> 00:35:45,159 These are miserable conditions for the 28 men. 468 00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:51,399 Our meals had to consist mainly of seal and penguin. 469 00:35:51,439 --> 00:35:53,279 And though this was valuable as 470 00:35:53,319 --> 00:35:56,760 an antiscorbutic, so much so that not a single case 471 00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:58,399 of scurvy occurred amongst the party, 472 00:35:58,439 --> 00:36:01,319 yet it was a badly adjusted diet, 473 00:36:01,359 --> 00:36:04,640 and we felt rather weak and innovated in consequence. 474 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,000 The cook deserves much praise for the way 475 00:36:07,039 --> 00:36:10,359 he has stuck to his job through all this severe blizzard. 476 00:36:10,399 --> 00:36:12,800 His galley consists of nothing but a few 477 00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:17,439 boxes arranged as a table, with a canvas screen erected around them on four oars, 478 00:36:18,239 --> 00:36:22,399 and the two blubber stoves within the protection afforded by the screen is only partial, 479 00:36:22,439 --> 00:36:27,520 and the eddies drive the pungent blubber smoke in all directions. 480 00:36:29,439 --> 00:36:34,479 We live well, but perhaps it's that hunger that's the best condiment. 481 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:38,960 Even the fact that our seals and penguins are full of internal parasites 482 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,279 of the nastiest or most loathsome kind does not deter us. 483 00:36:47,079 --> 00:36:50,920 The collection of food was now the all important consideration, 484 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:53,479 owing to this shortage of food 485 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,800 and the fact that we needed all that we could get for ourselves. 486 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,960 I had to order all the dogs to be shot. 487 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:02,960 It was the worst job that we had had 488 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:06,800 throughout the expedition, and we felt their loss keenly. 489 00:37:12,079 --> 00:37:14,600 This evening, as we were lying in our tents, 490 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,840 we heard the boss call out, 'she's going, boys!' 491 00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:24,399 There was our poor ship, a mile and a half away, 492 00:37:24,439 --> 00:37:26,439 struggling in a death agony. 493 00:37:26,479 --> 00:37:31,159 It made the scene even more desolate and depressing. 494 00:37:32,119 --> 00:37:34,600 Weeks turned into months. 495 00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:37,800 Of all the dangers these men faced, 496 00:37:39,279 --> 00:37:43,039 the cold, starvation, the unfathomed depths beneath them 497 00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:47,199 loss of morale was the greatest threat of them all. 498 00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:57,800 There were 28 men on our floating cake of ice, which was steadily dwindling under 499 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,640 the influence of wind, weather, charging flows and heavy swell. 500 00:38:04,359 --> 00:38:10,600 I confess that I felt the burden of responsibility sit heavily on my shoulders. 501 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:14,079 Loneliness is the penalty of leadership. 502 00:38:16,079 --> 00:38:19,880 Shackleton took on a lot of the responsibility for keeping men's morale up, 503 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,439 in normalizing the circumstances 504 00:38:23,479 --> 00:38:26,560 and always seeming to have a plan for what would happen next. 505 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:28,039 It was always a next step. 506 00:38:28,079 --> 00:38:30,880 It wasn't all going to end here and now with their death on the ice as failures. 507 00:38:32,479 --> 00:38:34,319 The boss would sort something out. 508 00:38:34,359 --> 00:38:36,000 And all would be well. 509 00:38:40,479 --> 00:38:45,239 Rather than sitting in ocean camp any longer with nothing but time to think, 510 00:38:45,279 --> 00:38:47,720 Shackleton organised another march towards the peninsula. 511 00:38:52,079 --> 00:38:55,680 Another march meant abandoning a significant amount of their provisions. 512 00:38:58,159 --> 00:39:03,039 For the lifeboats and sleds to travel over this now heavily distorted surface, 513 00:39:03,079 --> 00:39:05,039 they would have to travel as light as possible. 514 00:39:07,119 --> 00:39:12,000 Extra food, timber, fuel, even their tent, canvas flooring would all be left behind. 515 00:39:12,119 --> 00:39:13,880 at Ocean camp. 516 00:39:20,279 --> 00:39:25,159 I informed all hands that I intended to try and make a march to the west 517 00:39:25,199 --> 00:39:27,680 to reduce the distance between us and Paulet Island. 518 00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:32,840 I could not but hope that this time the fates would be kinder to us than 519 00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:38,640 in our last attempts to march across the ice to safety. 520 00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:50,279 ♪ 521 00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:01,319 At this rate, it would take us over 300 days 522 00:40:01,359 --> 00:40:03,239 to reach the land away to the west 523 00:40:03,359 --> 00:40:06,840 as we only had food for 42 days. 524 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:12,399 There was no alternative, therefore but to camp once more on the flow, 525 00:40:12,439 --> 00:40:18,439 and to possess our souls with what patience we could. 526 00:40:18,479 --> 00:40:22,760 Our new home which we were to occupy for nearly three and a half months, 527 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:26,560 we called Patience Camp. 528 00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:38,039 They must now sit and wait, helplessly, as their camp drifts slowly north. 529 00:40:38,079 --> 00:40:42,000 Seals and penguins have disappeared, leaving the men low on food and blubber. 530 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:45,399 All they could do was hope 531 00:40:45,439 --> 00:40:49,039 the warming Weddell Sea, was pushing them closer to land. 532 00:40:51,720 --> 00:40:54,399 The flow had become our home. 533 00:40:55,520 --> 00:41:00,479 During the early months of the drift, we had almost ceased to realise that it 534 00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:05,239 was but a sheet of ice floating on unfathomed seas. 535 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:17,880 Our drifting home had no rudder to guide it, no sail to give its speed. 536 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:21,840 We were dependent upon the caprice of wind and current. 537 00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:25,920 We went whither those irresponsible forces listed. 538 00:41:26,439 --> 00:41:31,199 The longing to feel solid earth under our feet filled our hearts. 539 00:41:33,399 --> 00:41:38,760 Now our home was being shattered under our feet. 540 00:41:40,720 --> 00:41:41,720 (Cracking) 541 00:41:42,119 --> 00:41:44,079 The warmer water that was taking them closer to land, 542 00:41:44,119 --> 00:41:47,760 had reduced their ice flow to a thin sheet. 543 00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:50,159 The tents, the lifeboats, and the crew 544 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:54,840 could easily disappear into the one degrees Celsius water. 