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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:54,079 Exploration has been the greatest driving force in my life, since I was young. 2 00:00:59,119 --> 00:01:01,599 And exploring this alien landscape of Antarctica 3 00:01:01,639 --> 00:01:05,639 is a challenge unlike anywhere else on Earth. 4 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:18,039 Over 100 years ago, Antarctica was more than just a challenge. 5 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,440 It was the very limit of human knowledge and scientific understanding. 6 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:30,400 The last unexplored continent on Earth. 7 00:01:38,639 --> 00:01:40,159 It's the beginning of the 20th century, 8 00:01:40,199 --> 00:01:43,000 the heroic era of polar exploration. 9 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,760 These are the astronauts of their time, 10 00:01:49,559 --> 00:01:52,639 and Antarctica was their moon. 11 00:01:52,679 --> 00:01:55,920 DISTANT VOICE OF CONTROLLER: Lift off, we have a lift off! 12 00:01:57,119 --> 00:01:59,159 Explorers from around the world, 13 00:01:59,199 --> 00:02:02,320 pit themselves against the immense wilderness of Antarctica, 14 00:02:03,639 --> 00:02:06,679 in search of glory and discovery. 15 00:02:08,039 --> 00:02:13,960 But this is a vast, cold, isolated and entirely unforgiving place. 16 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:23,440 What do you do when it all goes horribly wrong? 17 00:02:25,159 --> 00:02:29,880 The journals and film recorded by Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27, 18 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:32,679 answers that very question. 19 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. 20 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:47,280 The struggles, the disappointments and the endurance of this small party 21 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:49,440 of Britishers, 22 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:54,320 make a story which is unique, in the history of Antarctic exploration. 23 00:03:10,519 --> 00:03:12,280 I ask myself, 'why on earth one comes to these parts of the earth?' 24 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:40,920 I think we all have a sense of adventure in us, 25 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:43,039 and it manifests in different ways with different people. 26 00:03:43,239 --> 00:03:46,599 Life's true adventure is understanding what the meaning of it all is, 27 00:03:47,199 --> 00:03:52,360 and I think that drives medical research, it drives artistic self expression, 28 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:56,159 it drives people's desire to cross ice caps or climb mountains. 29 00:03:56,199 --> 00:04:00,840 That has burnt brightly in me since childhood, and I've never grown out of it. 30 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:05,159 I've always just had that desire to keep on discovering. 31 00:04:05,199 --> 00:04:07,840 And it's seen me go to the far limits of human endurance 32 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,400 and to the ends of the world as a means to do that. 33 00:04:11,559 --> 00:04:14,559 VARIOUS NARRATIONS: Environmental scientist Tim Jarvis. 34 00:04:14,599 --> 00:04:16,880 Australian explorer Tim Jarvis lost more 35 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:18,639 than 50 pounds of body weight, 36 00:04:18,679 --> 00:04:21,320 recreating the journey of Sir Douglas Mawson. 37 00:04:22,159 --> 00:04:26,280 In doing the expeditions the old way, essentially disadvantaging yourself 38 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:30,159 by using 100 year old equipment, you get about as close as you can 39 00:04:30,199 --> 00:04:34,159 to experiencing that which they experienced 100 years prior. 40 00:04:36,239 --> 00:04:39,280 At least I could honestly say that I've 41 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:41,840 been served up the same sorts of conditions as he had. 42 00:04:43,079 --> 00:04:44,599 REPORTER: Explorer Tim Jarvis is the only man 43 00:04:44,679 --> 00:04:48,119 to have ever recreated the harrowing journey of Ernest Shackleton, 44 00:04:48,239 --> 00:04:52,400 using the same inadequate clothing and equipment as they had back in 1913. 45 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,360 There have been many instances 46 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,320 along the way, some falls in the mountains, 47 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:02,920 where you do wonder whether it'd be the last move you make. 48 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:21,079 I'm so excited about getting down here, I mean, 49 00:05:21,119 --> 00:05:23,880 I feel I really come alive when I'm in a place like this, 50 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:26,880 you get much closer to the spirit of the great man if you're following 51 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,840 in his footsteps, but also you get closer to this more resourceful version of you 52 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:33,719 that emerges when you find yourself in these places. 53 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:36,800 They've been the theater for so many 54 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:39,559 fascinating journeys in the past that you can't help but be inspired. 55 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:46,320 We are 830 nautical miles southeast of the Falkland Islands, 56 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:50,239 headed to the whaling island of South Georgia 57 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:54,599 where Shackleton began his imperial trans antarctic expedition. 58 00:05:55,519 --> 00:05:58,239 SHACKLETON: There remained but one great main object 59 00:05:58,280 --> 00:06:03,000 of antarctic journeyings, the crossing of the south polar continent from sea to sea. 60 00:06:05,559 --> 00:06:09,400 The distance will be roughly 1,800 miles, 61 00:06:09,519 --> 00:06:10,880 and the first half of this, 62 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:16,039 from the Weddell Sea to the pole, will be over unknown ground. 63 00:06:16,079 --> 00:06:19,840 Every step will be an advance in geographical science 64 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:24,239 and this report will prove of great scientific interest. 65 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,719 An expedition of this scale would require a budget of millions in today's money. 66 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:37,960 To fund his dreams of the South, 67 00:06:39,039 --> 00:06:41,760 Shackleton would rely on his ability to convince people of the cause. 68 00:06:43,079 --> 00:06:45,519 Shackleton had this way of getting people 69 00:06:46,239 --> 00:06:48,320 excited about what they were going to know. 70 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:50,599 He offered them things that money couldn't buy. 71 00:06:50,639 --> 00:06:53,159 So if you were a wealthy benefactor 72 00:06:53,199 --> 00:06:56,320 thinking about maybe putting money into a polar expedition Shackleton could 73 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,559 name a mountain range or a coastline after you and you had immortality guaranteed. 74 00:07:00,599 --> 00:07:02,679 So it was a clever way of doing it. 75 00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:08,519 This wasn't Shackleton's first attempt to make history. 76 00:07:12,239 --> 00:07:16,119 In 1907, he was hired to lead the Nimrod expedition to the Antarctic. 77 00:07:17,679 --> 00:07:20,159 The mission was to be the first to reach the south pole. 78 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:24,599 Although they set a new record for the most southerly point ever reached, 79 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:29,559 they were forced to turn back just 97 nautical miles short of their target. 80 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:34,039 Shackleton and his men, starving and exhausted, 81 00:07:34,079 --> 00:07:37,960 returned to base inspired by what they'd seen, 82 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,480 but frustrated with how close they'd come. 83 00:07:42,159 --> 00:07:47,000 It would take Shackleton almost seven years to raise the funding and plan this expedition, 84 00:07:47,039 --> 00:07:50,679 personally putting everything on the line this time. 85 00:07:50,719 --> 00:07:52,320 The stakes couldn't be higher. 86 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:03,599 SHACKLETON: Long days of preparation were over, and the adventure lay ahead. 87 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,280 I gave the order to heave anchor at 08:45 a.m. 88 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:13,639 on December 5 1914, 89 00:08:13,679 --> 00:08:17,560 and the clanking of the windless broke for us, the last link with civilization. 90 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:29,239 The fate of the expedition 91 00:08:29,279 --> 00:08:33,159 now rested on the shoulders of the 28 crew of the Endurance. 92 00:08:35,359 --> 00:08:38,239 Shackleton was a consummate leader of men 93 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:42,199 in those days on those early expeditions, a leader of people. 94 00:08:42,239 --> 00:08:45,920 And he got about 3,000 applicants for the 27 places on the expedition team. 95 00:08:48,039 --> 00:08:52,880 And his recruitment process involved interviews that involved him throwing 96 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:57,640 really curly, interesting questions at people, just to see how they would react. 97 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:00,439 And if there was someone who was too rigid in their thinking, 98 00:09:00,479 --> 00:09:05,960 perhaps again they weren't the kind of person who had the capacity for lateral thinking 99 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,880 and problem solving ability that he was looking for. 100 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:11,920 He always wanted people who saw a positive in any situation, 101 00:09:13,479 --> 00:09:20,479 and you need that for successful expeditioning, or indeed, life. 102 00:09:22,319 --> 00:09:25,560 And in the end, how relevant those skills turned out to be. 103 00:09:31,680 --> 00:09:33,880 The crew seemed a strong one, 104 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:36,560 and as I looked at the men, I felt confidence increasing. 105 00:09:49,439 --> 00:09:51,720 The Weddell Sea was notoriously inhospitable, 106 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:56,920 and already we knew that its sternest face was turned towards us. 107 00:10:02,039 --> 00:10:06,119 What welcome was the Weddell Sea preparing for us? 108 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:26,000 To navigate these southern waters, 109 00:10:26,079 --> 00:10:28,279 timing is everything. 110 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:34,119 In the relative warm months of summer, the sea is less frozen 111 00:10:34,159 --> 00:10:38,039 and large lanes of open water, provide passage to the continent. 112 00:10:46,239 --> 00:10:50,399 I'm just staring out on a scene of brash ice and pancake ice. 113 00:10:50,439 --> 00:10:53,239 Pancake ice is when the surface just 114 00:10:53,279 --> 00:10:56,039 starts to freeze over, and that's what we're starting to see. 115 00:10:56,079 --> 00:10:59,239 And it's the beginning of the formation, of course, of pack ice. 116 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:07,680 As Endurance went south, they, of course, 117 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:11,560 started to experience pack ice, initially probably very much like this, 118 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:13,680 and then, of course, became thicker and thicker and thicker. 119 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:17,640 Worsley on board Endurance was a wonderful 120 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:19,720 skipper and Shackleton was no slouch himself. 121 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:21,239 So between them and some of the other sailors on board, 122 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:23,760 they knew what they were doing in terms of getting through pack ice, 123 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:27,520 but you're really pushing through leads, which are the gaps between 124 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:31,439 the bits of larger pack, and you try to force the ship through there, 125 00:11:32,079 --> 00:11:33,760 push the pack ice apart. 