Shackleton's "Endurance" Expedition Quiz

Answer: He wanted to be the first to cross Antarctica overland.

When Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911, Shackleton felt there was only one great goal left for the British to accomplish: to be the first party to cross Antarctica from sea to sea via the South Pole.

After years of hard work to get his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition funded, it seemed that Shackleton might not ever leave British waters. The "Endurance" set sail from London, August 1, 1914, and the British government declared war on Germany on August 4. Shackleton, after discussing it with his men, offered the ship, all of their supplies, and themselves, to the war effort, and he received a telegram from the Admiralty: "Proceed." A later, less terse, telegram was sent to Shackleton from Winston Churchill telling him that the government wanted the expedition to continue as planned, and "Endurance" left from Plymouth on August 8, 1914. "Endurance" reached Buenos Aires, South America on October 9, 1914 and sailed from Buenos Aires on her last call, before starting to Antarctica, South Georgia Island.

They arrived at South Georgia on November 5, 1914, and set sail towards the Weddell Sea on December 5, 1914.

Answer: 14,000

Lars Christensen had ordered the ship built to be used for taking polar bear hunting parties to the Arctic. Such excursions had become very popular with the wealthy. His partner, Antarctic Belgian explorer Baron de Gerlache had suggested many helpful ideas in the ship's construction.

When the plan ran into financial difficulties, Shackleton purchased the ship "Polaris" from Christensen for £14,000 ($67,000). Shackleton then re-christened the ship "Endurance" from his family motto: Fortitudine vicimus, or "By endurance we conquer".

At the time the ship was built by the Framnaes shipyard (a firm famous for its ships used in Arctic and Antarctic waters) it was considered one of strongest wooden ships built in Norway. It was designed for sailing in pack ice, and not to withstand great pressure.

The walls were not much thicker than that of other wooden ships.

Answer: Sir Douglas Mawson

For Shackleton to accomplish his goal of crossing Antarctica overland from west to east he needed two parties on two ships. The "Endurance", with Shackleton's party, was to sail up the Weddell Sea and then come overland, using dog sleds, near the Vahsel Bay.

The "Aurora" party would come up the opposite side of Antarctica, up the Ross Sea, and arrive at McMurdo Sound. This party would then come inland planting caches of supplies for Shackleton's party. Shackleton's party would then join the other party at the McMurdo Sound base, and both expeditions would then return home on board the "Aurora".

The "Aurora" was purchased by Shackleton from Sir Douglas Mawson, the famous Australian Antarctic explorer. The "Aurora" was quite similar to the "Terra Nova", the ship used by Robert Scott's final expedition, and several alternations had been made to the "Aurora" to Mawson's specifications.

Answer: He was a stowaway.

Blakewell, a seaman who had joined the crew in Buenos Aires, snuck his friend, nineteen year old Perce Blackborrow, aboard "Endurance". With the help of a couple members of the crew, Blackborrow was kept hidden until it was deemed that they were too far out at sea to turn back. Sir Ernest Shackleton subjected Blackborrow to a furious tirade, finally sticking his face into Blackborrow's and ending with "Finally, if we run out of food and anyone has to be eaten, you will be first. Do you understand?"

Answer: True

Sir Ernest Shackleton named the dog teams after each school who had helped in buying them. The dogs were divided up into six teams of nine dogs each. All but two of the dog teams were shot in December 1915, before the expedition left Ocean Camp, so that their food could be eaten by the men.

After the party set up base at Patience Camp, the last of the remaining dogs were killed and eaten by April, 1916.

Answer: October 25, 1915

At 5:00 am on October 25, 1915, after a valiant fight to keep the ship afloat, Shackleton ordered his men to abandon the "Endurance". The "Endurance" sank under the polar ice at 5:40 pm on November 21, 1915. In his diary that night, Shackleton put simply: "I cannot write about it." Shackleton did save the Union Jack given him by King George V and flew it over Ocean Camp.

Answer: Shackleton kept his diary.

Shackleton threw down several gold sovereigns and his gold watch. He tore out the flyleaf of the Bible which was inscribed by the Queen Mother: "May the Lord help you do your duty & guide you through all the dangers by land and sea. May you see the Works of the Lord & all His Wonders in the deep", and the page from Job that says "Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of Heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as a stone. And the face of the deep is frozen." He then laid the Bible down on the ice and walked away.