545 00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:01,359 ♪ 546 00:42:02,199 --> 00:42:06,720 Some intangible feeling of uneasiness made me leave my tent 547 00:42:07,720 --> 00:42:08,880 about 11pm that night, 548 00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,079 and glance around the quiet camp. 549 00:42:11,119 --> 00:42:13,600 I started to walk across the flow in order 550 00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:17,000 to warn the watchman to look carefully for cracks. 551 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:19,960 And as I was passing the man's tent, 552 00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:24,479 the flow lifted on the crest of the swell, and cracked right under my feet. 553 00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:29,720 The men were in one of the dome shaped tents 554 00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:32,520 and had began to stretch apart as the ice opened. 555 00:42:37,079 --> 00:42:41,640 Peering into the darkness, I could just see the dark figures on the other flow. 556 00:42:45,399 --> 00:42:48,800 I hailed Wilde, ordering him to launch the Stancombe wills. 557 00:42:52,720 --> 00:42:56,840 The only thing they could do was jump into their lifeboats and start paddling. 558 00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:03,520 The spring thaw was destroying the solid sea ice, and time was running out. 559 00:43:25,199 --> 00:43:26,199 (Motor whirring) 560 00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:33,840 This is brash ice. 561 00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:37,479 This can be anything from the size of a car down to the size of a basketball. 562 00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:40,079 Trying to paddle through this stuff would have been really difficult. 563 00:43:41,199 --> 00:43:43,640 They were just desperate to make landfall wherever they could. 564 00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:46,680 And of course, tantalizingly, they could see the peninsula close by, 565 00:43:46,720 --> 00:43:51,279 but they would have been prevented to get there from the sea of this kind of stuff, 566 00:43:51,319 --> 00:43:53,840 plus the currents that were pushing them up into the open ocean. 567 00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:58,000 It must have been pretty desperate to see salvation so close. 568 00:44:03,359 --> 00:44:05,800 They knew from their compass readings that they were drifting, 569 00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,279 perhaps 20 miles a day. 570 00:44:07,720 --> 00:44:09,840 What awaits you, is the storm tossed southern Ocean, 571 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:15,680 and if you don't get it right and find somewhere to land, 572 00:44:15,720 --> 00:44:19,800 you've got thousands and thousands of miles of nothing in every direction 573 00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:21,600 and certain death. 574 00:44:28,079 --> 00:44:31,359 ♪ 575 00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:39,560 These rowboats were not built to withstand an open ocean crossing. 576 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:42,920 They were designed to take someone from ship to shore. 577 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:45,479 All three lifeboats were keelless, 578 00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:50,479 prone to capsize, and they are in some of the roughest oceans known to man. 579 00:44:56,119 --> 00:44:57,119 ♪ 580 00:44:58,399 --> 00:44:59,399 (Birds squawking) 581 00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:03,119 A strong easterly breeze was blowing, 582 00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:05,960 but the fringe of pack lying outside 583 00:45:06,720 --> 00:45:11,319 protected us from the full force of the swell, just as the coral reef 584 00:45:11,359 --> 00:45:13,640 of a tropical island checks the rollers of the Pacific. 585 00:45:17,439 --> 00:45:20,479 Elephant Island was the nearest land 586 00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:22,800 but it lay outside the main body of pack. 587 00:45:26,279 --> 00:45:28,920 And even if the wind had been fair, 588 00:45:29,039 --> 00:45:33,119 we would have hesitated to face the high sea that was running in the open. 589 00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:44,600 A big flow berg resting peacefully ahead caught my eye 590 00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:51,119 and half an hour later we had hauled up the boats and pitched camp for the night. 591 00:45:51,159 --> 00:45:55,039 Everyone was in need of rest after the troubles of the previous night 592 00:45:55,079 --> 00:45:58,479 and the unaccustomed strain of the last 36 hours of the oars. 593 00:46:00,159 --> 00:46:03,159 But it was not as safe as it looked. 594 00:46:06,720 --> 00:46:09,079 Your prospects, if you were drifting out 595 00:46:09,119 --> 00:46:13,119 into the deep South Atlantic blown by the winds and the currents on a piece 596 00:46:13,159 --> 00:46:15,640 of ice like this one, no one would ever find you, 597 00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:20,319 your home would melt beneath your feet and you'd be condemned to the sea forever. 598 00:46:22,159 --> 00:46:25,159 As each swell lifted around our rapidly dissolving berg, 599 00:46:25,199 --> 00:46:32,199 it drove flow ice onto the ice foot, reducing the size of our camp. 600 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:39,640 I made up my mind that we should try to reach Deception Island. 601 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:46,840 No longer were we drifting helplessly, 602 00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:49,760 at the mercy of wind and current. 603 00:46:53,359 --> 00:46:56,920 The men paddled for almost four days. 604 00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,520 Worsley took the first navigational site 605 00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:03,199 the overcast skies had allowed, and determined their progress. 606 00:47:05,359 --> 00:47:08,680 It was a grievous disappointment. 607 00:47:08,720 --> 00:47:10,359 Instead of making a good run 608 00:47:10,399 --> 00:47:13,560 to the westward we had made a big drift to the southeast. 609 00:47:14,720 --> 00:47:17,439 We were actually 30 miles to the east of the position 610 00:47:17,479 --> 00:47:22,920 we had occupied when we left the flow on the 9th. 611 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:29,359 To us, it was a day that seemed likely to lead to no more days. 612 00:47:33,479 --> 00:47:36,279 We could hear the killers blowing. 613 00:47:42,479 --> 00:47:48,760 Their short, sharp hisses, sounding like sudden escapes of steam. 614 00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:49,800 (Hissing) 615 00:47:55,119 --> 00:47:57,720 The killers were a source of anxiety, 616 00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:01,840 for a boat could easily have been capsized by one of them coming up to blow. 617 00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:05,039 Shipwrecked mariners might appear on closer examination, 618 00:48:05,479 --> 00:48:10,039 to be tasty substitutes for seal and penguin. 619 00:48:13,079 --> 00:48:17,760 Got a pod of orca off the ship here, which is incredible to see. 620 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:21,039 For Shackleton, of course, the orca were something to be feared. 621 00:48:21,079 --> 00:48:23,199 We didn't really understand much about them. 622 00:48:23,239 --> 00:48:25,199 They called them killers, of course, killer whales. 623 00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:28,479 And they talked of the hissing noises they'd make, 624 00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:31,399 and the fact they were being stalked by these creatures. 625 00:48:31,439 --> 00:48:33,800 And it created this real sense of unease. 626 00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:36,600 They really regarded them as something to be feared. 627 00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:43,920 (Blowing) 628 00:48:45,279 --> 00:48:48,000 I think the killer whales circling Shackleton and his men 629 00:48:48,039 --> 00:48:49,640 as they headed towards Elephant Island 630 00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:53,319 was just a continuation of a sort of recurring theme, 631 00:48:53,359 --> 00:48:56,800 which is that Antarctica respects no person, really. 632 00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,640 It's just this untamed wilderness where 633 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:06,279 you are just a bit player in the scheme of things. 634 00:49:07,479 --> 00:49:10,399 If you are not fit enough or mentally or 635 00:49:10,439 --> 00:49:13,279 physically well prepared enough, you won't survive. 636 00:49:13,319 --> 00:49:17,479 If you're seen to be a food source for an animal, 637 00:49:19,359 --> 00:49:22,159 you know, it's just the way of nature. 638 00:49:23,439 --> 00:49:25,640 We are not above it, we're just part of it. 639 00:49:26,319 --> 00:49:29,800 And I think Antarctica teaches you that, when you go there. 640 00:49:36,720 --> 00:49:40,680 The men were left with only one choice. 641 00:49:41,359 --> 00:49:45,840 Their drift meant they could no longer reach the islands 642 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:48,000 inside the relative shelter of the pack ice, 643 00:49:48,039 --> 00:49:51,640 they were going to have to brave the open sea. 644 00:49:52,399 --> 00:49:55,479 Obviously, we must make land quickly, 645 00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:58,560 and I decided to run for Elephant Island. 646 00:50:02,279 --> 00:50:05,439 Our way was across the open sea, 647 00:50:05,479 --> 00:50:08,600 and soon after noon, we swung round the north end of the pack. 648 00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:13,239 (Waves crashing) 649 00:50:14,159 --> 00:50:17,600 Immediately, our deeply laden boats began to make heavy weather. 650 00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:23,199 The ship's sprays, which are freezing as they fell, covered men and gear with ice. 651 00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:29,439 (Loud crashing of waves) 652 00:50:35,039 --> 00:50:37,199 It seemed that the general discomfort of our situation, 653 00:50:37,239 --> 00:50:39,960 could scarcely have been increased. 654 00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:44,199 But the land looming ahead, was a beacon of safety. 655 00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:52,600 We had now had 108 hours of toil, 656 00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:55,880 tumbling, freezing and soaking with little or no sleep. 657 00:50:57,720 --> 00:50:59,880 Progress was slow. 658 00:50:59,920 --> 00:51:02,199 Gradually, Elephant Island came nearer. 659 00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:21,880 All this time, we were coasting along beneath towering rocky cliffs and sheer glacier faces, 660 00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:28,199 which offered not the slightest possibility of landing anywhere. 661 00:51:31,279 --> 00:51:34,880 ♪ 662 00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:39,520 (Birds squawking) 663 00:51:40,439 --> 00:51:43,560 You can tell just what the conditions can get to here. 664 00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:47,920 I mean, we've got about 30 or 40 knots of gusts at the moment, 665 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:51,960 but the wind speeds, of course, can get two or three times that. 666 00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:53,880 The trouble here is that you get not only the winds coming off the ocean, 667 00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:57,359 but you get the Katabatic winds, the cold, dense, 668 00:51:57,399 --> 00:52:01,760 masses of air pouring down off the high ground in the interior of the island. 669 00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:03,279 And so you get it from both sides, 670 00:52:03,319 --> 00:52:06,039 and when the wind is blowing in the same direction, 671 00:52:06,079 --> 00:52:09,920 you've got the wind coming off the land and the wind from the sea, 672 00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:12,439 you can really end up with hurricane force winds. 673 00:52:14,680 --> 00:52:18,039 What we're looking at here is Cape Valentine, where Shackleton first arrived. 674 00:52:18,439 --> 00:52:20,199 They landed here and realized they 675 00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:25,560 couldn't hope to survive with the prospect of all the ice and rocks tumbling down 676 00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:29,239 on them from above, and so were forced to move further around the island. 677 00:52:34,119 --> 00:52:38,760 Wilde, Worsley and Hurley accompanied me on an inspection of our beach. 678 00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:46,279 The outlook we found to be anything but cheering. 679 00:52:46,319 --> 00:52:48,680 Obvious signs show that at spring tides, 680 00:52:48,720 --> 00:52:51,800 the little beach would be covered by the water right up to the foot of the cliffs. 681 00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:55,840 The interior of the island, was quite inaccessible. 682 00:52:55,880 --> 00:52:58,079 We climbed up one of the slopes and found 683 00:52:58,640 --> 00:53:01,760 ourselves stopped soon by overhanging cliffs. 684 00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:03,680 The rocks behind the camp were much weathered, 685 00:53:03,720 --> 00:53:08,920 and we noticed the sharp, unworn boulders that had fallen from above. 686 00:53:09,319 --> 00:53:12,159 Clearly there was a danger from overhead. 687 00:53:12,479 --> 00:53:14,560 We must move on. 688 00:53:16,920 --> 00:53:19,199 Shackleton managed to find just about 689 00:53:19,239 --> 00:53:20,680 the only place you could land, 690 00:53:20,720 --> 00:53:22,479 which is a place called Point Wild, which is just over there 691 00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:27,359 between that small triangle of rock on the right 692 00:53:27,399 --> 00:53:29,920 hand side and the face on the left hand side. 693 00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:33,600 In between those two is a shingle beach that they managed to land. 694 00:53:35,279 --> 00:53:37,239 At 09:30 a.m., 695 00:53:37,279 --> 00:53:40,199 we spied a narrow, rocky beach at the base 696 00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:44,079 of some very high crags and cliff and made for it. 697 00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:55,279 Another stage of the homeward journey had been accomplished 698 00:53:56,920 --> 00:54:00,640 and we can afford to forget for an hour the problems of the future. 699 00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:05,600 Life was not so bad. 700 00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:25,399 We got a Weddell seal basking in this sub zero temperature just 701 00:54:25,439 --> 00:54:31,359 behind me, and the men were forced to bludgeon these seals 702 00:54:31,399 --> 00:54:34,680 and eat them both for the meat they provided, 703 00:54:34,720 --> 00:54:39,359 but also for the blubber which they rendered down and used to power their stoves. 704 00:54:42,039 --> 00:54:44,000 Not very palatable, not too good for the seal, either. 705 00:54:47,720 --> 00:54:50,560 Trying to survive on Elephant Island would have just been a brutal experience. 