126 00:11:41,039 --> 00:11:45,159 Expedition cameraman Frank Hurley, recorded the efforts of the crew 127 00:11:45,239 --> 00:11:49,640 as they navigated their way through the ice. 128 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:53,600 The fearless Australian would perch himself 129 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:59,760 almost anywhere, to capture the dynamic imagery he was so famous for. 130 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:05,359 The last 250 miles had been through close pack, 131 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,840 alternating with fine long leads and stretches of open water. 132 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:15,560 Under the boughs and alongside, great slabs of ice were being turned over 133 00:12:16,479 --> 00:12:19,880 and slid back on the flow, or driven down and under the ice or ship. 134 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:25,079 In this way, the Endurance would split a two foot to three foot flow 135 00:12:25,119 --> 00:12:26,680 a square mile in extent. 136 00:12:31,479 --> 00:12:33,760 It was important that we should make 137 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:36,359 progress towards our goal as rapidly as possible. 138 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:46,680 In order to keep the expedition on schedule, 139 00:12:47,359 --> 00:12:52,199 Shackleton had to make land before the ocean froze over for winter. 140 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:06,159 When the pack ice starts to form on the surface of the sea, 141 00:13:06,479 --> 00:13:09,439 ultimately it forms an apron around Antarctica, which actually almost doubles 142 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:12,439 the size of the continent, which is incredible when you think of it. 143 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:16,119 The ice can be anything from 20 cm thick 144 00:13:16,239 --> 00:13:18,680 all the way through to three or 4 meters thick. 145 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:20,439 And of course, the further south you go, 146 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:22,560 the thicker it gets, 147 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:24,520 and it comes a point where you need 148 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,119 to make a judgment about whether you're prepared to keep the engines running 149 00:13:29,159 --> 00:13:34,439 and push further south, or try and push further south 150 00:13:34,479 --> 00:13:36,800 into this incredibly thick ice, 151 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:39,359 all the while thinking, how are we going to get home at the end of this? 152 00:13:45,279 --> 00:13:50,239 I was anxious, for certain reasons, to winter the Endurance in the Weddell Sea. 153 00:13:50,279 --> 00:13:54,079 But the difficulty of finding a safe harbour might be very great. 154 00:13:54,680 --> 00:13:57,960 It was as though the spirits of the Antarctic were pointing us 155 00:13:58,119 --> 00:14:02,760 to the backward track, the track we were determined not to follow. 156 00:14:03,359 --> 00:14:06,039 Our desire was to make easting as well as southing, 157 00:14:06,439 --> 00:14:10,359 so as to reach the land, if possible, 158 00:14:10,399 --> 00:14:14,600 east of Ross's, farthest south and, well east of Coats Land. 159 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:21,600 The unusually abundant sea ice, ground their progress to a crawl, 160 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:26,520 with the rapidly freezing seawater trapping them time after time. 161 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,319 The ice was only getting thicker and open water 162 00:14:29,359 --> 00:14:30,800 was slowly disappearing. 163 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:40,279 They were reaching dead ends, 164 00:14:40,319 --> 00:14:45,520 having to turn around, chip their way through the ice, sit and wait it out sometimes, 165 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:47,000 when they became completely stuck, 166 00:14:47,039 --> 00:14:50,119 for the ice to open up again, break up and move. 167 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,600 And it was a pretty torturous process trying to get through. 168 00:15:02,279 --> 00:15:05,840 The name of the game was to keep pushing south as best one could, 169 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,359 and sometimes open leads of water in amongst the pack ice, 170 00:15:09,399 --> 00:15:11,920 would force you to go left and right, 171 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:14,119 not doing much in the way of southerly travel, 172 00:15:14,159 --> 00:15:18,920 but you were constantly focused on trying to get south as best you could. 173 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:25,840 The situation became dangerous that night. 174 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:29,560 We pushed into the pack in the hope of reaching open water beyond, 175 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:34,520 and found ourselves after dark in a pool which was growing smaller and smaller. 176 00:15:38,039 --> 00:15:41,680 Ultimately, they reached a dead end. 177 00:15:43,479 --> 00:15:45,760 Pack ice closed in around the vessel, 178 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:48,640 and no more leads were opening up. 179 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:50,600 The weather was getting colder and it was 180 00:15:51,199 --> 00:15:54,239 very clear that that was where they would remain. 181 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:04,640 I could not doubt now that the Endurance was confined for the winter. 182 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,560 The abandonment of the attack was a great disappointment to all hands. 183 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:21,680 The men had worked long hours without thought of rest, and they deserved success. 184 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,600 But the task was beyond our powers. 185 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,760 The land showed still in fair weather on the distant horizon, 186 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:38,159 but it was beyond our reach, now. 187 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:58,800 Much like the endurance, 188 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:02,279 we've reached as far south as the ice will allow us. 189 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,319 When it's clear, the Endurance is not going to go any further south, 190 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:16,439 it was one of those real defining moments of the expedition where I think you're 191 00:17:16,479 --> 00:17:18,359 hopeful, always right to the end, 192 00:17:18,399 --> 00:17:21,199 that you could just push, find a lead, 193 00:17:21,239 --> 00:17:25,399 push far enough to actually make landfall on the continent and set up your winter camp, 194 00:17:25,439 --> 00:17:29,840 to be prepared for the land crossing of the continent the following summer, 195 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:34,520 so the decision to ultimately stop short and set up winter camp on the ice 196 00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:36,279 must have been a really difficult moment. 197 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:41,880 Life is all about playing a bad hand of cards well, 198 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,359 and I think that sums it up fairly accurately. 199 00:17:44,399 --> 00:17:48,439 You've got to look positively at any situation you find yourself in. 200 00:17:50,039 --> 00:17:51,359 In many people's minds, 201 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:55,600 many of the expedition team felt, well, that's it, that's the expedition gone, 202 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:57,800 the rest is all about survival. 203 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,520 And Shackleton managed to keep them motivated through a sort of combination 204 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,840 of suggesting that things could still improve, 205 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:06,039 the ice might break up, 206 00:18:06,079 --> 00:18:11,600 there might be an opportunity to push south, as the ice began to thaw. 207 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:14,000 But in the meantime he had them doing 208 00:18:14,039 --> 00:18:18,640 language lessons and gathering food and playing soccer matches on the ice. 209 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. 210 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:30,159 And it was clever because the men felt that Shackleton had the measure 211 00:18:30,199 --> 00:18:32,680 of the circumstances in which they found themselves. 212 00:18:36,159 --> 00:18:38,439 The flat flows and frozen leads 213 00:18:38,479 --> 00:18:42,039 in the neighbourhood of the ship, made excellent training grounds. 214 00:18:42,079 --> 00:18:44,399 Hockey and soccer on the flow were our chief recreations, 215 00:18:44,439 --> 00:18:48,880 and all hands joined in many a strenuous game. 216 00:18:50,239 --> 00:18:52,439 Worsley took a party to the flow on the 26th, 217 00:18:52,479 --> 00:18:58,000 and started building a line of igloos, and dog loos around the ship. 218 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:02,640 The dogs seemed heartily glad to leave the ship, 219 00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:07,840 and yelped loudly and joyously, as they were moved to their new quarters. 220 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:28,560 The sun, which had been above the horizon for two months, 221 00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,880 set at midnight on the 17th. 222 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:33,479 And although it would not disappear until April, 223 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:38,399 its slanting rays warned us of the approach of winter. 224 00:19:43,279 --> 00:19:45,760 Pools and leads appeared occasionally, 225 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,560 but they froze over very quickly. 226 00:19:59,079 --> 00:20:03,920 Psychologically, the unending nature of Antarctica is always difficult to deal with 227 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,119 but more so when you've got the darkness of winter to deal with, 228 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:09,600 so the sun disappears, quite literally for, 229 00:20:10,279 --> 00:20:14,119 when you get further, further south to the pole itself, 230 00:20:14,159 --> 00:20:17,720 six months of the year you're in brutally low temperatures, 231 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:20,159 and complete darkness. 232 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:24,760 More important than that, psychologically, 233 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:28,600 your whole world shrinks back into that little area of light around 234 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:30,279 the stove at night. 235 00:20:30,319 --> 00:20:35,640 Or candles or blubber stove lit fires that you could keep going. 236 00:20:36,199 --> 00:20:41,560 And it would be very difficult in that situation to think positively about 237 00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:42,920 the journey ahead. 238 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:45,359 You're there, it's cold, 239 00:20:45,399 --> 00:20:48,800 the chances of your survival are low. 240 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:51,079 And the chances of you sailing out when 241 00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:53,920 the ice is getting thicker and thicker rather than the other way around. 242 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,439 It would have been a very bleak time for many of them. 243 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:01,600 Trapped on the frozen surface of the sea, 244 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:04,199 isolated and cut off from the world, 245 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,279 they may as well have been on the surface of the moon. 246 00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:15,359 The disappearance of the sun is apt to be a depressing event in the polar regions. 247 00:21:17,159 --> 00:21:21,199 But the Endurance's company refused to abandon their customary cheerfulness 248 00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:25,560 in strange contrast with the cold, silent world that lay outside. 249 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,960 Shackleton knew they had no control over the situation they were in. 250 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:41,039 So he focused the men's attention on the things they could control. 251 00:21:44,479 --> 00:21:47,560 All crew, regardless of rank, were required to clean the ship. 252 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:52,760 Ongoing scientific research was collected and catalogued. 