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This clip shows images taken during the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–16) led by Ernest Shackleton. The predominantly still images are of: the landscape and sea off Elephant Island; members of Shackleton’s original exploration party; and the crew of six who set out on a rescue mission in their ship’s largest lifeboat. Also shown are a map depicting the position of the stricken ship Endurance, which had been crushed by ice; Elephant Island and its location in relation to Cape Horn; and the whaling station on South Georgia for which the rescue boat was to set sail. The film is in black and white and has a narration by Captain Worsley, the captain of the Endurance.

Educational value points

• This clip re-creates a crucial episode in Shackleton’s 1914 expedition, after the sinking of the ship Endurance, that eventually resulted in the rescue of all members of the stranded expedition team. After 10 months of camping on floating sea ice and temporary safety on Elephant Island, Shackleton set out in one of the three remaining lifeboats with five others to navigate 800 miles (1,287 km) across treacherous waters to a whaling station on South Georgia, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Three of the men, including Shackleton, then embarked on a 36-hour march across uncharted and inhospitable terrain to reach help at Stromness, South Georgia.

• Shackleton, the Anglo–Irish explorer now chiefly remembered for his heroic leadership of this failed expedition, is shown at a critical moment in his career. From an early age, Shackleton (1874–1922) knew he wanted to be an explorer and, having qualified as a ship’s master at the age of 24, he went on to participate in five Antarctic expeditions. After the second, the 1907–09 Nimrod Expedition, he was knighted and greeted as a hero for reaching further south than any previous explorer. It was during his last expedition in 1922 that he died and was buried on South Georgia Island.

• The film Endurance, from which this clip is an excerpt, is an example of the work of photographer and filmmaker Frank Hurley. Hurley’s (1885–1962) photographic documentation of the Mawson Antarctic Expedition of 1911, Home of the Blizzard, brought him to the attention of Shackleton who hired him as expedition photographer on his Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914. The decision to hire Hurley may have been influenced by the need to raise capital for further expeditions, personal rivalries between explorers and a growing awareness of the concept of an international audience. On this journey, Hurley’s pursuit of his art led him to climb masts, trek across ice floes and to dive into icy water in the partially submerged ship to retrieve his glass plate negatives. He also visited South Georgia again in 1917 to secure additional footage to complete the story.

• The film Endurance illustrates Hurley’s skill as a filmmaker. Hurley wove together still photographs and moving images, and linked them with a dramatic narration read by Captain Worsley. The still photographs of the lifeboat launch convey the inhospitable nature of the landscape and the ocean. Released in Australia in 1917 as Endurance, the film was re-released in 1933 as In the Grip of the Polar Ice, and was a popular success.

• The film Endurance is an example of a documentary made as a record of an expedition and as a way to promote and fund future expeditions. Shackleton also used many of Hurley’s still photographs to accompany his lecture tours, another way of raising money.

• The voice-over is by Captain Frank Worsley, a member of Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–16. Worsley (1872–1943) was selected by Shackleton to captain the expedition’s ship Endurance. His abilities as a navigator, combined with Shackleton’s leadership skills, help explain the survival of the team after the sinking of the Endurance. Worsley navigated the journey of the expedition team to Elephant Island, and then, over a period of 15 days, he navigated the 800-mile voyage of the rescue team to South Georgia in fearsome seas, from where, after further heroic efforts, the stranded team members were rescued.

This clip starts approximately 36 minutes into the documentary.

Still and moving images show the launching of a lifeboat during the Antarctic expedition. A map indicates where their ship Endurance was crushed and the routes they considered taking on the attempt to go for help.

Captain Worsley (voice-over) Shackleton realised the difficulty of leading 28 men through the winter on what seemed to us a totally godforsaken island. If six went for help, it would be six less to feed and we expected to return in five weeks to rescue the others. I had long before made one preparation for crossing for such an emergency as this. It was hopeless to attempt to reach Cape Horn or the Falkland Islands against the heavy westerly gales which blow there all the year round so we hoped to reach one of the whaling stations of South Georgia 800 miles away. The largest of our three boats, the James Caird, twenty two feet long, was made ready for the journey. We nailed lids of boxes, sledge runners and bits of canvas over the top to prevent the seas breaking directly onto us. We ballasted it with fifteen hundred weight of shingle and rock, and provisioned her for 30 days. The 22 men cheered us when we left but afterwards many of them admitted that they never expected to see us alive again. I had made two voyages in open boats and begged Shackleton to stay behind. It was typical of him that he refused to consider this for a moment. The crew for the journey consisted of Shackleton, Crean, McCarthy AB, McNish, the carpenter, Vincent the boatswain and myself.