706 00:54:51,239 --> 00:54:53,600 You're living in a space between two glaciers really, 707 00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:56,880 really just eking out what existence you can. 708 00:54:56,920 --> 00:54:59,239 And we've got a glacier behind us here, 709 00:54:59,279 --> 00:55:00,640 a snow slope in the middle there, 710 00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:04,920 with a steep rock cliff behind it, and another glacier in the distance. 711 00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:06,680 They couldn't go more than 50 meters in one direction, 712 00:55:06,720 --> 00:55:09,960 and perhaps 100 meters in the other direction, 713 00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:11,840 before that was the end of their world. 714 00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:14,680 They were literally stuck and trying to eke out its existence 715 00:55:14,720 --> 00:55:18,000 in this tiny, tiny area in the middle here. 716 00:55:21,199 --> 00:55:24,279 It was heavy work, carrying our goods over 717 00:55:24,319 --> 00:55:26,880 the rough pebbles and rocks to the foot of the cliff. 718 00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:31,199 When the work was done, we pulled the three boats a little higher up on the beach, 719 00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:37,479 and turned gratefully to the hot drink that the cook had prepared. 720 00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:40,640 In order to provide shelter for the men, 721 00:55:41,319 --> 00:55:43,600 we turned the Dudley docker upside down 722 00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:46,079 and wedged up the weathered side with boulders. 723 00:55:47,840 --> 00:55:52,439 A consideration that had weight with me was that there was no chance at all of any 724 00:55:52,479 --> 00:55:54,720 search being made for us on Elephant Island. 725 00:55:58,479 --> 00:56:02,439 A boat journey in search of relief was necessary and must not be delayed. 726 00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:06,439 That conclusion was forced upon me. 727 00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:13,119 The nearest inhabited land to Elephant Island, 728 00:56:13,159 --> 00:56:16,680 is South America or the Falkland Islands. 729 00:56:16,720 --> 00:56:18,560 But the strong winds and currents of the Southern Ocean, 730 00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:21,039 made reaching those places impossible. 731 00:56:22,479 --> 00:56:25,680 Their only hope was to sail with the wind 732 00:56:25,720 --> 00:56:28,279 back to the whaling stations of South Georgia 733 00:56:29,399 --> 00:56:31,039 over 800 nautical miles away. 734 00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:38,520 South Georgia was over 800 miles away, 735 00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:40,760 but lay in the area of the west winds. 736 00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:43,760 And I could count upon finding whalers 737 00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,199 at any of the whaling stations on the east coast. 738 00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:51,479 The hazards of a boat journey across 800 miles of stormy 739 00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:55,159 sub Antarctic ocean were obvious. 740 00:56:55,199 --> 00:56:57,079 But I calculated that at worst, 741 00:56:57,119 --> 00:57:01,039 the venture would add nothing to the risks of the men left on the island. 742 00:57:01,079 --> 00:57:02,960 There would be fewer mouths to feed during the winter, 743 00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:07,640 and the boat would not require to take more than one month's provisions for six men. 744 00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:13,199 For if we did not make South Georgia in that time, we were sure to go under. 745 00:57:15,920 --> 00:57:19,880 Shackleton decided to take five of the men in the most seaworthy lifeboat, 746 00:57:20,079 --> 00:57:22,600 The James Caird. 747 00:57:22,800 --> 00:57:26,159 I told Wilde at once he would have to stay behind. 748 00:57:26,439 --> 00:57:30,720 I relied on him to hold the party together while I was away. 749 00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:36,680 The men who were staying behind made a pathetic little group on the beach 750 00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:39,079 with the grim heights of the island behind them. 751 00:57:40,239 --> 00:57:44,199 But they waved to us and gave three hearty cheers. (Men cheering) 752 00:57:45,319 --> 00:57:47,920 There was hope in their hearts and they 753 00:57:47,960 --> 00:57:50,119 trusted us to bring the help that they needed. 754 00:57:54,119 --> 00:57:58,920 I had all sails set, and the James Caird quickly dipped the beach 755 00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:01,039 and its line of dark figures. 756 00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:05,439 I decided to run north for at least two days, 757 00:58:05,479 --> 00:58:09,039 while the wind held and so get into warmer weather 758 00:58:09,079 --> 00:58:13,600 before turning to the east, and being a course for South Georgia. 759 00:58:18,079 --> 00:58:24,000 The tale of the next 16 days is one of supreme strife amid heaving waters. 760 00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:30,199 A sub Antarctic Ocean, lived up to its evil winter reputation. 761 00:58:33,680 --> 00:58:35,119 (Waves lapping) 762 00:58:36,840 --> 00:58:39,279 ♪ 763 00:58:47,359 --> 00:58:49,920 ♪ 764 00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:00,680 Southern Ocean is the roughest ocean in the world. 765 00:59:02,159 --> 00:59:04,720 This is typical Southern Ocean weather we're facing here. 766 00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:09,560 We've got about 40, maybe 50 knot gusts of winds and quite big sea states. 767 00:59:09,600 --> 00:59:11,920 We're heading up towards South Georgia. 768 00:59:11,960 --> 00:59:15,600 You've got the Pacific basically draining into the Atlantic from west to east. 769 00:59:15,640 --> 00:59:18,039 And when the wind blows in the other direction 770 00:59:18,079 --> 00:59:22,399 you get big standing waves...very, very tough conditions. 771 00:59:23,159 --> 00:59:24,399 (Waves crash loudly) 772 00:59:25,399 --> 00:59:26,840 We're in 110 meters, ice strengthened ship here 773 00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:32,399 and Shackleton and his 22 and a half foot keelless rowboat 774 00:59:33,960 --> 00:59:38,159 in these kind of conditions, sitting only a foot and a half above the surface of the sea, 775 00:59:38,199 --> 00:59:44,560 very intimidating, noisy, rough waves crashing in, soaking you, threatening to sink you. 776 00:59:45,119 --> 00:59:47,920 Survival time if you go in here, sub, ten minutes, 777 00:59:48,279 --> 00:59:50,199 but frankly, in rough sea state like this, two or three. 778 00:59:50,239 --> 00:59:54,279 You'd freeze, you'd lose the ability to tread water and down you'd go. 779 01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:06,680 Shackleton's boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia is widely 780 01:00:06,720 --> 01:00:12,880 considered the most dangerous and difficult ocean crossing ever attempted. 781 01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:18,039 In 2013, I had the brilliant idea to recreate the journey using the same 782 01:00:18,079 --> 01:00:21,680 inadequate clothing and tiny robot that they had. 783 01:00:21,720 --> 01:00:26,159 I wanted to experience it for myself. 784 01:00:29,399 --> 01:00:35,520 It's the hardest physical and mental endeavour I've ever been involved in. 785 01:00:38,239 --> 01:00:42,079 I remember being borderline hypothermic, 786 01:00:42,119 --> 01:00:49,119 with prospects stalking us all in amongst these sorts of conditions, 787 01:00:49,560 --> 01:00:54,800 down in the dips between one set of waves and the next, 788 01:00:57,800 --> 01:00:59,520 waves crashing in. 789 01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:03,800 Standing in one degree celsius seawater. 