253 00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:57,720 The sharing of duties kept everybody on an even keel. 254 00:21:58,079 --> 00:22:00,399 It made all of the men, regardless of their position, 255 00:22:00,439 --> 00:22:02,720 feel that everyone was in this together. 256 00:22:05,399 --> 00:22:08,000 Shackleton had a genius, 257 00:22:08,039 --> 00:22:13,600 it was neither more nor less than that, for keeping those about him in high spirits. 258 00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:15,079 We loved him. 259 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,079 The men had felt the cold, that is true, 260 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:23,039 but he had inspired the kind of loyalty which prevented them 261 00:22:23,079 --> 00:22:26,359 from allowing themselves to get depressed over anything. 262 00:22:27,439 --> 00:22:30,159 And they had stood up to the hardships 263 00:22:30,199 --> 00:22:32,680 inseparable from antarctic exploration, 264 00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:34,640 without a murmur. 265 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,880 A form of midwinter madness has manifested itself. 266 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:44,319 All hands being seized with the desire to have their hair removed. 267 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:46,840 It caused much amusement. 268 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:52,399 We are likely to be cool headed in the future, if not neuralgic. 269 00:22:55,520 --> 00:23:00,800 During the night, I took a flashlit photograph of the ship beset by pressure. 270 00:23:03,439 --> 00:23:04,720 This necessitated some 20 flashes... 271 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,000 ...one behind each salient pressure hummock 272 00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:12,199 to satisfactorily illuminate the ship herself. 273 00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:29,520 Half blinded by the successive flashes, 274 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,760 I lost my bearings amidst hammocks bumping shins, 275 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:34,159 against projecting ice points 276 00:23:34,199 --> 00:23:36,720 and stumbling into deep snow drifts. 277 00:23:51,039 --> 00:23:53,680 SHACKLETON: All cheered, by the indication that the end 278 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:59,960 of the winter darkness is near, 79 days after our last sunset. 279 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,239 All the winter, the drifting pack changes, 280 00:24:05,199 --> 00:24:10,840 grows by freezing, thickens by rafting, and corrugates by pressure. 281 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 282 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:18,840 of the Weddell Sea, 283 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:23,279 terrific pressure is set up, and an inferno of ice blocks, 284 00:24:23,319 --> 00:24:25,159 ridges and hedgerows results, 285 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:30,000 extending possibly for 150 or 200 miles offshore. 286 00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,239 The effects of the pressure around us, were awe inspiring. 287 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:41,239 Mighty blocks of ice, gripped between meeting flows, 288 00:24:41,279 --> 00:24:45,399 rose slowly, till they jumped like cherry stones squeezed between thumb and finger. 289 00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:50,600 The pressure of millions of tons of moving ice, 290 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:52,119 was crushing and smashing inexorably. 291 00:24:52,479 --> 00:24:56,000 If the ship was once gripped firmly, a fate would be sealed. 292 00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:01,880 We could see from the bridge, 293 00:25:03,079 --> 00:25:05,640 that the ship was bending like a bow under titanic pressure. 294 00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,479 The onslaught was all but irresistible. 295 00:25:13,319 --> 00:25:15,399 Well, the noise of thousands and thousands 296 00:25:15,439 --> 00:25:18,680 of tons pushing in around the beams of a ship, 297 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:20,479 creaking and groaning and 298 00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:23,720 desperately trying to withstand that pressure would have been like 299 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,399 the final death throes of an animal, or a person, 300 00:25:26,439 --> 00:25:28,920 and indeed, I think that's the way they tended to think of it, 301 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:32,119 it was this guttural kind of roars 302 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,880 and almost pleas for help coming from the vessel as it trying to withstand 303 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:36,920 this pressure, 304 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,680 because these sort of unseen forces are closing in around them 305 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,439 and it must have been a really hellish kind of situation to find themselves in. 306 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:50,920 The roar of pressure could be heard all around us. 307 00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:55,239 Almost like a living creature. 308 00:25:55,439 --> 00:25:57,880 She resisted the forces that would crush her. 309 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:00,960 But it was a one sided battle. 310 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:05,359 Millions of tons of ice pressed inexorably upon the little ship, 311 00:26:05,399 --> 00:26:10,479 that had dared the challenge of the Antarctic. 312 00:26:15,239 --> 00:26:17,520 The men were listening to the structural damage for weeks, 313 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,760 as the pressure of the pack closed in around the hull. 314 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:23,840 Fearing the ship was not going to take them home, 315 00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:27,159 they were powerless to do anything. 316 00:26:28,399 --> 00:26:30,159 It must have felt hopeless. 317 00:26:34,399 --> 00:26:38,479 The plans for abandoning the ship in case of emergency had been made well in advance, 318 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,520 and men and dogs descended to the flow and made their way 319 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:47,640 to the comparative safety of an unbroken portion of the flow, without a hitch. 320 00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:53,800 It was a sickening sensation to feel the decks breaking up under one's feet. 321 00:26:55,319 --> 00:27:01,800 She is crushed and abandoned after drifting more than 570 miles during the 281 days, 322 00:27:02,199 --> 00:27:06,119 since she became locked in the ice. 323 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,119 It is hard to write what I feel. 324 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,800 The attack of the ice reached its climax at 04:00 p.m. 325 00:27:20,159 --> 00:27:26,560 The flows, with the force of millions of tons of moving ice behind them, 326 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:28,439 were simply annihilating the ship. 327 00:27:37,079 --> 00:27:40,359 The men were left with, quite literally a pile of driftwood. 328 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,199 The images Hurley captured are dramatic. 329 00:27:44,279 --> 00:27:46,880 Everything above the hull just fell to pieces, 330 00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:48,640 leaving a collection of cables and wires, 331 00:27:50,159 --> 00:27:52,840 ropes and split timber on the ice. 332 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,960 It was barely recognizable as a vessel. 333 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:08,000 The task is to reach land with all the members of the expedition, 334 00:28:08,039 --> 00:28:12,399 and to that I must bend my energies and mental power and apply every bit 335 00:28:12,439 --> 00:28:14,760 of knowledge that experience of the Antarctic had given me. 336 00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,159 The task was likely to be long and strenuous, 337 00:28:33,199 --> 00:28:37,880 and an ordered mind and a clear program are essential, 338 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:41,399 if we were to come through without loss of life. 339 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:04,439 Once the Endurance had sunk and they hadn't obviously managed to make landfall 340 00:29:04,479 --> 00:29:06,920 on the continent, the original expedition goal was off. 341 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,159 And so this required a complete reframing. 342 00:29:10,199 --> 00:29:14,760 And as Shackleton famously said, 'a man must adjust to a new mark directly 343 00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:16,239 'the old one goes to ground.' 344 00:29:16,319 --> 00:29:20,800 And it was all about then looking positively at the changing circumstances. 345 00:29:21,079 --> 00:29:22,399 And this is where I think there was just a critical, 346 00:29:22,439 --> 00:29:26,840 kind of inflection point, really, where he said, 'look, 347 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,479 'the original goal of crossing Antarctica is not possible. 348 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,399 'The new goal is saving ourselves, 349 00:29:31,439 --> 00:29:35,239 'but the good news is that even though our mission has changed. 350 00:29:35,279 --> 00:29:37,159 'our vision of doing something memorable together, 351 00:29:37,199 --> 00:29:41,920 'surviving, testing ourselves, pushing ourselves beyond the limits 352 00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:46,119 'of human endurance to, in this case, now save ourselves 353 00:29:46,159 --> 00:29:48,239 'rather than cross Antarctica, as was the original goal, 354 00:29:48,279 --> 00:29:51,239 'will still allow us to come home as heroes. 355 00:29:51,359 --> 00:29:52,960 'We will achieve our vision. 356 00:29:53,439 --> 00:29:55,079 'It's just that the mission has changed.' 357 00:29:55,119 --> 00:29:59,079 And I think this was really a kind of masterstroke, in the way that he managed 358 00:29:59,119 --> 00:30:02,720 to reframe and reposition the direction of the whole endeavour. 359 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:08,159 Essential supplies had been placed on the flow about 100 yards from the ship, 360 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,239 and there we set about making a camp for the night. 361 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. 362 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:18,279 So weight was critical, 363 00:30:18,319 --> 00:30:21,680 and Shackleton said, each man has two pounds, two pounds of gear. 364 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,279 And he set a wonderful example here 365 00:30:25,039 --> 00:30:28,760 by basically discarding a whole series of things that might, in the normal world, 366 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,760 be perceived as valuable things like watches and rings and jewelry, 367 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,319 and chucked them down on the ice and said, 'none of this matters. 368 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,279 'We need to just take what we need to survive.' 369 00:30:39,319 --> 00:30:41,359 And indeed, the guitar made it, 370 00:30:41,399 --> 00:30:44,920 just a masterstroke in thinking about what really makes somebody tick. 371 00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:47,600 And it made the men feel that, again, 372 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:49,760 at some level, he had circumstances under control. 373 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:51,800 They're taking a musical instrument. 374 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:53,359 What a thing to take. 375 00:30:55,159 --> 00:30:58,239 We are now 346 miles from Paulet island, 376 00:30:59,279 --> 00:31:03,000 the nearest point where there is any possibility of finding food and shelter. 377 00:31:04,279 --> 00:31:08,239 I mustered all hands and explained the position to them briefly, 378 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:13,600 and I hope clearly, and have stated that I propose to try to march with equipment 379 00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:15,960 across the ice in the direction of Paulet Island. 380 00:31:16,319 --> 00:31:20,079 I thanked the men for the steadiness and good morale they have shown in these 381 00:31:20,119 --> 00:31:25,279 trying circumstances and told them I had no doubt that provided they continued 382 00:31:25,319 --> 00:31:29,800 to work their utmost and to trust me, we will all reach safety in the end. 383 00:31:47,399 --> 00:31:50,039 The first thought was, the ship's gone down. 384 00:31:50,079 --> 00:31:53,600 We have these lifeboats, let's take a couple of them. 385 00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:57,000 And with the 28 men, we have 14 men to a boat, 386 00:31:57,039 --> 00:32:01,159 pull them like a sled and see if we can find our way to the continent. 