Rating: 
Summary: Drop Everything and Read This Book
Review: I started reading Endurance on a Saturday morning and after
a few pages I wanted to cancel all of my weekend plans.This
tale of survival on a ship near the South Pole
in cold and harsh conditions is so astounding that it would be dismissed as implausible if it were fiction.In fact,
I recommend that you read it outloud to other people,
because the circumstances Shackelton and his team find
themselves in are really best experienced when you can
exclaim out loud with someone else about them! One of
the most memorable is the scene in which one of the men
is cross country skiing on the huge ice float on which the men have been stranded for months, when a 12-foot-long
sea leopard pops up out of a hole in the ice and begins
pursuit. This huge beast moves so quickly that
the skier -- one of the fastest in the whole group -- is
barely fast enough to out run it. Add to this adventure, a lack of food, the constant threat of drowning,
bitter cold, and men living for days in nearly freezing, knee-deep
water, kept alive only by sheer will, and you begin to get a
sense of what the story of this three-year journey is all about.
The next time you have a cold, send out for tissues, Nyquil,
and Endurance,and you'll be glad you got sick!
Rating:
Summary: THE SURVIVAL STORY OF SHIPWRECKED SAILORS IN ANTARTICA
Review: Movingly written account of an incredible feat of human
endurance on the ice in Antartica. The ice-pack descriptions
alone are worth reading this book for. Anybody who sails
or enjoys the outdoors will like this book.
Rating:
Summary: Puts all other polar books to shame
Review: Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" is quite simply the definitive version of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1914 expedition to Antarctica. He was supposed to lead the first people to cross the Antarctic continent, but his ship, the "Endurance," was trapped and crushed in the polar ice, leaving his group stranded and entirely on their own. It's quite possibly the greatest polar adventure story of all time.Based on numerous interviews and other meticulous forms of research, Lansing tells the story in great but not stupefying detail. He draws the reader in and makes you feel like you are actually standing on that ice floe with Shackleton, watching the ship disintegrate. He does a much better job of telling the story than Shackleton himself did in his book "South." Although there have been many retellings of the "Endurance" story, both on page and on film (most recently A&E's "Shackleton" dramatization), none are as compelling or as readable as Lansing's book. Check it out; you will be enthralled.
Rating:
Summary: Even knowing the ending, it's a page turner
Review: I'm a fan of survivalist accounts such as "Seven Years in Tibet," and "In the Heart of the Sea." And I loved this true account of the voyage/survival of Shackleton's crew in the Antarctic. Asking friends and relatives if they've read it, I've heard, "I started it, but I didn't want to see everyone die!" So here's the *spoiler...nobody dies! * The capacity of the human body to survive and of the human brain to figure out how to do it never ceases to amaze me. Lansing's account ingeniously pieces together journals of the men involved and includes riveting details without ever being too gory. Even knowing the ending, it's a page turner. I've heard that this is the most involving of all the accounts published...coming across more like a story and less a documentary. The images of the men on the ice have completely captivated me...the sounds and the movement. Be prepared to grab a blanket and a snack as you read (something not made of penguin)...you'll feel like you're there.
Rating:
Summary: A triumph in adventure storytelling
Review: This is one of the most fascinating adventure stories I've ever read.
Expeditions to Antarctica in the 20th century did not always turn out well. And this is one of many that did not achieve its objectives. The idea was to cross the Antarctic continent. And I do recommend the book by Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary on the first successful crossing of Antarctica, which was completed only in 1958.
This book is about the 1914-1916 Shackleton expedition, which attempted to start by reaching Vahsel Bay in Antarctica using a strong 144-foot, 350 horsepower wooden ship named the Endurance.
But the Endurance never quite reached Vahsel Bay. Instead, it became stuck in the ice near the Antarctic coast and eventually had to be abandoned. That left the crew having to find a way to reach land, survive on that land, and find a way to send for help so that it could be rescued. Even for a crew that had been prepared for being in cold weather and difficult circumstances, this turned out to be tricky. It makes one amazed at how able people are to survive in extreme environments. And, of course, this book is a testament to the leadership of Ernest Shackleton.
Not only is the book very well-written and suspenseful, it also includes some terrific photos about the expedition. It's a great work of non-fiction, and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest human leader of men
Review: Shackleton failed to reach the South Pole in 1902 and stopped 460 miles from the Pole; six years later Shackleton turned back 97 miles from the Pole after realizing it would be certain death by starvation if he continued. King Edward VII recognized as a hero Shackleton and knighted him.