790 01:01:05,840 --> 01:01:07,760 Charts. 791 01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:13,239 I have lasting memories of how that felt from our journey. 792 01:01:17,039 --> 01:01:22,439 Deep seemed the valleys when we lay between the rain and sea. 793 01:01:22,479 --> 01:01:28,039 High were the hills when we perched momentarily on the tops of giant combers. 794 01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:33,079 Nearly always there were gales. 795 01:01:34,760 --> 01:01:40,479 So small was our boat and so great were the seas, that often our sail flapped idly 796 01:01:40,520 --> 01:01:43,119 in the calm between the crests of two waves. 797 01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:49,119 Then we would climb the next slope and catch the full fury of the gale, 798 01:01:49,199 --> 01:01:54,479 where the wool like whiteness of the breaking water, surged around us. 799 01:01:58,800 --> 01:02:01,720 We were a tiny speck in the vast vista of the sea, 800 01:02:02,159 --> 01:02:07,319 the ocean that is open to all, and merciful to none. 801 01:02:10,199 --> 01:02:13,079 When you're down in amongst it in a keelless rowboat, 802 01:02:16,159 --> 01:02:19,800 believe me, it's eh... 803 01:02:20,800 --> 01:02:22,680 ...it's a very interesting experience. 804 01:02:23,079 --> 01:02:25,319 It's all part of my therapy, coming back here and experiencing this. 805 01:02:25,359 --> 01:02:28,399 Get it out of my system. 806 01:02:32,880 --> 01:02:35,640 The living conditions inside the boat were also challenging. 807 01:02:35,680 --> 01:02:37,960 The six men were living off a hot drink called 'hoosh', 808 01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:42,720 a delightful mixture of animal fat and cereal. 809 01:02:44,520 --> 01:02:49,600 Their reindeer sleeping bags were so constantly wet, they began to fall apart, 810 01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:52,199 sending the prickly hair all throughout the boat, 811 01:02:53,439 --> 01:02:56,039 getting into their clothing, food and drinking water. 812 01:02:57,520 --> 01:03:00,319 Our water had long been finished. 813 01:03:00,359 --> 01:03:03,159 The last was about a pint of hairy liquid 814 01:03:03,199 --> 01:03:06,199 which we strained through a bit of gauze from the medicine chest. 815 01:03:08,439 --> 01:03:11,359 Their only means of navigation was by the sun. 816 01:03:11,439 --> 01:03:14,199 Using a sextant and compass. 817 01:03:14,800 --> 01:03:18,800 Worsley, new South Georgia island sat on the 54th degree latitude. 818 01:03:19,960 --> 01:03:21,840 They only need to travel north to that point, 819 01:03:21,880 --> 01:03:25,800 then allow the strong Southern Ocean current to push them east. 820 01:03:31,319 --> 01:03:35,600 I think most of us had a feeling that the end was very near. 821 01:03:35,920 --> 01:03:42,279 The morning of May the 8th broke thick and stormy with squalls from the northwest. 822 01:03:42,920 --> 01:03:45,399 We searched the waters ahead for a sign of land, 823 01:03:45,439 --> 01:03:51,000 and though we could see nothing more than had met our eyes for many days, 824 01:03:51,039 --> 01:03:55,000 we were cheered by a sense that the goal was near at hand. 825 01:03:55,680 --> 01:03:58,319 We gazed ahead with increasing eagerness, 826 01:03:58,359 --> 01:04:01,840 and at 12:30 p.m. through a rift in the clouds, 827 01:04:02,319 --> 01:04:06,039 McCarthy caught a glimpse of the black cliffs of South Georgia. 828 01:04:12,039 --> 01:04:13,800 It was a glad moment. 829 01:04:13,840 --> 01:04:17,079 Thirst ridden, chilled and weak as we were, 830 01:04:17,119 --> 01:04:22,680 happiness irradiated us, the job was nearly done. 831 01:04:31,520 --> 01:04:34,159 Incredibly, after 16 days at sea, 832 01:04:34,920 --> 01:04:38,760 the men had survived 800 miles of 30 foot waves, 833 01:04:38,840 --> 01:04:40,680 and hurricane force winds, 834 01:04:40,880 --> 01:04:42,119 in a 23 foot rowboat. 835 01:04:54,960 --> 01:04:57,000 Well, the sensation Shackleton had as he approached South Georgia, 836 01:04:57,039 --> 01:05:02,199 must have been one of pure relief, after 17 days at sea in the James Caird, 837 01:05:02,239 --> 01:05:05,399 much of it, not expecting to make it at all. 838 01:05:07,880 --> 01:05:10,039 It's a pretty emotional feeling to actually be back here. 839 01:05:10,079 --> 01:05:13,760 It's just exciting again to be following close on his heels. 840 01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:18,560 We've got a big king penguin colony 841 01:05:18,640 --> 01:05:21,520 with hundreds of thousands of breeding pairs in the foreground here. 842 01:05:21,600 --> 01:05:24,159 And that's the thing about South Georgia, 843 01:05:24,319 --> 01:05:26,239 you smell it before you can see it. 844 01:05:26,439 --> 01:05:31,319 You can smell the stench of urea coming off the king penguins. 845 01:05:31,359 --> 01:05:33,520 It's quite something, you never quite get used to it, 846 01:05:33,560 --> 01:05:35,680 and you certainly don't get it out of your clothes. 847 01:05:52,279 --> 01:05:56,039 Millions of penguins and seals crowd the beaches of South Georgia. 848 01:05:57,960 --> 01:06:01,920 These are some of the densest concentrations of wildlife on the planet. 849 01:06:06,640 --> 01:06:10,039 The most spectacular place in the world, South Georgia. 850 01:06:10,079 --> 01:06:14,319 It's hundreds of thousands of breeding pairs of king penguins. 851 01:06:14,399 --> 01:06:15,960 It's just teeming with life. 852 01:06:16,039 --> 01:06:17,159 It's just spectacular. 853 01:06:17,239 --> 01:06:19,159 Never ceases to amaze. 854 01:06:19,760 --> 01:06:20,880 (Penguins squawking) 855 01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:24,239 I think seeing all these animals on the beach would have been a welcome sight frankly, 856 01:06:24,680 --> 01:06:27,359 after the conditions down in the Antarctic and 857 01:06:27,520 --> 01:06:30,399 in the final analysis, you can eat them 858 01:06:30,439 --> 01:06:33,880 and would have been sustenance for Shackleton. 859 01:06:34,119 --> 01:06:35,119 (Growling) 860 01:06:46,560 --> 01:06:49,079 There were hundreds of sea elephants lying about. 861 01:06:49,119 --> 01:06:53,680 And their anxieties with regard to food disappeared. 862 01:06:59,039 --> 01:07:03,199 Meat and blubber, enough to feed our party for years, was in sight. 863 01:07:04,720 --> 01:07:08,359 A sea elephant provided us with fuel and meat 864 01:07:08,399 --> 01:07:13,960 and that evening found a well fed and fairly contented party at rest in Peggotty Camp. 865 01:07:15,640 --> 01:07:20,279 Abundant meals of sea elephants, steak and liver increased our contentment. 866 01:07:26,680 --> 01:07:31,039 The men were grateful for the safety of land and the abundance of food. 867 01:07:31,960 --> 01:07:36,800 However, they still needed to reach the whaling station, on the other side of the island. 868 01:07:38,760 --> 01:07:42,279 The James Caird was badly damaged after the crossing. 869 01:07:42,319 --> 01:07:46,359 It would be too dangerous to sail around the coast. 870 01:07:46,399 --> 01:07:51,359 They were going to have to cross the island on foot to Stromness Bay, 871 01:07:51,399 --> 01:07:56,239 25 miles across the treacherous mountains and glaciers of South Georgia. 872 01:08:03,359 --> 01:08:06,199 The interior of the island had never been traversed, 873 01:08:07,399 --> 01:08:11,800 and with winds blowing down from the peaks at almost 3,000 meters high, 874 01:08:12,640 --> 01:08:18,600 even for the most experienced mountaineer, this was an extremely dangerous prospect. 875 01:08:20,000 --> 01:08:23,159 Shackleton decided to take the two strongest men, 876 01:08:23,600 --> 01:08:28,960 Tom Crean and Frank Worsley, and attempt this final task. 877 01:08:33,239 --> 01:08:35,880 Soon we were ascending a snow slope 878 01:08:35,920 --> 01:08:39,279 heading due east on the last lap of our long trail. 