Quotes from Alfred Lansing

consisting of canned vegetables, tapioca, dog pemmican, and jam.

One of the biggest challenges for a writer of nonfiction is to avoid using too much of his or her hard-won material. A great and enduring book isn't comprehensive; it is highly, even ruthlessly, selective, zeroing in on the most evocative and illustrative moments while dispensing with the clutter that might prevent the high points from resonating to maximum effect.

In a tired hand he concluded the entry: "My dogs will be shot tomorrow.

The floe which had been jammed under the ship's starboard side since July broke free on October 14

The next morning, three seals were sighted, and Macklin was sent out with Tom Crean to fetch them.

and the Endurance lay in a small pool of open water—truly afloat for the first time since she was beset nine months before.

Shackleton told Macklin that since the party now had a fair supply of meat, his dogs would not be killed

Hurley's team though, including the leader, Shakespeare, the biggest of all the dogs, was shot.

Shackleton wrote, almost timorously, "This may be the turn in our fortune.

We ought to be making North some now," he said with the utmost restraint.

The last barometer reading of the day was 28.96, the lowest since the disastrous blizzard in July.

Worsley was ready with his sextant, and James stood by with his theodolite to catch the angle of the sun.

It brought the total run since the beginning of the gale to 84 miles—in six days.

January 25, and to McNeish it was a "proper sea fog," indicating the presence of the ice-free ocean nearby.

then raised their heads and uttered a series of weird, mournful, dirgelike cries.

Tom McLeod turned to Macklin. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

a party of eighteen under Wild should start out early the next morning to bring up the Stancomb Wills.

But at five o'clock they knew it was time to give up. She was done, and nobody needed to tell them.

The Stancomb Wills was safe in camp by one o'clock.

Shackleton immediately asked Macklin if he felt too tired to go back again to Ocean Camp

From studying the outcome of past expeditions, he believed that those that burdened themselves with equipment to meet every contingency had fared much worse than those that had sacrificed total preparedness for speed.

These words were written on the flyleaf of a Bible given to the expedition by Queen Mother

Alexandra of England. Shackleton carried the Bible in his hand as he left the Endurance

Shackleton made the decision on the spot: they would abandon the effort to reach Clarence or Elephant Island