1914-1916 Endurance expediation lead Shackleton and his men 1200 miles from civilization and in one of the worst situations possible. Pack ice had trapped, dragged the ship for ten months, and eventually crushed the ship. The men had to rely on life boats salvaged from the ship. The men endure temperature far below zero, four months of darkness, survived on a diet of penguin, seal, and sometimes dog. Once the ice began to melt the men moved to the life boats and spent week fighting for their lives before hitting land, Elphant Island and at Elephant Island the men spent most of their time huddle under overturn boats. The men suffered extreme boredom, starvation, extreme discomfort, and lost of hope. Shackleton offer his men hope. Shackleton was charming both a poet and adventure. His men never doubt Shackleton's discipline and Shackleton's brotherhood with his men help overcome intense boredom as they sang songs, played games, and wrote of their experiences.
Shackleton decided to take five men and sailed 800 miles in the most sever weather and oceanic conditions to South Georgia and return and rescue his men. The interesting fact about the journey was Shackleton planned to succeed by sailing to South Georgia using Star navigation, and if, the navigation was any degree imprecise their deaths were sealed. The Altantic has some of the harshess waves, it is amazingly cold, and no modern expediation has successfully completed the Shackleton crossing to Georgia. The Altantic ocean was too much.
Upon reaching South Georgia, Shackleton realizes they are on the wrong side and proceeded to accomplish another amazing feat, the crossing over of the South Georgia Mountain, at the only time of the year possible for the crossing. The whalers were in awe of Shackelton and his partners as they walked down the mountain. They seemed invincible. Shackleton turns right around and launches a rescue mission for his trapped men on Elphant Island. Not one man was lost in the expedition and his men shout for joy in seeing their captain Shackleton approach to rescue them.
"I love the fight and when things are easy, I hate it".
British explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard, "For a join scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a winter journey, give me Wilson, for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen; and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time."
"By endurance we conquer". Shackleton replaced the War Hero of World War I with the exploration hero. Shackleton gave hope to the world. Men died for honour, instead of fearing death. Europe and America were invigorated with Shackleton's courage.
"He had a quick brain, and he could visualize things a head, and as far as he could he safeguarded any eventuality that was likely to occur" - Lionel Greenstreet
"His method of discipline was very fair. He did not believe in unnecessary discipline." - William Bakewell
"No matter what turns up, he is always ready to alter his plans and make fresh ones, and in the meantime laughs, jokes, and enjoys a joke with everyone, and in this way keeps everyone's spirits up" - Frank Worsley.
Rating:
Summary: A True Story of Survival
Review: There have been some amazing personalities in the roll call of great explorers, and Ernest Shackleton is near the top of the list.
A traveler with Robert Falcon Scott in the first quest for the South Pole in 1902, Shackleton's expedition with the "Endurance" was a terrible story that may have ended in failure to make the pole, but a success in survival.
The writings of Shackleton and a number of his shipmates make for an intriguing and insightful narrative; how Endurance was caught in the polar ice, spending more than a year on an ice floe, marooned on a lonely rock of an island and the amazing journey in a life boat to a whaling station...it's all too incredible, yet it happened.
Shackleton was a real swashbuckler, not always the best judge in talent for his expeditions and the best planner, but as many have said, when adversity arose, he and his people rose to the occasion again and again.
A great read for anyone interested about the "Heroic Age."
Rating:
Summary: There is no other word for it, but INCREDIBLE
Review: Not only was the ship named Endurance but the human spirit is defined here by that very word. Over a year on a floating piece of ice would drive anyone mad. These 28 just endured the most terrifying thing anyone could ever experience - being alone in the antarctic with no contact with the rest of the world. How would it be to be so isolated that no one knows where you are and if you died wouldn't know it for years. Shackleton is the pillar of optimism to be optimistic in circumstances that would have broke even some of the best men today. This author has done a great job deriving the story from the surviving documents and journals of those that survived it. It is truly a story that will endure many generations of us.
Rating:
Summary: A truly great read
Review: Trust me...buy this book, light the fire, pour yourself a cup of tea...and sit back for one heck of a tale.
Rating:
Summary: One of the 100
Review: In my library, I have "The 100 books my son must read." I will have a tough choice ahead as this book needs to be added. Enough said.
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