387 00:32:01,319 --> 00:32:03,840 And that was the original plan. 388 00:32:08,319 --> 00:32:11,159 It was with the utmost difficulty that we shifted our two boats. 389 00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:14,640 The surface was terrible, 390 00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,359 like nothing that any of us had ever seen around us before. 391 00:32:19,159 --> 00:32:22,279 We were sinking at times up to our hips and everywhere 392 00:32:22,319 --> 00:32:24,039 the snow was 2ft deep. 393 00:32:25,119 --> 00:32:26,319 And this they pursued for a couple of days 394 00:32:26,359 --> 00:32:28,359 until they realized it was just completely futile. 395 00:32:28,399 --> 00:32:33,600 In fact, it started to erode away people's morale very, very quickly, 396 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,479 just the physical effort of pulling these heavy, 397 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:40,359 heavy 22-and-a-half foot keelless whale boats through the, 398 00:32:40,399 --> 00:32:42,479 through the ridges of ice. 399 00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:52,760 In 2007 I dragged a wooden sled across Antarctica 400 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:58,439 in a bid to honour Australian explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, and it almost killed me. 401 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,239 Taking on such a physical challenge 402 00:33:04,279 --> 00:33:06,880 really is a race against time to achieve your goal. 403 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:11,000 The sled you're dragging is carrying all the food and fuel you need to survive. 404 00:33:11,039 --> 00:33:13,119 But the energy just to move that weight, 405 00:33:13,159 --> 00:33:16,439 to make those miles, it can exceed your daily rations. 406 00:33:16,479 --> 00:33:18,159 You can easily run out of food. 407 00:33:23,359 --> 00:33:26,640 Mentally, there's lots of places you go to when things are really tough. 408 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,159 Sometimes you're able to really appreciate 409 00:33:31,199 --> 00:33:33,279 the grandeur of what it is you're undertaking. 410 00:33:34,039 --> 00:33:36,479 Other times, you retreat back into just 411 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:40,000 the routine of doing things in a really kind of robotic way. 412 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,359 Anything that helps you take the next step. 413 00:33:56,479 --> 00:33:58,640 Considering how little result we had to show 414 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,199 for all our strenuous efforts of the past four days, 415 00:34:03,439 --> 00:34:06,960 it would be impossible to proceed for any great distance. 416 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:13,800 Taking into account also the possibility of leads opening close to us and so of our 417 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,479 being able to row northwest to where we might find land, 418 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,960 I decided to find a more solid flow 419 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,720 and their camp until conditions were more favourable for us to make 420 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:28,960 a second attempt to escape from our icy prison. 421 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,319 We call this 'Ocean Camp', 422 00:34:31,359 --> 00:34:33,159 this floating lump of ice, 423 00:34:33,199 --> 00:34:37,680 about a mile square at first, but later splitting into smaller 424 00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:42,520 and smaller fragments, was to be our home for nearly two months. 425 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:50,680 The consoling feature of the situation, was that our camp was safe. 426 00:34:51,359 --> 00:34:54,039 We could endure the discomforts. 427 00:34:59,119 --> 00:35:02,479 Having only travelled 4 miles from the crushed Endurance, 428 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,079 dog teams were sent back to the wreckage 429 00:35:05,119 --> 00:35:08,760 to salvage timber, rope, fuel, and the third lifeboat. 430 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:12,760 When the weather permitted, 431 00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:17,439 pieces of the ship and her cargo were ferried across to Ocean Camp, 432 00:35:17,479 --> 00:35:20,079 where the men set about building a supply depot, 433 00:35:20,119 --> 00:35:22,439 and even a kitchen. 434 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,239 But this is a precarious existence. 435 00:35:28,279 --> 00:35:30,560 There's not enough food to survive unless 436 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,920 they can find seals or penguins. 437 00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,479 At any time, the ice on which they camped could break up. 438 00:35:37,039 --> 00:35:40,479 A storm could wipe away their little tented encampment on the ice. 439 00:35:42,319 --> 00:35:45,159 These are miserable conditions for the 28 men. 440 00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:51,399 Our meals had to consist mainly of seal and penguin. 441 00:35:51,439 --> 00:35:53,279 And though this was valuable as 442 00:35:53,319 --> 00:35:56,760 an antiscorbutic, so much so that not a single case 443 00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:58,399 of scurvy occurred amongst the party, 444 00:35:58,439 --> 00:36:01,319 yet it was a badly adjusted diet, 445 00:36:01,359 --> 00:36:04,640 and we felt rather weak and innovated in consequence. 446 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,000 The cook deserves much praise for the way 447 00:36:07,039 --> 00:36:10,359 he has stuck to his job through all this severe blizzard. 448 00:36:10,399 --> 00:36:12,800 His galley consists of nothing but a few 449 00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:17,439 boxes arranged as a table, with a canvas screen erected around them on four oars, 450 00:36:18,239 --> 00:36:22,399 and the two blubber stoves within the protection afforded by the screen is only partial, 451 00:36:22,439 --> 00:36:27,520 and the eddies drive the pungent blubber smoke in all directions. 452 00:36:29,439 --> 00:36:34,479 We live well, but perhaps it's that hunger that's the best condiment. 453 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:38,960 Even the fact that our seals and penguins are full of internal parasites 454 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,279 of the nastiest or most loathsome kind does not deter us. 455 00:36:47,079 --> 00:36:50,920 The collection of food was now the all important consideration, 456 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:53,479 owing to this shortage of food 457 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,800 and the fact that we needed all that we could get for ourselves. 458 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,960 I had to order all the dogs to be shot. 459 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:02,960 It was the worst job that we had had 460 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:06,800 throughout the expedition, and we felt their loss keenly. 461 00:37:12,079 --> 00:37:14,600 This evening, as we were lying in our tents, 462 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,840 we heard the boss call out, 'she's going, boys!' 463 00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:24,399 There was our poor ship, a mile and a half away, 464 00:37:24,439 --> 00:37:26,439 struggling in a death agony. 465 00:37:26,479 --> 00:37:31,159 It made the scene even more desolate and depressing. 466 00:37:32,119 --> 00:37:34,600 Weeks turned into months. 467 00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:37,800 Of all the dangers these men faced, 468 00:37:39,279 --> 00:37:43,039 the cold, starvation, the unfathomed depths beneath them 469 00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:47,199 loss of morale was the greatest threat of them all. 470 00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:57,800 There were 28 men on our floating cake of ice, which was steadily dwindling under 471 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,640 the influence of wind, weather, charging flows and heavy swell. 472 00:38:04,359 --> 00:38:10,600 I confess that I felt the burden of responsibility sit heavily on my shoulders. 473 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:14,079 Loneliness is the penalty of leadership. 474 00:38:16,079 --> 00:38:19,880 Shackleton took on a lot of the responsibility for keeping men's morale up, 475 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,439 in normalizing the circumstances 476 00:38:23,479 --> 00:38:26,560 and always seeming to have a plan for what would happen next. 477 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:28,039 It was always a next step. 478 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. 479 00:38:32,479 --> 00:38:34,319 The boss would sort something out. 480 00:38:34,359 --> 00:38:36,000 And all would be well. 481 00:38:40,479 --> 00:38:45,239 Rather than sitting in ocean camp any longer with nothing but time to think, 482 00:38:45,279 --> 00:38:47,720 Shackleton organised another march towards the peninsula. 483 00:38:52,079 --> 00:38:55,680 Another march meant abandoning a significant amount of their provisions. 484 00:38:58,159 --> 00:39:03,039 For the lifeboats and sleds to travel over this now heavily distorted surface, 485 00:39:03,079 --> 00:39:05,039 they would have to travel as light as possible. 486 00:39:07,119 --> 00:39:12,000 Extra food, timber, fuel, even their tent, canvas flooring would all be left behind. 487 00:39:12,119 --> 00:39:13,880 at Ocean camp. 488 00:39:20,279 --> 00:39:25,159 I informed all hands that I intended to try and make a march to the west 489 00:39:25,199 --> 00:39:27,680 to reduce the distance between us and Paulet Island. 490 00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:32,840 I could not but hope that this time the fates would be kinder to us than 491 00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:38,640 in our last attempts to march across the ice to safety. 492 00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:01,319 At this rate, it would take us over 300 days 493 00:40:01,359 --> 00:40:03,239 to reach the land away to the west 494 00:40:03,359 --> 00:40:06,840 as we only had food for 42 days. 495 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:12,399 There was no alternative, therefore but to camp once more on the flow, 496 00:40:12,439 --> 00:40:18,439 and to possess our souls with what patience we could. 497 00:40:18,479 --> 00:40:22,760 Our new home which we were to occupy for nearly three and a half months, 498 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:26,560 we called Patience Camp. 499 00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:38,039 They must now sit and wait, helplessly, as their camp drifts slowly north. 500 00:40:38,079 --> 00:40:42,000 Seals and penguins have disappeared, leaving the men low on food and blubber. 501 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:45,399 All they could do was hope 502 00:40:45,439 --> 00:40:49,039 the warming Weddell Sea, was pushing them closer to land. 503 00:40:51,720 --> 00:40:54,399 The flow had become our home. 504 00:40:55,520 --> 00:41:00,479 During the early months of the drift, we had almost ceased to realise that it 505 00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:05,239 was but a sheet of ice floating on unfathomed seas. 506 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:17,880 Our drifting home had no rudder to guide it, no sail to give its speed. 507 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:21,840 We were dependent upon the caprice of wind and current. 508 00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:25,920 We went whither those irresponsible forces listed. 509 00:41:26,439 --> 00:41:31,199 The longing to feel solid earth under our feet filled our hearts. 510 00:41:33,399 --> 00:41:38,760 Now our home was being shattered under our feet. 511 00:41:42,119 --> 00:41:44,079 The warmer water that was taking them closer to land, 512 00:41:44,119 --> 00:41:47,760 had reduced their ice flow to a thin sheet. 513 00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:50,159 The tents, the lifeboats, and the crew 514 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:54,840 could easily disappear into the one degrees Celsius water. 515 00:42:02,199 --> 00:42:06,720 Some intangible feeling of uneasiness made me leave my tent 516 00:42:07,720 --> 00:42:08,880 about 11pm that night, 517 00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,079 and glance around the quiet camp. 518 00:42:11,119 --> 00:42:13,600 I started to walk across the flow in order 519 00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:17,000 to warn the watchman to look carefully for cracks. 