879 01:08:43,279 --> 01:08:48,760 After 2 hours steady climbing, we were 2,500ft above sea level. 880 01:08:51,720 --> 01:08:57,880 We roped ourselves together as a precaution against holes, crevasses and precipices, 881 01:08:58,880 --> 01:09:01,640 and I broke trail through the soft snow. 882 01:09:08,000 --> 01:09:10,479 The central facet of Shackleton's leadership was 883 01:09:10,520 --> 01:09:13,640 That he never asked someone to do something he wasn't prepared to do himself. 884 01:09:13,680 --> 01:09:18,000 And indeed, he really demonstrated that at this stage of their journey. 885 01:09:28,319 --> 01:09:31,600 Well, just come up Shackleton Gap From King Haakon Bay 886 01:09:31,640 --> 01:09:35,079 where Shackleton landed more than 100 years ago. 887 01:09:35,600 --> 01:09:40,039 Weather is beginning to deteriorate as is always the case in South Georgia. 888 01:09:41,159 --> 01:09:43,119 You've got this incredible terrain behind you. 889 01:09:43,159 --> 01:09:44,720 Just shows what the place is like. 890 01:09:44,760 --> 01:09:46,359 We're heading off to the Trident mountains 891 01:09:46,399 --> 01:09:50,199 through there where Shackleton, Crean and Worsley went. 892 01:09:50,479 --> 01:09:56,239 And that's the access point to the interior of the island and the whaling stations beyond. 893 01:10:00,880 --> 01:10:03,079 When Shackleton, Crean and Worsley passed this point, 894 01:10:03,119 --> 01:10:07,479 no one had ever been into the interior of the island. 895 01:10:07,520 --> 01:10:09,079 Their clothing was inadequate, 896 01:10:09,119 --> 01:10:11,079 they had no real climbing experience, 897 01:10:11,119 --> 01:10:13,000 one length of rope. 898 01:10:13,039 --> 01:10:17,319 They were now faced with one of the most treacherous mountain crossings on earth. 899 01:10:20,439 --> 01:10:22,199 The interior was broken tremendously. 900 01:10:23,960 --> 01:10:26,640 High peaks, impassable cliffs, 901 01:10:26,880 --> 01:10:30,079 steep snow slopes and sharply descending glaciers 902 01:10:30,119 --> 01:10:32,079 were prominent features in all directions. 903 01:10:32,119 --> 01:10:37,960 With stretches of snow plain overlaying the ice sheet of the interior. 904 01:10:39,520 --> 01:10:41,640 The slope we were ascending mounted to a ridge, 905 01:10:42,840 --> 01:10:46,159 and our course lay direct to the top. 906 01:10:46,560 --> 01:10:51,159 I had hoped to get a view of the country ahead of us from the top of the slope 907 01:10:51,800 --> 01:10:57,159 but as the surface became more level beneath our feet, a thick fog drifted down. 908 01:10:59,079 --> 01:11:01,680 The moon became obscured and produced a diffused light, 909 01:11:03,119 --> 01:11:07,560 that was more trying than darkness, since it illuminated the fog 910 01:11:07,640 --> 01:11:08,640 without guiding our steps. 911 01:11:10,039 --> 01:11:13,199 We noticed the thin beginnings of crevasses. 912 01:11:13,239 --> 01:11:15,359 Soon they were increasing in size and showing fractures 913 01:11:15,880 --> 01:11:21,439 indicating that we were travelling on a glacier. 914 01:11:23,439 --> 01:11:28,239 ♪ 915 01:11:38,119 --> 01:11:40,880 It's extremely dangerous travelling across glaciers. 916 01:11:41,399 --> 01:11:44,800 Thin snow bridges across deep crevasses 917 01:11:44,880 --> 01:11:49,159 are like hidden trap doors that at any moment could cave in. 918 01:11:49,199 --> 01:11:51,039 The crevasses we are encountering are particularly bad, 919 01:11:53,680 --> 01:11:56,159 but I suspect they've got worse here over time. 920 01:11:57,039 --> 01:11:59,960 Had Shackleton, Crean and Worsley experienced these conditions, 921 01:12:00,239 --> 01:12:03,359 I wonder how they would have fared. 922 01:12:14,439 --> 01:12:16,880 ♪ 923 01:12:18,600 --> 01:12:21,479 The key thing with crossing crevasses is that you don't want to fall in obviously, 924 01:12:21,520 --> 01:12:26,359 and the best way to avoid that is to cross them at right angles. 925 01:12:26,399 --> 01:12:30,680 So if you are going down a river of ice, which a glacier is 926 01:12:30,720 --> 01:12:33,039 you're doing things kind of the right way 927 01:12:33,079 --> 01:12:36,479 because the likelihood is the crevasses are going 928 01:12:36,520 --> 01:12:39,239 to go from left to right in front of you across your path, 929 01:12:39,279 --> 01:12:41,279 and you want to be sort. Of stepping over them. 930 01:12:41,319 --> 01:12:44,720 What you don't want to be doing is following the length of a crevasse 931 01:12:44,760 --> 01:12:46,239 where you give yourself lots and lots opportunities 932 01:12:46,279 --> 01:12:48,720 to fall in the same thing. 933 01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:52,279 If you see one, tighten the rope between you so that if somebody falls in 934 01:12:52,319 --> 01:12:54,359 the other one will hold you. 935 01:12:55,159 --> 01:12:59,119 And just hope to hell that two people don't fall in because if you're the one left, 936 01:12:59,159 --> 01:13:02,840 on the surface you probably haven't got the strength to hold everybody 937 01:13:02,880 --> 01:13:07,960 from falling in and injuring themselves or perhaps worse. 938 01:13:12,119 --> 01:13:16,760 ♪ 939 01:13:24,000 --> 01:13:29,199 ♪ 940 01:13:38,159 --> 01:13:44,239 We were tired, and the wind that blew down from the heights was chilling us. 941 01:13:44,279 --> 01:13:51,279 We decided to get down under the lee of a rock for a rest. 942 01:13:53,920 --> 01:13:58,079 Within a minute, my two companions were fast asleep. 943 01:13:58,119 --> 01:14:00,840 I realized that it would be disastrous if 944 01:14:00,880 --> 01:14:02,479 we all slumbered together, 945 01:14:02,520 --> 01:14:06,359 for sleep under such conditions merges into death. 946 01:14:08,720 --> 01:14:10,720 Shackleton would have stopped in a shelter very much like this one out of the wind, 947 01:14:10,760 --> 01:14:16,319 and knowing really that to stop for more 948 01:14:16,359 --> 01:14:19,039 than a small amount of time would have, would have spelt certain death. 949 01:14:19,079 --> 01:14:22,800 You just cannot stop. Movement generates heat and heat is what you need obviously. 950 01:14:22,840 --> 01:14:27,000 And to stop for too long spells disaster. 951 01:14:27,960 --> 01:14:31,359 After five minutes, I shook them into consciousness again, 952 01:14:31,760 --> 01:14:35,439 told them that they had slept for half an hour, 953 01:14:35,479 --> 01:14:37,840 and gave the word for a fresh start. 954 01:14:40,079 --> 01:14:42,399 Now, Shackleton was no mountaineer but he 955 01:14:42,439 --> 01:14:47,319 had a lot of experience of the cold in Antarctica and he would 956 01:14:47,359 --> 01:14:51,159 have known full well what would happen if he'd allowed the men to sleep any longer. 957 01:15:01,880 --> 01:15:06,680 Around 20 hours into their crossing, Shackleton decided to head down towards 958 01:15:06,720 --> 01:15:10,840 what he thought would be Stromness Bay, and the whaling station. 959 01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:20,840 Our high hopes were soon shattered. 960 01:15:20,880 --> 01:15:25,720 Crevasses warned us that we were on another glacier and soon we looked down 961 01:15:25,760 --> 01:15:29,119 almost to the seaward edge of the great riven ice mass. 962 01:15:37,119 --> 01:15:40,359 I knew there was no glacier in Stromness, 963 01:15:40,399 --> 01:15:44,119 and realized this must be the Fortuna glacier. 964 01:15:45,319 --> 01:15:47,359 The disappointment was severe. 965 01:15:50,399 --> 01:15:52,720 The glacier Shackleton found filled the valley 966 01:15:52,760 --> 01:15:55,199 and sheer ice cliffs fell into the ocean. 967 01:15:56,600 --> 01:15:58,720 It was completely impassable 968 01:15:58,760 --> 01:16:01,279 and forced the men back up into the mountains. 