It was Shackleton's way of showing his men that no treasure was so dear as to be worth their lives. He did allow each man to keep his diary and two pounds of personal gear apiece. A second Bible, given to the men by the Queen Mother, was in a part of the ship that was flooded and went down with the "Endurance".

Answer: Bridge

Shackleton, along with expedition member McIlroy, taught the men to play bridge. Almost all of the men became enthusiastic players. The "Boss" as Shackleton's was called, discovered that playing cards could be cleaned using seal blubber--a good thing, too, as the cards finally became so grubby that they could not be told apart.

Answer: Old Cautious

All the men, no matter what their station, seaman or scientist, always addressed Shackleton simply as "Boss". They also called him (but never to his face) "Old Cautious" or "Cautious Jack". It was because Shackleton was the boss that he was so cautious. Never could he forget that the men who followed him to the Antarctic were ultimately his responsibility, and his alone. Shackleton always insisted that he be treated with no favoritism.

He took his turn doing even the most menial camp chores, but the responsibility he felt for his men always set him apart. Never could his guard be let down against any possible threat to their survival.

Answer: Sir James Caird was one of the expedition's chief financial backers.

Three lifeboats were brought off "Endurance" before she sank. They were christened after three of the expedition's chief financial backers. The largest was dubbed "James Caird" after Sir James Caird who had given £24,000 to the expedition. The "Dudley Docker" was named for Mr. Dudley Docker, and the "Stancomb Wills" was named in honor of Dame Janet Stancomb Wills.

Answer: 50 yards across

Before leaving Ocean Camp, Shackleton had ordered all but two of the dog teams shot so that their food could be eaten by the men. After seven tortuous miles on the softening ice with the men dragging the two heavy lifeboats, the party had only covered a little over seven miles. Shackleton realized that they could not escape across the ice. Shackleton and his men settled down at Patience Camp a week after leaving Ocean Camp.

The other life boat was retrieved from Ocean Camp. Shackleton knew the only escape possible for them had to be by sea.

By the time the pack ice finally broke apart enough for the men to launch the three lifeboats, the floe was disintegrating underneath their feet. The situation was critical, when finally on April 9, 1916, the pack opened up enough to launch the boats.

Answer: True

Elephant Island was a tiny, desolate, unhospitable piece of land about 800 miles from South Georgia. It offered little shelter to constant, rushing, howling winds and was fully exposed to the sub-Antarctic Ocean, but at least it was land. This was the first time in 497 days that the men of "Endurance" had stood on solid land.

The young stowaway, Perce Blackborrow, had both feet badly frostbitten during the treacherous open boat voyage to Elephant Island. For this reason, he was helped ashore and was the first, not to stand on Elephant Island, but as Shackleton says "the first man to sit on Elephant Island".

Answer: He and five others sailed 800 miles on "James Caird" and brought back help.

The story of how Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed almost 800 miles in the "James Caird" on the open ocean is legendary. On April 24, 1916 Shackleton and five men set out on the open ocean and sailed some 800 miles to South Georgia Island. One of the men was Frank Worsley. Worsley was the captain of the "Endurance" , and it is due to his skill as a navigator that the "James Caird" did not sail past South Georgia and into the open ocean. Shackleton and his men landed on South Georgia on May 10, 1916.

Answer: True

The "James Caird" reached South Georgia on May 10, 1916. A Norwegian whaling station was located on the other side of the South Georgia Island. The station was 130 miles by sea from their landing spot. It was some twenty-nine miles straight across the jagged, icy peaks of South Georgia to the station. Shackleton took his two strongest men and set off across the peaks on May 19, 1916. Thirty-six hours later, Shackleton and his men became the first to cross South Georgia.

This feat was not done again until 1955, when a British survey team, led by Duncan Carse, crossed South Georgia.

Answer: All of them survived.

It took Shackleton four different attempts, on four different boats, but on August 30, 1916 Shackleton returned with the Chilean boat "Yelcho" and rescued his men. When Shackleton arrived at Elephant Island, the men were very short on food, with only two days seal and penguin meat left. None of the twenty-eight men that sailed aboard the "Endurance" perished. I hope you have enjoyed, through this quiz, the incredible story of the "Endurance" and the remarkable leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton. If you wish to know more about the "Endurance" story, my quiz is based on Sir Ernest Shackleton's book "South The Endurance Expedition", the National Geographic book "Trial On Ice A Photobiography of Sir Ernest Shackleton", and "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing.