Quotes from Alfred Lansing

In appearance, the Endurance was beautiful by any standards.

By land it was a scant 29 miles in a straight line.

She was a barkentine—three masts

All hands agreed, and the wire was sent. The reply was a one-word telegram: "Proceed.

Whatever happened, January would mark the point of no return.

in the three-quarters of a century that men had been coming to South Georgia

of which the forward one was square-rigged

not one man had ever crossed the island—for the simple reason that it could not be done.

while the after two carried fore-and-aft sails, like a schooner.

Shackleton said he would make the journey with Worsley and Crean as soon as it seemed feasible.

She was powered by a coal-fired, 350-hp steam engine, capable of driving her at speeds up to 10.2

She measured 144 feet over-all, with a 25-foot beam

Shackleton, Crean, and Worsley went to work leveling the floor of the cave with some loose stones and dry tussock grass.

wave-tossed cockleshells, and, finally, we've

Her keel members were four pieces of solid oak, one above the other

Their floe, which had once measured a mile in diameter, was now less than 200 yards across.

adding up to a total thickness of 7 feet, 1 inch.

albatrosses on the nest. Shackleton went back for the shotgun, and they killed one adult and one chick.

Her sides were made from oak and Norwegian mountain fir

Afterwards they turned in and slept for twelve glorious hours without a single interruption.

and they varied in thickness from about 18 inches to more than 2½ feet.

Outside this planking, to keep her from being chafed by the ice

Shackleton decided they would sail the Caird to the head of King Haakon Bay, a distance of about 6 miles.

there was a sheathing from stem to stern of greenheart, a wood so heavy it weighs more than solid iron