969 01:16:03,239 --> 01:16:05,880 It must have been a moment that almost broke them. 970 01:16:11,319 --> 01:16:13,359 We've just completed a survey of the same glacier, 971 01:16:13,399 --> 01:16:17,199 and it's clear that this landscape has changed dramatically. 972 01:16:20,439 --> 01:16:23,680 Here I am on the Turnback Glacier that Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 973 01:16:23,720 --> 01:16:28,079 colleagues Worsley and Crean, famously tried to use to descend to the valley 974 01:16:28,120 --> 01:16:32,079 beyond us, here to get ultimately to Stromness whaling station. 975 01:16:32,120 --> 01:16:34,360 And look at what a hundred years of climate change have done. 976 01:16:34,399 --> 01:16:37,440 This vast open space we're looking at here used to be occupied by glacier. 977 01:16:39,639 --> 01:16:43,000 For them, the level would have been above the level we can currently see now 978 01:16:43,040 --> 01:16:44,799 and if they were here and the ice were here, 979 01:16:44,840 --> 01:16:47,239 we would see them trudging wearily across our eyeline, 980 01:16:47,280 --> 01:16:50,959 about midway across this valley here, 981 01:16:51,000 --> 01:16:55,040 only to reach a precipitous ice cliff that they couldn't negotiate, 982 01:16:55,079 --> 01:16:58,319 causing them to have to go back up the valley and round another way. 983 01:16:58,360 --> 01:17:00,680 Hence the name Turnback Glacier. 984 01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:03,280 What a change there's been. 985 01:17:09,200 --> 01:17:14,840 Ironically, the Turnback Glacier is no longer an insurmountable barrier. 986 01:17:14,879 --> 01:17:19,360 And we can simply walk down the melting glacial front to the valley floor. 987 01:17:29,520 --> 01:17:31,639 After 26 hours of continuous marching, 988 01:17:32,920 --> 01:17:35,680 there was one more major obstacle in Shackleton's path... 989 01:17:36,840 --> 01:17:38,440 ...the Konig Glacier, 990 01:17:39,079 --> 01:17:41,440 a feature that's virtually unrecognizable today. 991 01:17:42,879 --> 01:17:45,479 ♪ 992 01:17:45,760 --> 01:17:47,600 Back in Shackleton's day, 993 01:17:47,639 --> 01:17:51,399 they saw the ice of the Konig Glacier reaching almost to the breaking waves. 994 01:17:53,319 --> 01:17:54,600 A hundred years later, 995 01:17:54,639 --> 01:17:58,799 we'll have to hike around 3 miles from the coast to the new glacial front. 996 01:18:00,360 --> 01:18:02,520 ♪ 997 01:18:10,799 --> 01:18:13,520 I've always been on two journeys really. 998 01:18:13,559 --> 01:18:16,760 One is the literal one, crossing mountains, crossing glaciers, 999 01:18:16,959 --> 01:18:19,600 and the other is more of a metaphorical one. 1000 01:18:19,639 --> 01:18:24,959 In other words, you see those big rivers of ice and how badly they've been affected 1001 01:18:25,719 --> 01:18:29,200 by climate change and realise they're a really good way of showing the problem. 1002 01:18:29,239 --> 01:18:32,120 They're like the litmus paper for what we're doing to the planet. 1003 01:18:33,239 --> 01:18:34,920 ♪ 1004 01:18:41,680 --> 01:18:44,879 The environment I'm standing on here looks like it's solid. 1005 01:18:44,920 --> 01:18:49,120 As you're stepping, you're sinking down quite a long way 1006 01:18:49,159 --> 01:18:51,639 and these big piles, rubble, again, they look quite solid, 1007 01:18:51,760 --> 01:18:54,280 but beneath them is ice 1008 01:18:54,319 --> 01:18:56,319 and the water is just eating into everything beneath. 1009 01:18:56,360 --> 01:19:00,719 As the ice melts, the water is just eroding away the base of all these piles. 1010 01:19:11,120 --> 01:19:13,360 It's quite a freaky experience being here. 1011 01:19:13,959 --> 01:19:16,399 This whole landscape is just dynamic and changing. 1012 01:19:16,440 --> 01:19:18,559 And what we're seeing today will not look like this tomorrow. 1013 01:19:20,239 --> 01:19:22,639 Using a drone to capture a 360 degree image 1014 01:19:23,840 --> 01:19:27,799 of the Konig Valley and the diary entries from Shackleton's crossing, 1015 01:19:27,840 --> 01:19:31,120 we can recreate the world those three men traversed. 1016 01:19:37,280 --> 01:19:39,799 What a difference 100 years can make. 1017 01:19:53,159 --> 01:19:55,680 This is just indicative of the way 1018 01:19:55,719 --> 01:19:59,239 that climate change has impacted the glaciers of South Georgia, 1019 01:19:59,280 --> 01:20:03,840 where over 90% of the glaciers here are suffering the same fate all in wide scale retreat. 1020 01:20:08,040 --> 01:20:12,840 For Shackleton, South Georgia was a very different world. 1021 01:20:14,079 --> 01:20:19,280 We were so stiff, we marched with our knees bent. 1022 01:20:20,000 --> 01:20:22,600 A jagged line of peaks with a gap like a broken tooth confronted us, 1023 01:20:22,639 --> 01:20:27,959 and our course eastward to Stromness lay across it. 1024 01:20:32,360 --> 01:20:34,719 A very steep slope led up to the ridge 1025 01:20:35,399 --> 01:20:39,360 and an icy wind burst through the gap. 1026 01:20:39,399 --> 01:20:42,639 But the worst was turning to the best for us. 1027 01:20:44,799 --> 01:20:47,600 Twisted, wavelike rock formations of Husvik Harbour, 1028 01:20:47,879 --> 01:20:51,360 appeared right ahead in the opening of dawn. 1029 01:20:54,840 --> 01:20:55,959 In intense excitement, 1030 01:20:56,520 --> 01:21:00,920 we watched the chronometer for 07:00, when the whalers would be summoned to work. 1031 01:21:06,280 --> 01:21:09,239 Right to the minute, the steam whistle came to us, 1032 01:21:09,280 --> 01:21:14,680 borne clearly on the wind, never had any one of us heard sweeter music. 1033 01:21:16,159 --> 01:21:18,520 It was a moment hard to describe. 1034 01:21:19,360 --> 01:21:21,239 Pain and ache. 1035 01:21:21,280 --> 01:21:23,479 Boat journeys, marches, hunger and fatigue, 1036 01:21:23,719 --> 01:21:29,239 seemed to belong to the limbo of forgotten things. 1037 01:21:31,799 --> 01:21:36,639 At 01:30 p. m. we climbed around the final ridge and saw a steamer. 1038 01:21:37,239 --> 01:21:40,879 Minute figures moving to and fro about the boats caught our gaze 1039 01:21:42,840 --> 01:21:47,879 and then we saw the sheds and factory of Stromness whaling station. 1040 01:21:51,120 --> 01:21:55,120 We had pierced the veneer of outside things. 1041 01:21:55,440 --> 01:22:00,000 We had suffered, starved and triumphed. 1042 01:22:00,760 --> 01:22:04,399 Grovelled down, yet grasped of glory, 1043 01:22:04,959 --> 01:22:07,840 grown bigger in the bigness of the whole. 1044 01:22:10,159 --> 01:22:13,520 We had seen God in his splendours, 1045 01:22:13,559 --> 01:22:17,159 heard the text that nature renders. 1046 01:22:24,520 --> 01:22:29,920 We had reached the naked soul of men. 1047 01:22:36,959 --> 01:22:42,000 That afternoon, Shackleton, Crean and Worsley walked into Stromness whaling station. 1048 01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:47,159 The factory would have been busy with teams of men processing huge whale carcasses 1049 01:22:47,200 --> 01:22:50,120 and the stench would have been thick in the air. 1050 01:22:52,120 --> 01:22:57,079 This was to be their first encounter with the outside world, 1051 01:22:57,120 --> 01:22:59,120 in 532 days. 1052 01:23:00,280 --> 01:23:02,639 We tried to straighten ourselves up a bit 1053 01:23:02,680 --> 01:23:04,200 for the thought that there might be women at the station, 1054 01:23:04,239 --> 01:23:10,760 made us painfully conscious of our uncivilized appearance. 1055 01:23:10,799 --> 01:23:14,159 Our beards were long and our hair was matted. 1056 01:23:15,159 --> 01:23:19,399 Three more unpleasant looking ruffians could hardly have been imagined. 1057 01:23:29,879 --> 01:23:34,280 Well, Shackleton finally arrives with Crean and Worsley at the whaling station. 1058 01:23:34,319 --> 01:23:38,280 They celebrate momentarily, but then Shackleton's focused on picking up 1059 01:23:38,319 --> 01:23:40,280 all the people he's left behind. 1060 01:23:40,319 --> 01:23:42,719 And this is just fraught with problems. 