South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition, 1914–1917

Summary

Experience the epic survival adventure of Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

In 1914, the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton announced an ambitious plan to lead the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. the first trek across Antarctica from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the South Pole. Shackleton’s third expedition would prove fraught with adventure—and peril.

South is the remarkable tale of that ill-fated expedition as told in Shackleton’s own words. The story begins on the eve of World War I, when the ship Endurance departed from England with Shackleton and his team of six men. The plan was to travel 1,800 miles across the icy continent from the Atlantic side, while a second team aboard the ship Aurora, would reach the Pacific side from Tasmania and lay out supply depots for the advancing team.

As the Endurance approached the continent, however, it faced early ice, and the vessel became hopelessly locked in an ice floe, beginning a series of travails for the men of the Endurance, including ice-covered mountainous islands, harrowing days in a life raft surrounded by hurricane-force winds, braving untested overland routes into the vast unknown, and much more.

Today considered an adventure survival classic, South is the true story of a thrilling polar expedition.