520 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:19,960 And as I was passing the man's tent, 521 00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:24,479 the flow lifted on the crest of the swell, and cracked right under my feet. 522 00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:29,720 The men were in one of the dome shaped tents 523 00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:32,520 and had began to stretch apart as the ice opened. 524 00:42:37,079 --> 00:42:41,640 Peering into the darkness, I could just see the dark figures on the other flow. 525 00:42:45,399 --> 00:42:48,800 I hailed Wilde, ordering him to launch the Stancombe wills. 526 00:42:52,720 --> 00:42:56,840 The only thing they could do was jump into their lifeboats and start paddling. 527 00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:03,520 The spring thaw was destroying the solid sea ice, and time was running out. 528 00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:33,840 This is brash ice. 529 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. 530 00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:40,079 Trying to paddle through this stuff would have been really difficult. 531 00:43:41,199 --> 00:43:43,640 They were just desperate to make landfall wherever they could. 532 00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:46,680 And of course, tantalizingly, they could see the peninsula close by, 533 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, 534 00:43:51,319 --> 00:43:53,840 plus the currents that were pushing them up into the open ocean. 535 00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:58,000 It must have been pretty desperate to see salvation so close. 536 00:44:03,359 --> 00:44:05,800 They knew from their compass readings that they were drifting, 537 00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,279 perhaps 20 miles a day. 538 00:44:07,720 --> 00:44:09,840 What awaits you, is the storm tossed southern Ocean, 539 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:15,680 and if you don't get it right and find somewhere to land, 540 00:44:15,720 --> 00:44:19,800 you've got thousands and thousands of miles of nothing in every direction 541 00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:21,600 and certain death. 542 00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:39,560 These rowboats were not built to withstand an open ocean crossing. 543 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:42,920 They were designed to take someone from ship to shore. 544 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:45,479 All three lifeboats were keelless, 545 00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:50,479 prone to capsize, and they are in some of the roughest oceans known to man. 546 00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:03,119 A strong easterly breeze was blowing, 547 00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:05,960 but the fringe of pack lying outside 548 00:45:06,720 --> 00:45:11,319 protected us from the full force of the swell, just as the coral reef 549 00:45:11,359 --> 00:45:13,640 of a tropical island checks the rollers of the Pacific. 550 00:45:17,439 --> 00:45:20,479 Elephant Island was the nearest land 551 00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:22,800 but it lay outside the main body of pack. 552 00:45:26,279 --> 00:45:28,920 And even if the wind had been fair, 553 00:45:29,039 --> 00:45:33,119 we would have hesitated to face the high sea that was running in the open. 554 00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:44,600 A big flow berg resting peacefully ahead caught my eye 555 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. 556 00:45:51,159 --> 00:45:55,039 Everyone was in need of rest after the troubles of the previous night 557 00:45:55,079 --> 00:45:58,479 and the unaccustomed strain of the last 36 hours of the oars. 558 00:46:00,159 --> 00:46:03,159 But it was not as safe as it looked. 559 00:46:06,720 --> 00:46:09,079 Your prospects, if you were drifting out 560 00:46:09,119 --> 00:46:13,119 into the deep South Atlantic blown by the winds and the currents on a piece 561 00:46:13,159 --> 00:46:15,640 of ice like this one, no one would ever find you, 562 00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:20,319 your home would melt beneath your feet and you'd be condemned to the sea forever. 563 00:46:22,159 --> 00:46:25,159 As each swell lifted around our rapidly dissolving berg, 564 00:46:25,199 --> 00:46:32,199 it drove flow ice onto the ice foot, reducing the size of our camp. 565 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:39,640 I made up my mind that we should try to reach Deception Island. 566 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:46,840 No longer were we drifting helplessly, 567 00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:49,760 at the mercy of wind and current. 568 00:46:53,359 --> 00:46:56,920 The men paddled for almost four days. 569 00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,520 Worsley took the first navigational site 570 00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:03,199 the overcast skies had allowed, and determined their progress. 571 00:47:05,359 --> 00:47:08,680 It was a grievous disappointment. 572 00:47:08,720 --> 00:47:10,359 Instead of making a good run 573 00:47:10,399 --> 00:47:13,560 to the westward we had made a big drift to the southeast. 574 00:47:14,720 --> 00:47:17,439 We were actually 30 miles to the east of the position 575 00:47:17,479 --> 00:47:22,920 we had occupied when we left the flow on the 9th. 576 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:29,359 To us, it was a day that seemed likely to lead to no more days. 577 00:47:33,479 --> 00:47:36,279 We could hear the killers blowing. 578 00:47:42,479 --> 00:47:48,760 Their short, sharp hisses, sounding like sudden escapes of steam. 579 00:47:55,119 --> 00:47:57,720 The killers were a source of anxiety, 580 00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:01,840 for a boat could easily have been capsized by one of them coming up to blow. 581 00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:05,039 Shipwrecked mariners might appear on closer examination, 582 00:48:05,479 --> 00:48:10,039 to be tasty substitutes for seal and penguin. 583 00:48:13,079 --> 00:48:17,760 Got a pod of orca off the ship here, which is incredible to see. 584 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:21,039 For Shackleton, of course, the orca were something to be feared. 585 00:48:21,079 --> 00:48:23,199 We didn't really understand much about them. 586 00:48:23,239 --> 00:48:25,199 They called them killers, of course, killer whales. 587 00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:28,479 And they talked of the hissing noises they'd make, 588 00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:31,399 and the fact they were being stalked by these creatures. 589 00:48:31,439 --> 00:48:33,800 And it created this real sense of unease. 590 00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:36,600 They really regarded them as something to be feared. 591 00:48:45,279 --> 00:48:48,000 I think the killer whales circling Shackleton and his men 592 00:48:48,039 --> 00:48:49,640 as they headed towards Elephant Island 593 00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:53,319 was just a continuation of a sort of recurring theme, 594 00:48:53,359 --> 00:48:56,800 which is that Antarctica respects no person, really. 595 00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,640 It's just this untamed wilderness where 596 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:06,279 you are just a bit player in the scheme of things. 597 00:49:07,479 --> 00:49:10,399 If you are not fit enough or mentally or 598 00:49:10,439 --> 00:49:13,279 physically well prepared enough, you won't survive. 599 00:49:13,319 --> 00:49:17,479 If you're seen to be a food source for an animal, 600 00:49:19,359 --> 00:49:22,159 you know, it's just the way of nature. 601 00:49:23,439 --> 00:49:25,640 We are not above it, we're just part of it. 602 00:49:26,319 --> 00:49:29,800 And I think Antarctica teaches you that, when you go there. 603 00:49:36,720 --> 00:49:40,680 The men were left with only one choice. 604 00:49:41,359 --> 00:49:45,840 Their drift meant they could no longer reach the islands 605 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:48,000 inside the relative shelter of the pack ice, 606 00:49:48,039 --> 00:49:51,640 they were going to have to brave the open sea. 607 00:49:52,399 --> 00:49:55,479 Obviously, we must make land quickly, 608 00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:58,560 and I decided to run for Elephant Island. 609 00:50:02,279 --> 00:50:05,439 Our way was across the open sea, 610 00:50:05,479 --> 00:50:08,600 and soon after noon, we swung round the north end of the pack. 611 00:50:14,159 --> 00:50:17,600 Immediately, our deeply laden boats began to make heavy weather. 612 00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:23,199 The ship's sprays, which are freezing as they fell, covered men and gear with ice. 613 00:50:35,039 --> 00:50:37,199 It seemed that the general discomfort of our situation, 614 00:50:37,239 --> 00:50:39,960 could scarcely have been increased. 615 00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:44,199 But the land looming ahead, was a beacon of safety. 616 00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:52,600 We had now had 108 hours of toil, 617 00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:55,880 tumbling, freezing and soaking with little or no sleep. 618 00:50:57,720 --> 00:50:59,880 Progress was slow. 619 00:50:59,920 --> 00:51:02,199 Gradually, Elephant Island came nearer. 620 00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:21,880 All this time, we were coasting along beneath towering rocky cliffs and sheer glacier faces, 621 00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:28,199 which offered not the slightest possibility of landing anywhere. 622 00:51:40,439 --> 00:51:43,560 You can tell just what the conditions can get to here. 623 00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:47,920 I mean, we've got about 30 or 40 knots of gusts at the moment, 624 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:51,960 but the wind speeds, of course, can get two or three times that. 625 00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:53,880 The trouble here is that you get not only the winds coming off the ocean, 626 00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:57,359 but you get the Katabatic winds, the cold, dense, 627 00:51:57,399 --> 00:52:01,760 masses of air pouring down off the high ground in the interior of the island. 628 00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:03,279 And so you get it from both sides, 629 00:52:03,319 --> 00:52:06,039 and when the wind is blowing in the same direction, 630 00:52:06,079 --> 00:52:09,920 you've got the wind coming off the land and the wind from the sea, 631 00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:12,439 you can really end up with hurricane force winds. 632 00:52:14,680 --> 00:52:18,039 What we're looking at here is Cape Valentine, where Shackleton first arrived. 633 00:52:18,439 --> 00:52:20,199 They landed here and realized they 634 00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:25,560 couldn't hope to survive with the prospect of all the ice and rocks tumbling down 635 00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:29,239 on them from above, and so were forced to move further around the island. 636 00:52:34,119 --> 00:52:38,760 Wilde, Worsley and Hurley accompanied me on an inspection of our beach. 637 00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:46,279 The outlook we found to be anything but cheering. 638 00:52:46,319 --> 00:52:48,680 Obvious signs show that at spring tides, 639 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. 640 00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:55,840 The interior of the island, was quite inaccessible. 641 00:52:55,880 --> 00:52:58,079 We climbed up one of the slopes and found 642 00:52:58,640 --> 00:53:01,760 ourselves stopped soon by overhanging cliffs. 643 00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:03,680 The rocks behind the camp were much weathered, 644 00:53:03,720 --> 00:53:08,920 and we noticed the sharp, unworn boulders that had fallen from above. 645 00:53:09,319 --> 00:53:12,159 Clearly there was a danger from overhead. 