1061 01:23:44,959 --> 01:23:47,159 After retrieving the men left on the other side of the island 1062 01:23:47,360 --> 01:23:52,319 Shackleton sets off from South Georgia in a whaling ship 1063 01:23:52,360 --> 01:23:57,360 with the intention of rescuing the 22 men left behind on Elephant Island. 1064 01:23:57,399 --> 01:24:00,559 And they get turned back by the pack ice, which is just impassable. 1065 01:24:01,760 --> 01:24:03,319 They attempt this a second time, 1066 01:24:03,360 --> 01:24:04,959 and the same thing happens again. 1067 01:24:05,520 --> 01:24:10,079 Pack ice, too dense, driven back, unable to get any further south, 1068 01:24:10,920 --> 01:24:14,719 they resort to sailing to South America, where Shackleton raises the funds 1069 01:24:14,760 --> 01:24:16,520 for another ship to reach the men. 1070 01:24:17,559 --> 01:24:19,559 And that catches fire. 1071 01:24:19,920 --> 01:24:22,879 Back to South America, they go, tail between their legs. 1072 01:24:24,040 --> 01:24:25,520 On their fourth attempt, 1073 01:24:25,559 --> 01:24:29,680 they go south in a vessel called the Yelcho, a final rescue effort funded 1074 01:24:29,719 --> 01:24:30,840 by the Chilean government, 1075 01:24:30,879 --> 01:24:34,040 in what is essentially a tugboat. 1076 01:24:35,879 --> 01:24:40,239 This time, Providence favored us. 1077 01:24:40,280 --> 01:24:44,079 The little steamer made a quick rundown in comparatively fine weather. 1078 01:24:45,399 --> 01:24:48,959 Worsley's keen eyes detected the camp. 1079 01:24:49,000 --> 01:24:52,399 The men ashore saw us at the same time 1080 01:24:52,719 --> 01:24:58,079 and we saw tiny black figures hurry to the beach and wave signals to us. 1081 01:24:59,520 --> 01:25:02,760 I saw a little figure on a surf beaten rock 1082 01:25:02,799 --> 01:25:04,079 and recognized Wilde. 1083 01:25:04,559 --> 01:25:05,559 (Cheering) 1084 01:25:08,079 --> 01:25:11,559 I called out, 'are you all well?. 1085 01:25:11,600 --> 01:25:15,559 And he answered, 'we are all well, boss!' 1086 01:25:16,120 --> 01:25:19,200 Wilde had held the party together, 1087 01:25:19,239 --> 01:25:23,120 and kept hope alive in their hearts. 1088 01:25:25,639 --> 01:25:30,920 The men on Elephant Island had waited four and a half months for rescue 1089 01:25:31,079 --> 01:25:34,239 and were down to just four days worth of rations. 1090 01:25:35,040 --> 01:25:37,639 The crew of Endurance were finally about to return to civilization 1091 01:25:37,680 --> 01:25:42,200 for the first time in over two years. 1092 01:25:46,440 --> 01:25:50,559 Against all odds, Shackleton had managed to achieve the impossible. 1093 01:25:55,559 --> 01:25:57,600 All hands were rescued. 1094 01:25:57,639 --> 01:25:59,680 Not a single man perished. 1095 01:26:09,719 --> 01:26:14,639 Shackleton's story inspires me, especially when I'm in these remote 1096 01:26:14,680 --> 01:26:17,760 locations and faced with the reality of the situation. 1097 01:26:19,079 --> 01:26:22,799 I believe Shackleton's leadership can be applied to almost any mission, 1098 01:26:23,120 --> 01:26:25,280 any goal. 1099 01:26:25,319 --> 01:26:28,559 For me, that is correcting our climate trajectory. 1100 01:26:29,479 --> 01:26:32,479 The changes we've witnessed here in South Georgia are sobering 1101 01:26:32,559 --> 01:26:37,040 and I am compelled to use what I've learned from Shackleton, to make a difference. 1102 01:26:38,280 --> 01:26:40,559 I think the thing about glaciers is that they are tangible. 1103 01:26:40,600 --> 01:26:42,120 They're a physical thing. 1104 01:26:42,239 --> 01:26:45,719 You can't see 415 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, 1105 01:26:45,760 --> 01:26:48,159 but you can see a melting glacier. 1106 01:26:48,520 --> 01:26:51,879 South Georgia is such a remote place and of course, Antarctica remoter still, 1107 01:26:51,920 --> 01:26:53,600 so not many people get to come here. 1108 01:26:53,680 --> 01:26:57,440 I think the work we're doing bringing these images back to people 1109 01:26:58,079 --> 01:27:01,760 is just crucial in communicating both the beauty of these places but the fragility of them 1110 01:27:01,959 --> 01:27:04,040 and the importance of doing something about climate change. 1111 01:27:05,600 --> 01:27:07,799 If Shackleton's leadership has taught us anything, 1112 01:27:07,840 --> 01:27:10,559 it's how to achieve the impossible. 1113 01:27:11,520 --> 01:27:16,000 And these are skills we can apply to mammoth tasks like solving climate change. 1114 01:27:16,639 --> 01:27:18,760 We need to reframe the mission. 1115 01:27:18,959 --> 01:27:20,920 We need to set milestones. 1116 01:27:21,120 --> 01:27:24,719 We need to break down the big picture into smaller, bite sized challenges. 1117 01:27:25,399 --> 01:27:29,879 We need to use emotional intelligence to convince everybody to pull together. 1118 01:27:30,600 --> 01:27:32,159 These are the skills that allowed 1119 01:27:32,200 --> 01:27:34,760 Shackleton to save all of his men from Antarctica. 1120 01:27:36,200 --> 01:27:41,760 Those same skills must now help us save Antarctica from man. 1121 01:27:47,239 --> 01:27:50,760 Our journey ends here at Grytviken whaling station, 1122 01:27:51,120 --> 01:27:56,680 where Endurance and her crew of 28 first set off to conquer the ice. 1123 01:27:58,159 --> 01:28:02,879 Grytviken and where we are would have been a harsh, harsh place hundred years ago. 1124 01:28:03,239 --> 01:28:07,360 Many whales hunted here subsequently ended up on the brink of extinction. 1125 01:28:07,399 --> 01:28:10,680 Humpback whales, blue whales. 1126 01:28:11,200 --> 01:28:14,959 And thankfully, we realized the error of our ways before it was too late 1127 01:28:15,000 --> 01:28:18,399 and managed to stop the whaling before we hunted them to extinction. 1128 01:28:18,959 --> 01:28:23,040 Fur seals are back at the numbers they were before we ever started hunting them. 1129 01:28:23,079 --> 01:28:28,120 Which tells us that if we take our foot off the throat of nature, she can recover. 1130 01:28:39,000 --> 01:28:41,200 Six years after their daring escape from the ice, 1131 01:28:41,239 --> 01:28:43,920 Shackleton, Wilde, Worsley, 1132 01:28:43,959 --> 01:28:46,680 and several other crew of Endurance, 1133 01:28:46,719 --> 01:28:51,120 returned to South Georgia, on another expedition to the south. 1134 01:28:56,159 --> 01:28:58,479 Before they could set off Shackleton 1135 01:28:58,520 --> 01:29:02,280 suffered a fatal heart attack and was laid to rest here on the island. 1136 01:29:07,319 --> 01:29:11,040 He just aspired to achieve something that was bigger than him. 1137 01:29:11,079 --> 01:29:13,520 He loved the whole romance and mystery 1138 01:29:13,559 --> 01:29:17,319 of attaining things on the largest of levels and the biggest of stages. 1139 01:29:17,639 --> 01:29:21,799 And he wanted to find out what he was capable of doing and what was out there. 1140 01:29:21,840 --> 01:29:23,079 And it was this kind of wonderful combination, 1141 01:29:24,479 --> 01:29:27,840 of geographical discovery, and finding out what lies within yourself 1142 01:29:27,879 --> 01:29:30,959 to enable you to do these things that really spurred him on. 1143 01:29:33,399 --> 01:29:35,600 I think we can all find leadership within ourself, you know? 1144 01:29:35,639 --> 01:29:37,280 It's not a case of being born with it. 1145 01:29:37,319 --> 01:29:39,239 It's a case of finding it within ourselves. 1146 01:29:39,280 --> 01:29:41,479 And I think Shackleton found it within himself 1147 01:29:41,959 --> 01:29:44,440 to save all his men from certain death, 1148 01:29:44,479 --> 01:29:45,879 and we can find it within ourselves. 1149 01:29:46,040 --> 01:29:48,120 It's just the issue is different. But we must. 1150 01:29:48,200 --> 01:29:50,079 We must find it within ourselves. 1151 01:29:50,799 --> 01:29:54,719 The key to our future, might lie 100 years in our past. 1152 01:29:58,040 --> 01:30:02,559 Truly making this the greatest story of survival.