646 00:53:12,479 --> 00:53:14,560 We must move on. 647 00:53:16,920 --> 00:53:19,199 Shackleton managed to find just about 648 00:53:19,239 --> 00:53:20,680 the only place you could land, 649 00:53:20,720 --> 00:53:22,479 which is a place called Point Wild, which is just over there 650 00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:27,359 between that small triangle of rock on the right 651 00:53:27,399 --> 00:53:29,920 hand side and the face on the left hand side. 652 00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:33,600 In between those two is a shingle beach that they managed to land. 653 00:53:35,279 --> 00:53:37,239 At 09:30 a.m., 654 00:53:37,279 --> 00:53:40,199 we spied a narrow, rocky beach at the base 655 00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:44,079 of some very high crags and cliff and made for it. 656 00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:55,279 Another stage of the homeward journey had been accomplished 657 00:53:56,920 --> 00:54:00,640 and we can afford to forget for an hour the problems of the future. 658 00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:05,600 Life was not so bad. 659 00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:25,399 We got a Weddell seal basking in this sub zero temperature just 660 00:54:25,439 --> 00:54:31,359 behind me, and the men were forced to bludgeon these seals 661 00:54:31,399 --> 00:54:34,680 and eat them both for the meat they provided, 662 00:54:34,720 --> 00:54:39,359 but also for the blubber which they rendered down and used to power their stoves. 663 00:54:42,039 --> 00:54:44,000 Not very palatable, not too good for the seal, either. 664 00:54:47,720 --> 00:54:50,560 Trying to survive on Elephant Island would have just been a brutal experience. 665 00:54:51,239 --> 00:54:53,600 You're living in a space between two glaciers really, 666 00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:56,880 really just eking out what existence you can. 667 00:54:56,920 --> 00:54:59,239 And we've got a glacier behind us here, 668 00:54:59,279 --> 00:55:00,640 a snow slope in the middle there, 669 00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:04,920 with a steep rock cliff behind it, and another glacier in the distance. 670 00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:06,680 They couldn't go more than 50 meters in one direction, 671 00:55:06,720 --> 00:55:09,960 and perhaps 100 meters in the other direction, 672 00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:11,840 before that was the end of their world. 673 00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:14,680 They were literally stuck and trying to eke out its existence 674 00:55:14,720 --> 00:55:18,000 in this tiny, tiny area in the middle here. 675 00:55:21,199 --> 00:55:24,279 It was heavy work, carrying our goods over 676 00:55:24,319 --> 00:55:26,880 the rough pebbles and rocks to the foot of the cliff. 677 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, 678 00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:37,479 and turned gratefully to the hot drink that the cook had prepared. 679 00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:40,640 In order to provide shelter for the men, 680 00:55:41,319 --> 00:55:43,600 we turned the Dudley docker upside down 681 00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:46,079 and wedged up the weathered side with boulders. 682 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 683 00:55:52,479 --> 00:55:54,720 search being made for us on Elephant Island. 684 00:55:58,479 --> 00:56:02,439 A boat journey in search of relief was necessary and must not be delayed. 685 00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:06,439 That conclusion was forced upon me. 686 00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:13,119 The nearest inhabited land to Elephant Island, 687 00:56:13,159 --> 00:56:16,680 is South America or the Falkland Islands. 688 00:56:16,720 --> 00:56:18,560 But the strong winds and currents of the Southern Ocean, 689 00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:21,039 made reaching those places impossible. 690 00:56:22,479 --> 00:56:25,680 Their only hope was to sail with the wind 691 00:56:25,720 --> 00:56:28,279 back to the whaling stations of South Georgia 692 00:56:29,399 --> 00:56:31,039 over 800 nautical miles away. 693 00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:38,520 South Georgia was over 800 miles away, 694 00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:40,760 but lay in the area of the west winds. 695 00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:43,760 And I could count upon finding whalers 696 00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,199 at any of the whaling stations on the east coast. 697 00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:51,479 The hazards of a boat journey across 800 miles of stormy 698 00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:55,159 sub Antarctic ocean were obvious. 699 00:56:55,199 --> 00:56:57,079 But I calculated that at worst, 700 00:56:57,119 --> 00:57:01,039 the venture would add nothing to the risks of the men left on the island. 701 00:57:01,079 --> 00:57:02,960 There would be fewer mouths to feed during the winter, 702 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. 703 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. 704 00:57:15,920 --> 00:57:19,880 Shackleton decided to take five of the men in the most seaworthy lifeboat, 705 00:57:20,079 --> 00:57:22,600 The James Caird. 706 00:57:22,800 --> 00:57:26,159 I told Wilde at once he would have to stay behind. 707 00:57:26,439 --> 00:57:30,720 I relied on him to hold the party together while I was away. 708 00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:36,680 The men who were staying behind made a pathetic little group on the beach 709 00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:39,079 with the grim heights of the island behind them. 710 00:57:40,239 --> 00:57:44,199 But they waved to us and gave three hearty cheers. 711 00:57:45,319 --> 00:57:47,920 There was hope in their hearts and they 712 00:57:47,960 --> 00:57:50,119 trusted us to bring the help that they needed. 713 00:57:54,119 --> 00:57:58,920 I had all sails set, and the James Caird quickly dipped the beach 714 00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:01,039 and its line of dark figures. 715 00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:05,439 I decided to run north for at least two days, 716 00:58:05,479 --> 00:58:09,039 while the wind held and so get into warmer weather 717 00:58:09,079 --> 00:58:13,600 before turning to the east, and being a course for South Georgia. 718 00:58:18,079 --> 00:58:24,000 The tale of the next 16 days is one of supreme strife amid heaving waters. 719 00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:30,199 A sub Antarctic Ocean, lived up to its evil winter reputation. 720 00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:00,680 Southern Ocean is the roughest ocean in the world. 721 00:59:02,159 --> 00:59:04,720 This is typical Southern Ocean weather we're facing here. 722 00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:09,560 We've got about 40, maybe 50 knot gusts of winds and quite big sea states. 723 00:59:09,600 --> 00:59:11,920 We're heading up towards South Georgia. 724 00:59:11,960 --> 00:59:15,600 You've got the Pacific basically draining into the Atlantic from west to east. 725 00:59:15,640 --> 00:59:18,039 And when the wind blows in the other direction 726 00:59:18,079 --> 00:59:22,399 you get big standing waves...very, very tough conditions. 727 00:59:25,399 --> 00:59:26,840 We're in 110 meters, ice strengthened ship here 728 00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:32,399 and Shackleton and his 22 and a half foot keelless rowboat 729 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, 730 00:59:38,199 --> 00:59:44,560 very intimidating, noisy, rough waves crashing in, soaking you, threatening to sink you. 731 00:59:45,119 --> 00:59:47,920 Survival time if you go in here, sub, ten minutes, 732 00:59:48,279 --> 00:59:50,199 but frankly, in rough sea state like this, two or three. 733 00:59:50,239 --> 00:59:54,279 You'd freeze, you'd lose the ability to tread water and down you'd go. 734 01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:06,680 Shackleton's boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia is widely 735 01:00:06,720 --> 01:00:12,880 considered the most dangerous and difficult ocean crossing ever attempted. 736 01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:18,039 In 2013, I had the brilliant idea to recreate the journey using the same 737 01:00:18,079 --> 01:00:21,680 inadequate clothing and tiny robot that they had. 738 01:00:21,720 --> 01:00:26,159 I wanted to experience it for myself. 739 01:00:29,399 --> 01:00:35,520 It's the hardest physical and mental endeavour I've ever been involved in. 740 01:00:38,239 --> 01:00:42,079 I remember being borderline hypothermic, 741 01:00:42,119 --> 01:00:49,119 with prospects stalking us all in amongst these sorts of conditions, 742 01:00:49,560 --> 01:00:54,800 down in the dips between one set of waves and the next, 743 01:00:57,800 --> 01:00:59,520 waves crashing in. 744 01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:03,800 Standing in one degree celsius seawater. 745 01:01:05,840 --> 01:01:07,760 Charts. 746 01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:13,239 I have lasting memories of how that felt from our journey. 747 01:01:17,039 --> 01:01:22,439 Deep seemed the valleys when we lay between the rain and sea. 748 01:01:22,479 --> 01:01:28,039 High were the hills when we perched momentarily on the tops of giant combers. 749 01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:33,079 Nearly always there were gales. 750 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 751 01:01:40,520 --> 01:01:43,119 in the calm between the crests of two waves. 752 01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:49,119 Then we would climb the next slope and catch the full fury of the gale, 753 01:01:49,199 --> 01:01:54,479 where the wool like whiteness of the breaking water, surged around us. 754 01:01:58,800 --> 01:02:01,720 We were a tiny speck in the vast vista of the sea, 755 01:02:02,159 --> 01:02:07,319 the ocean that is open to all, and merciful to none. 756 01:02:10,199 --> 01:02:13,079 When you're down in amongst it in a keelless rowboat, 757 01:02:16,159 --> 01:02:19,800 believe me, it's eh... 758 01:02:20,800 --> 01:02:22,680 ...it's a very interesting experience. 759 01:02:23,079 --> 01:02:25,319 It's all part of my therapy, coming back here and experiencing this. 760 01:02:25,359 --> 01:02:28,399 Get it out of my system. 761 01:02:32,880 --> 01:02:35,640 The living conditions inside the boat were also challenging. 762 01:02:35,680 --> 01:02:37,960 The six men were living off a hot drink called 'hoosh', 763 01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:42,720 a delightful mixture of animal fat and cereal. 764 01:02:44,520 --> 01:02:49,600 Their reindeer sleeping bags were so constantly wet, they began to fall apart, 765 01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:52,199 sending the prickly hair all throughout the boat, 766 01:02:53,439 --> 01:02:56,039 getting into their clothing, food and drinking water. 767 01:02:57,520 --> 01:03:00,319 Our water had long been finished. 768 01:03:00,359 --> 01:03:03,159 The last was about a pint of hairy liquid 769 01:03:03,199 --> 01:03:06,199 which we strained through a bit of gauze from the medicine chest. 770 01:03:08,439 --> 01:03:11,359 Their only means of navigation was by the sun. 771 01:03:11,439 --> 01:03:14,199 Using a sextant and compass. 772 01:03:14,800 --> 01:03:18,800 Worsley, new South Georgia island sat on the 54th degree latitude. 773 01:03:19,960 --> 01:03:21,840 They only need to travel north to that point, 774 01:03:21,880 --> 01:03:25,800 then allow the strong Southern Ocean current to push them east. 775 01:03:31,319 --> 01:03:35,600 I think most of us had a feeling that the end was very near. 776 01:03:35,920 --> 01:03:42,279 The morning of May the 8th broke thick and stormy with squalls from the northwest. 777 01:03:42,920 --> 01:03:45,399 We searched the waters ahead for a sign of land, 778 01:03:45,439 --> 01:03:51,000 and though we could see nothing more than had met our eyes for many days, 779 01:03:51,039 --> 01:03:55,000 we were cheered by a sense that the goal was near at hand. 780 01:03:55,680 --> 01:03:58,319 We gazed ahead with increasing eagerness, 781 01:03:58,359 --> 01:04:01,840 and at 12:30 p.m. through a rift in the clouds, 782 01:04:02,319 --> 01:04:06,039 McCarthy caught a glimpse of the black cliffs of South Georgia. 783 01:04:12,039 --> 01:04:13,800 It was a glad moment. 784 01:04:13,840 --> 01:04:17,079 Thirst ridden, chilled and weak as we were, 785 01:04:17,119 --> 01:04:22,680 happiness irradiated us, the job was nearly done. 786 01:04:31,520 --> 01:04:34,159 Incredibly, after 16 days at sea, 787 01:04:34,920 --> 01:04:38,760 the men had survived 800 miles of 30 foot waves, 788 01:04:38,840 --> 01:04:40,680 and hurricane force winds, 789 01:04:40,880 --> 01:04:42,119 in a 23 foot rowboat. 790 01:04:54,960 --> 01:04:57,000 Well, the sensation Shackleton had as he approached South Georgia, 791 01:04:57,039 --> 01:05:02,199 must have been one of pure relief, after 17 days at sea in the James Caird, 792 01:05:02,239 --> 01:05:05,399 much of it, not expecting to make it at all. 793 01:05:07,880 --> 01:05:10,039 It's a pretty emotional feeling to actually be back here. 794 01:05:10,079 --> 01:05:13,760 It's just exciting again to be following close on his heels. 795 01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:18,560 We've got a big king penguin colony 796 01:05:18,640 --> 01:05:21,520 with hundreds of thousands of breeding pairs in the foreground here. 797 01:05:21,600 --> 01:05:24,159 And that's the thing about South Georgia, 798 01:05:24,319 --> 01:05:26,239 you smell it before you can see it. 799 01:05:26,439 --> 01:05:31,319 You can smell the stench of urea coming off the king penguins. 800 01:05:31,359 --> 01:05:33,520 It's quite something, you never quite get used to it, 801 01:05:33,560 --> 01:05:35,680 and you certainly don't get it out of your clothes. 802 01:05:52,279 --> 01:05:56,039 Millions of penguins and seals crowd the beaches of South Georgia. 803 01:05:57,960 --> 01:06:01,920 These are some of the densest concentrations of wildlife on the planet. 804 01:06:06,640 --> 01:06:10,039 The most spectacular place in the world, South Georgia. 805 01:06:10,079 --> 01:06:14,319 It's hundreds of thousands of breeding pairs of king penguins. 806 01:06:14,399 --> 01:06:15,960 It's just teeming with life. 807 01:06:16,039 --> 01:06:17,159 It's just spectacular. 808 01:06:17,239 --> 01:06:19,159 Never ceases to amaze. 809 01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:24,239 I think seeing all these animals on the beach would have been a welcome sight frankly, 810 01:06:24,680 --> 01:06:27,359 after the conditions down in the Antarctic and 811 01:06:27,520 --> 01:06:30,399 in the final analysis, you can eat them 812 01:06:30,439 --> 01:06:33,880 and would have been sustenance for Shackleton. 813 01:06:46,560 --> 01:06:49,079 There were hundreds of sea elephants lying about. 814 01:06:49,119 --> 01:06:53,680 And their anxieties with regard to food disappeared. 815 01:06:59,039 --> 01:07:03,199 Meat and blubber, enough to feed our party for years, was in sight. 816 01:07:04,720 --> 01:07:08,359 A sea elephant provided us with fuel and meat 817 01:07:08,399 --> 01:07:13,960 and that evening found a well fed and fairly contented party at rest in Peggotty Camp. 818 01:07:15,640 --> 01:07:20,279 Abundant meals of sea elephants, steak and liver increased our contentment. 819 01:07:26,680 --> 01:07:31,039 The men were grateful for the safety of land and the abundance of food. 820 01:07:31,960 --> 01:07:36,800 However, they still needed to reach the whaling station, on the other side of the island. 821 01:07:38,760 --> 01:07:42,279 The James Caird was badly damaged after the crossing. 822 01:07:42,319 --> 01:07:46,359 It would be too dangerous to sail around the coast. 823 01:07:46,399 --> 01:07:51,359 They were going to have to cross the island on foot to Stromness Bay, 824 01:07:51,399 --> 01:07:56,239 25 miles across the treacherous mountains and glaciers of South Georgia. 825 01:08:03,359 --> 01:08:06,199 The interior of the island had never been traversed, 826 01:08:07,399 --> 01:08:11,800 and with winds blowing down from the peaks at almost 3,000 meters high, 827 01:08:12,640 --> 01:08:18,600 even for the most experienced mountaineer, this was an extremely dangerous prospect. 828 01:08:20,000 --> 01:08:23,159 Shackleton decided to take the two strongest men, 829 01:08:23,600 --> 01:08:28,960 Tom Crean and Frank Worsley, and attempt this final task. 830 01:08:33,239 --> 01:08:35,880 Soon we were ascending a snow slope 831 01:08:35,920 --> 01:08:39,279 heading due east on the last lap of our long trail. 832 01:08:43,279 --> 01:08:48,760 After 2 hours steady climbing, we were 2,500ft above sea level. 833 01:08:51,720 --> 01:08:57,880 We roped ourselves together as a precaution against holes, crevasses and precipices, 834 01:08:58,880 --> 01:09:01,640 and I broke trail through the soft snow. 835 01:09:08,000 --> 01:09:10,479 The central facet of Shackleton's leadership was 836 01:09:10,520 --> 01:09:13,640 That he never asked someone to do something he wasn't prepared to do himself. 837 01:09:13,680 --> 01:09:18,000 And indeed, he really demonstrated that at this stage of their journey. 838 01:09:28,319 --> 01:09:31,600 Well, just come up Shackleton Gap From King Haakon Bay 839 01:09:31,640 --> 01:09:35,079 where Shackleton landed more than 100 years ago. 840 01:09:35,600 --> 01:09:40,039 Weather is beginning to deteriorate as is always the case in South Georgia. 841 01:09:41,159 --> 01:09:43,119 You've got this incredible terrain behind you. 842 01:09:43,159 --> 01:09:44,720 Just shows what the place is like. 843 01:09:44,760 --> 01:09:46,359 We're heading off to the Trident mountains 844 01:09:46,399 --> 01:09:50,199 through there where Shackleton, Crean and Worsley went. 845 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. 846 01:10:00,880 --> 01:10:03,079 When Shackleton, Crean and Worsley passed this point, 847 01:10:03,119 --> 01:10:07,479 no one had ever been into the interior of the island. 848 01:10:07,520 --> 01:10:09,079 Their clothing was inadequate, 849 01:10:09,119 --> 01:10:11,079 they had no real climbing experience, 850 01:10:11,119 --> 01:10:13,000 one length of rope. 851 01:10:13,039 --> 01:10:17,319 They were now faced with one of the most treacherous mountain crossings on earth. 852 01:10:20,439 --> 01:10:22,199 The interior was broken tremendously. 853 01:10:23,960 --> 01:10:26,640 High peaks, impassable cliffs, 854 01:10:26,880 --> 01:10:30,079 steep snow slopes and sharply descending glaciers 855 01:10:30,119 --> 01:10:32,079 were prominent features in all directions. 856 01:10:32,119 --> 01:10:37,960 With stretches of snow plain overlaying the ice sheet of the interior. 857 01:10:39,520 --> 01:10:41,640 The slope we were ascending mounted to a ridge, 858 01:10:42,840 --> 01:10:46,159 and our course lay direct to the top. 859 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 860 01:10:51,800 --> 01:10:57,159 but as the surface became more level beneath our feet, a thick fog drifted down. 861 01:10:59,079 --> 01:11:01,680 The moon became obscured and produced a diffused light, 862 01:11:03,119 --> 01:11:07,560 that was more trying than darkness, since it illuminated the fog 863 01:11:07,640 --> 01:11:08,640 without guiding our steps. 864 01:11:10,039 --> 01:11:13,199 We noticed the thin beginnings of crevasses. 865 01:11:13,239 --> 01:11:15,359 Soon they were increasing in size and showing fractures 866 01:11:15,880 --> 01:11:21,439 indicating that we were travelling on a glacier. 867 01:11:38,119 --> 01:11:40,880 It's extremely dangerous travelling across glaciers. 868 01:11:41,399 --> 01:11:44,800 Thin snow bridges across deep crevasses 869 01:11:44,880 --> 01:11:49,159 are like hidden trap doors that at any moment could cave in. 870 01:11:49,199 --> 01:11:51,039 The crevasses we are encountering are particularly bad, 871 01:11:53,680 --> 01:11:56,159 but I suspect they've got worse here over time. 872 01:11:57,039 --> 01:11:59,960 Had Shackleton, Crean and Worsley experienced these conditions, 873 01:12:00,239 --> 01:12:03,359 I wonder how they would have fared. 874 01:12:18,600 --> 01:12:21,479 The key thing with crossing crevasses is that you don't want to fall in obviously, 875 01:12:21,520 --> 01:12:26,359 and the best way to avoid that is to cross them at right angles. 876 01:12:26,399 --> 01:12:30,680 So if you are going down a river of ice, which a glacier is 877 01:12:30,720 --> 01:12:33,039 you're doing things kind of the right way 878 01:12:33,079 --> 01:12:36,479 because the likelihood is the crevasses are going 879 01:12:36,520 --> 01:12:39,239 to go from left to right in front of you across your path, 880 01:12:39,279 --> 01:12:41,279 and you want to be sort. Of stepping over them. 881 01:12:41,319 --> 01:12:44,720 What you don't want to be doing is following the length of a crevasse 882 01:12:44,760 --> 01:12:46,239 where you give yourself lots and lots opportunities 883 01:12:46,279 --> 01:12:48,720 to fall in the same thing. 884 01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:52,279 If you see one, tighten the rope between you so that if somebody falls in 885 01:12:52,319 --> 01:12:54,359 the other one will hold you. 886 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, 887 01:12:59,159 --> 01:13:02,840 on the surface you probably haven't got the strength to hold everybody 888 01:13:02,880 --> 01:13:07,960 from falling in and injuring themselves or perhaps worse. 889 01:13:38,159 --> 01:13:44,239 We were tired, and the wind that blew down from the heights was chilling us. 890 01:13:44,279 --> 01:13:51,279 We decided to get down under the lee of a rock for a rest. 891 01:13:53,920 --> 01:13:58,079 Within a minute, my two companions were fast asleep. 892 01:13:58,119 --> 01:14:00,840 I realized that it would be disastrous if 893 01:14:00,880 --> 01:14:02,479 we all slumbered together, 894 01:14:02,520 --> 01:14:06,359 for sleep under such conditions merges into death. 895 01:14:08,720 --> 01:14:10,720 Shackleton would have stopped in a shelter very much like this one out of the wind, 896 01:14:10,760 --> 01:14:16,319 and knowing really that to stop for more 897 01:14:16,359 --> 01:14:19,039 than a small amount of time would have, would have spelt certain death. 898 01:14:19,079 --> 01:14:22,800 You just cannot stop. Movement generates heat and heat is what you need obviously. 899 01:14:22,840 --> 01:14:27,000 And to stop for too long spells disaster. 900 01:14:27,960 --> 01:14:31,359 After five minutes, I shook them into consciousness again, 901 01:14:31,760 --> 01:14:35,439 told them that they had slept for half an hour, 902 01:14:35,479 --> 01:14:37,840 and gave the word for a fresh start. 903 01:14:40,079 --> 01:14:42,399 Now, Shackleton was no mountaineer but he 904 01:14:42,439 --> 01:14:47,319 had a lot of experience of the cold in Antarctica and he would 905 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. 906 01:15:01,880 --> 01:15:06,680 Around 20 hours into their crossing, Shackleton decided to head down towards 907 01:15:06,720 --> 01:15:10,840 what he thought would be Stromness Bay, and the whaling station. 908 01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:20,840 Our high hopes were soon shattered. 909 01:15:20,880 --> 01:15:25,720 Crevasses warned us that we were on another glacier and soon we looked down 910 01:15:25,760 --> 01:15:29,119 almost to the seaward edge of the great riven ice mass. 911 01:15:37,119 --> 01:15:40,359 I knew there was no glacier in Stromness, 912 01:15:40,399 --> 01:15:44,119 and realized this must be the Fortuna glacier. 913 01:15:45,319 --> 01:15:47,359 The disappointment was severe. 914 01:15:50,399 --> 01:15:52,720 The glacier Shackleton found filled the valley 915 01:15:52,760 --> 01:15:55,199 and sheer ice cliffs fell into the ocean. 916 01:15:56,600 --> 01:15:58,720 It was completely impassable 917 01:15:58,760 --> 01:16:01,279 and forced the men back up into the mountains. 918 01:16:03,239 --> 01:16:05,880 It must have been a moment that almost broke them. 919 01:16:11,319 --> 01:16:13,359 We've just completed a survey of the same glacier, 920 01:16:13,399 --> 01:16:17,199 and it's clear that this landscape has changed dramatically. 921 01:16:20,439 --> 01:16:23,680 Here I am on the Turnback Glacier that Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 922 01:16:23,720 --> 01:16:28,079 colleagues Worsley and Crean, famously tried to use to descend to the valley 923 01:16:28,120 --> 01:16:32,079 beyond us, here to get ultimately to Stromness whaling station. 924 01:16:32,120 --> 01:16:34,360 And look at what a hundred years of climate change have done. 925 01:16:34,399 --> 01:16:37,440 This vast open space we're looking at here used to be occupied by glacier. 926 01:16:39,639 --> 01:16:43,000 For them, the level would have been above the level we can currently see now 927 01:16:43,040 --> 01:16:44,799 and if they were here and the ice were here, 928 01:16:44,840 --> 01:16:47,239 we would see them trudging wearily across our eyeline, 929 01:16:47,280 --> 01:16:50,959 about midway across this valley here, 930 01:16:51,000 --> 01:16:55,040 only to reach a precipitous ice cliff that they couldn't negotiate, 931 01:16:55,079 --> 01:16:58,319 causing them to have to go back up the valley and round another way. 932 01:16:58,360 --> 01:17:00,680 Hence the name Turnback Glacier. 933 01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:03,280 What a change there's been. 934 01:17:09,200 --> 01:17:14,840 Ironically, the Turnback Glacier is no longer an insurmountable barrier. 935 01:17:14,879 --> 01:17:19,360 And we can simply walk down the melting glacial front to the valley floor. 936 01:17:29,520 --> 01:17:31,639 After 26 hours of continuous marching, 937 01:17:32,920 --> 01:17:35,680 there was one more major obstacle in Shackleton's path... 938 01:17:36,840 --> 01:17:38,440 ...the Konig Glacier, 939 01:17:39,079 --> 01:17:41,440 a feature that's virtually unrecognizable today. 940 01:17:45,760 --> 01:17:47,600 Back in Shackleton's day, 941 01:17:47,639 --> 01:17:51,399 they saw the ice of the Konig Glacier reaching almost to the breaking waves. 942 01:17:53,319 --> 01:17:54,600 A hundred years later, 943 01:17:54,639 --> 01:17:58,799 we'll have to hike around 3 miles from the coast to the new glacial front. 944 01:18:10,799 --> 01:18:13,520 I've always been on two journeys really. 945 01:18:13,559 --> 01:18:16,760 One is the literal one, crossing mountains, crossing glaciers, 946 01:18:16,959 --> 01:18:19,600 and the other is more of a metaphorical one. 947 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 948 01:18:25,719 --> 01:18:29,200 by climate change and realise they're a really good way of showing the problem. 949 01:18:29,239 --> 01:18:32,120 They're like the litmus paper for what we're doing to the planet. 950 01:18:41,680 --> 01:18:44,879 The environment I'm standing on here looks like it's solid. 951 01:18:44,920 --> 01:18:49,120 As you're stepping, you're sinking down quite a long way 952 01:18:49,159 --> 01:18:51,639 and these big piles, rubble, again, they look quite solid, 953 01:18:51,760 --> 01:18:54,280 but beneath them is ice 954 01:18:54,319 --> 01:18:56,319 and the water is just eating into everything beneath. 955 01:18:56,360 --> 01:19:00,719 As the ice melts, the water is just eroding away the base of all these piles. 956 01:19:11,120 --> 01:19:13,360 It's quite a freaky experience being here. 957 01:19:13,959 --> 01:19:16,399 This whole landscape is just dynamic and changing. 958 01:19:16,440 --> 01:19:18,559 And what we're seeing today will not look like this tomorrow. 959 01:19:20,239 --> 01:19:22,639 Using a drone to capture a 360 degree image 960 01:19:23,840 --> 01:19:27,799 of the Konig Valley and the diary entries from Shackleton's crossing, 961 01:19:27,840 --> 01:19:31,120 we can recreate the world those three men traversed. 962 01:19:37,280 --> 01:19:39,799 What a difference 100 years can make. 963 01:19:53,159 --> 01:19:55,680 This is just indicative of the way 964 01:19:55,719 --> 01:19:59,239 that climate change has impacted the glaciers of South Georgia, 965 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. 966 01:20:08,040 --> 01:20:12,840 For Shackleton, South Georgia was a very different world. 967 01:20:14,079 --> 01:20:19,280 We were so stiff, we marched with our knees bent. 968 01:20:20,000 --> 01:20:22,600 A jagged line of peaks with a gap like a broken tooth confronted us, 969 01:20:22,639 --> 01:20:27,959 and our course eastward to Stromness lay across it. 970 01:20:32,360 --> 01:20:34,719 A very steep slope led up to the ridge 971 01:20:35,399 --> 01:20:39,360 and an icy wind burst through the gap. 972 01:20:39,399 --> 01:20:42,639 But the worst was turning to the best for us. 973 01:20:44,799 --> 01:20:47,600 Twisted, wavelike rock formations of Husvik Harbour, 974 01:20:47,879 --> 01:20:51,360 appeared right ahead in the opening of dawn. 975 01:20:54,840 --> 01:20:55,959 In intense excitement, 976 01:20:56,520 --> 01:21:00,920 we watched the chronometer for 07:00, when the whalers would be summoned to work. 977 01:21:06,280 --> 01:21:09,239 Right to the minute, the steam whistle came to us, 978 01:21:09,280 --> 01:21:14,680 borne clearly on the wind, never had any one of us heard sweeter music. 979 01:21:16,159 --> 01:21:18,520 It was a moment hard to describe. 980 01:21:19,360 --> 01:21:21,239 Pain and ache. 981 01:21:21,280 --> 01:21:23,479 Boat journeys, marches, hunger and fatigue, 982 01:21:23,719 --> 01:21:29,239 seemed to belong to the limbo of forgotten things. 983 01:21:31,799 --> 01:21:36,639 At 01:30 p. m. we climbed around the final ridge and saw a steamer. 984 01:21:37,239 --> 01:21:40,879 Minute figures moving to and fro about the boats caught our gaze 985 01:21:42,840 --> 01:21:47,879 and then we saw the sheds and factory of Stromness whaling station. 986 01:21:51,120 --> 01:21:55,120 We had pierced the veneer of outside things. 987 01:21:55,440 --> 01:22:00,000 We had suffered, starved and triumphed. 988 01:22:00,760 --> 01:22:04,399 Grovelled down, yet grasped of glory, 989 01:22:04,959 --> 01:22:07,840 grown bigger in the bigness of the whole. 990 01:22:10,159 --> 01:22:13,520 We had seen God in his splendours, 991 01:22:13,559 --> 01:22:17,159 heard the text that nature renders. 992 01:22:24,520 --> 01:22:29,920 We had reached the naked soul of men. 993 01:22:36,959 --> 01:22:42,000 That afternoon, Shackleton, Crean and Worsley walked into Stromness whaling station. 994 01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:47,159 The factory would have been busy with teams of men processing huge whale carcasses 995 01:22:47,200 --> 01:22:50,120 and the stench would have been thick in the air. 996 01:22:52,120 --> 01:22:57,079 This was to be their first encounter with the outside world, 997 01:22:57,120 --> 01:22:59,120 in 532 days. 998 01:23:00,280 --> 01:23:02,639 We tried to straighten ourselves up a bit 999 01:23:02,680 --> 01:23:04,200 for the thought that there might be women at the station, 1000 01:23:04,239 --> 01:23:10,760 made us painfully conscious of our uncivilized appearance. 1001 01:23:10,799 --> 01:23:14,159 Our beards were long and our hair was matted. 1002 01:23:15,159 --> 01:23:19,399 Three more unpleasant looking ruffians could hardly have been imagined. 1003 01:23:29,879 --> 01:23:34,280 Well, Shackleton finally arrives with Crean and Worsley at the whaling station. 1004 01:23:34,319 --> 01:23:38,280 They celebrate momentarily, but then Shackleton's focused on picking up 1005 01:23:38,319 --> 01:23:40,280 all the people he's left behind. 1006 01:23:40,319 --> 01:23:42,719 And this is just fraught with problems. 1007 01:23:44,959 --> 01:23:47,159 After retrieving the men left on the other side of the island 1008 01:23:47,360 --> 01:23:52,319 Shackleton sets off from South Georgia in a whaling ship 1009 01:23:52,360 --> 01:23:57,360 with the intention of rescuing the 22 men left behind on Elephant Island. 1010 01:23:57,399 --> 01:24:00,559 And they get turned back by the pack ice, which is just impassable. 1011 01:24:01,760 --> 01:24:03,319 They attempt this a second time, 1012 01:24:03,360 --> 01:24:04,959 and the same thing happens again. 1013 01:24:05,520 --> 01:24:10,079 Pack ice, too dense, driven back, unable to get any further south, 1014 01:24:10,920 --> 01:24:14,719 they resort to sailing to South America, where Shackleton raises the funds 1015 01:24:14,760 --> 01:24:16,520 for another ship to reach the men. 1016 01:24:17,559 --> 01:24:19,559 And that catches fire. 1017 01:24:19,920 --> 01:24:22,879 Back to South America, they go, tail between their legs. 1018 01:24:24,040 --> 01:24:25,520 On their fourth attempt, 1019 01:24:25,559 --> 01:24:29,680 they go south in a vessel called the Yelcho, a final rescue effort funded 1020 01:24:29,719 --> 01:24:30,840 by the Chilean government, 1021 01:24:30,879 --> 01:24:34,040 in what is essentially a tugboat. 1022 01:24:35,879 --> 01:24:40,239 This time, Providence favored us. 1023 01:24:40,280 --> 01:24:44,079 The little steamer made a quick rundown in comparatively fine weather. 1024 01:24:45,399 --> 01:24:48,959 Worsley's keen eyes detected the camp. 1025 01:24:49,000 --> 01:24:52,399 The men ashore saw us at the same time 1026 01:24:52,719 --> 01:24:58,079 and we saw tiny black figures hurry to the beach and wave signals to us. 1027 01:24:59,520 --> 01:25:02,760 I saw a little figure on a surf beaten rock 1028 01:25:02,799 --> 01:25:04,079 and recognized Wilde. 1029 01:25:08,079 --> 01:25:11,559 I called out, 'are you all well?. 1030 01:25:11,600 --> 01:25:15,559 And he answered, 'we are all well, boss!' 1031 01:25:16,120 --> 01:25:19,200 Wilde had held the party together, 1032 01:25:19,239 --> 01:25:23,120 and kept hope alive in their hearts. 1033 01:25:25,639 --> 01:25:30,920 The men on Elephant Island had waited four and a half months for rescue 1034 01:25:31,079 --> 01:25:34,239 and were down to just four days worth of rations. 1035 01:25:35,040 --> 01:25:37,639 The crew of Endurance were finally about to return to civilization 1036 01:25:37,680 --> 01:25:42,200 for the first time in over two years. 1037 01:25:46,440 --> 01:25:50,559 Against all odds, Shackleton had managed to achieve the impossible. 1038 01:25:55,559 --> 01:25:57,600 All hands were rescued. 1039 01:25:57,639 --> 01:25:59,680 Not a single man perished. 1040 01:26:09,719 --> 01:26:14,639 Shackleton's story inspires me, especially when I'm in these remote 1041 01:26:14,680 --> 01:26:17,760 locations and faced with the reality of the situation. 1042 01:26:19,079 --> 01:26:22,799 I believe Shackleton's leadership can be applied to almost any mission, 1043 01:26:23,120 --> 01:26:25,280 any goal. 1044 01:26:25,319 --> 01:26:28,559 For me, that is correcting our climate trajectory. 1045 01:26:29,479 --> 01:26:32,479 The changes we've witnessed here in South Georgia are sobering 1046 01:26:32,559 --> 01:26:37,040 and I am compelled to use what I've learned from Shackleton, to make a difference. 1047 01:26:38,280 --> 01:26:40,559 I think the thing about glaciers is that they are tangible. 1048 01:26:40,600 --> 01:26:42,120 They're a physical thing. 1049 01:26:42,239 --> 01:26:45,719 You can't see 415 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, 1050 01:26:45,760 --> 01:26:48,159 but you can see a melting glacier. 1051 01:26:48,520 --> 01:26:51,879 South Georgia is such a remote place and of course, Antarctica remoter still, 1052 01:26:51,920 --> 01:26:53,600 so not many people get to come here. 1053 01:26:53,680 --> 01:26:57,440 I think the work we're doing bringing these images back to people 1054 01:26:58,079 --> 01:27:01,760 is just crucial in communicating both the beauty of these places but the fragility of them 1055 01:27:01,959 --> 01:27:04,040 and the importance of doing something about climate change. 1056 01:27:05,600 --> 01:27:07,799 If Shackleton's leadership has taught us anything, 1057 01:27:07,840 --> 01:27:10,559 it's how to achieve the impossible. 1058 01:27:11,520 --> 01:27:16,000 And these are skills we can apply to mammoth tasks like solving climate change. 1059 01:27:16,639 --> 01:27:18,760 We need to reframe the mission. 1060 01:27:18,959 --> 01:27:20,920 We need to set milestones. 1061 01:27:21,120 --> 01:27:24,719 We need to break down the big picture into smaller, bite sized challenges. 1062 01:27:25,399 --> 01:27:29,879 We need to use emotional intelligence to convince everybody to pull together. 1063 01:27:30,600 --> 01:27:32,159 These are the skills that allowed 1064 01:27:32,200 --> 01:27:34,760 Shackleton to save all of his men from Antarctica. 1065 01:27:36,200 --> 01:27:41,760 Those same skills must now help us save Antarctica from man. 1066 01:27:47,239 --> 01:27:50,760 Our journey ends here at Grytviken whaling station, 1067 01:27:51,120 --> 01:27:56,680 where Endurance and her crew of 28 first set off to conquer the ice. 1068 01:27:58,159 --> 01:28:02,879 Grytviken and where we are would have been a harsh, harsh place hundred years ago. 1069 01:28:03,239 --> 01:28:07,360 Many whales hunted here subsequently ended up on the brink of extinction. 1070 01:28:07,399 --> 01:28:10,680 Humpback whales, blue whales. 1071 01:28:11,200 --> 01:28:14,959 And thankfully, we realized the error of our ways before it was too late 1072 01:28:15,000 --> 01:28:18,399 and managed to stop the whaling before we hunted them to extinction. 1073 01:28:18,959 --> 01:28:23,040 Fur seals are back at the numbers they were before we ever started hunting them. 1074 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. 1075 01:28:39,000 --> 01:28:41,200 Six years after their daring escape from the ice, 1076 01:28:41,239 --> 01:28:43,920 Shackleton, Wilde, Worsley, 1077 01:28:43,959 --> 01:28:46,680 and several other crew of Endurance, 1078 01:28:46,719 --> 01:28:51,120 returned to South Georgia, on another expedition to the south. 1079 01:28:56,159 --> 01:28:58,479 Before they could set off Shackleton 1080 01:28:58,520 --> 01:29:02,280 suffered a fatal heart attack and was laid to rest here on the island. 1081 01:29:07,319 --> 01:29:11,040 He just aspired to achieve something that was bigger than him. 1082 01:29:11,079 --> 01:29:13,520 He loved the whole romance and mystery 1083 01:29:13,559 --> 01:29:17,319 of attaining things on the largest of levels and the biggest of stages. 1084 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. 1085 01:29:21,840 --> 01:29:23,079 And it was this kind of wonderful combination, 1086 01:29:24,479 --> 01:29:27,840 of geographical discovery, and finding out what lies within yourself 1087 01:29:27,879 --> 01:29:30,959 to enable you to do these things that really spurred him on. 1088 01:29:33,399 --> 01:29:35,600 I think we can all find leadership within ourself, you know? 1089 01:29:35,639 --> 01:29:37,280 It's not a case of being born with it. 1090 01:29:37,319 --> 01:29:39,239 It's a case of finding it within ourselves. 1091 01:29:39,280 --> 01:29:41,479 And I think Shackleton found it within himself 1092 01:29:41,959 --> 01:29:44,440 to save all his men from certain death, 1093 01:29:44,479 --> 01:29:45,879 and we can find it within ourselves. 1094 01:29:46,040 --> 01:29:48,120 It's just the issue is different. But we must. 1095 01:29:48,200 --> 01:29:50,079 We must find it within ourselves. 1096 01:29:50,799 --> 01:29:54,719 The key to our future, might lie 100 years in our past. 1097 01:29:58,040 --> 01:30:02,559 Truly making this the greatest story of survival. 103153

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