Shackleton's Forgotten Men: The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic (Adrenaline Classic Series) | 
|  | | | Title: | Shackleton's Forgotten Men: The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic (Adrenaline Classic Series) | | Author: | Lennard Bickel
Rt. Hon. Lord Shackleton (Foreword) | | Publisher: | Da Capo Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 30 March, 2001 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 1560253061 / 9781560253068 | | List Price: | $14.95 | | You Save: | $2.99 | | Amazon Price: | $11.96 | |
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Product Description
This is a dramatic true story of Antarctic tragedy and survival among the heroic group that was to lay supplies across the Great Ross Ice Shelf in preparation for the Endurance expedition. Launched by Shackleton (and led by Captain Aenaes Mackintosh), this courageous crew completed the longest sledge journey in polar history (199 days) and endured near-unimaginable deprivation. They accomplished most of their mission, laying the way for those who never came. All suffered; some died. Now Australian writer Lennard Bickel honors these forgotten heroes. Largely drawn from the author's interviews with surviving team member Dick Richards, this retelling underscores the capacity of ordinary men for endurance and noble action.
Amazon.com Review
Ernest Shackleton, an undeniably brave explorer, labored under a terrible ambition for nearly two decades: the desire to be the first man to reach the South Pole. Repeatedly thwarted by the elements, then finally beaten by the Norwegian adventurer Roald Amundsen, Shackleton revised his objective in 1912. He would be the first, he decided, to complete "the crossing of the South Polar Continent, from sea to sea." Shackleton planned to take his ship, Endurance, to the Weddell Sea and from there set out on foot across the polar plateau; he and his party would be supplied at depots set out by another exploring party. Shackleton never arrived at those depots; Endurance was crushed by sea ice, its sailors marooned for months of endless winter. Unaware of Endurance's fate, the 10-man supply party set out on the other side of the continent and discharged their duties without complaint. In the process, three of them died after crossing hundreds of miles of unforgiving, storm-blasted ice. "Their sacrifice," writes Lennard Bickel, "became a footnote in history and was forgotten, even though Shackleton himself summed up their long agony by saying that 'no more remarkable story of human endeavour has been revealed than the tale of that long march'." Bickel's thoughtful history gives these courageous explorers their due, and it provides a valuable addition to the library of Antarctic travel. --Gregory McNamee
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Customer Reviews:
• Unbelievable Endurance 26 January, 2005
Many people know of Ernest Shackleton's tragic Antartic expedition. His ship, the Endurance, becomes trapped in the ice and is eventually crushed. Shackleton and his men, make there way back to civilization through Shackleton's efforts. However, not many people know about the other group of men involved in that same expedition.
On the other side of Antartica, on the Great Ross Ice Shelf, a group of ten men sail and set up camp. Their task is to set up a number of supply depots for Shackleton's team. Once they cross the South Pole, the team would be abel to resupply at the depots established by this other team of men.
Unfortunately, their ship is lost and they are trapped. The fate of the Endurance is unknown to them and they struggle to complete there assigned tasks. It is a tale is suffering and incredible human endurance.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1E2EI93MJW6QK
• The Heros About Whom No Movie Has Been Made 12 August, 2005
Too many books and movies about Shackleton's ill-fated Endurance expidition end with Shackleton reaching South Georgia Island and returning to rescue his crew of Endurance. This book chronicles the story of the party who was to lay Shackleton's supply depots for his cross-Antarctic journey, a journey he never made. These men in many ways had an even harder task than Shackleton's party. They not only had responsibility for their own well-being, but (as far as they knew) Shackleton's as well. This book is a riviting account of their harrowing journey and what Shackleton found when he went back for THEM after rescuing his own crew. This book will make all other accounts of Shackleton's Endurance expidition seem incomplete.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A13R9XL68KNEQH
• The Other Side Of Endurance 05 June, 2005
The other half of Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-15 started from McMurdo Sound on the Ross Sea and laid supply depots across the Ross Ice Shelf for Shackleton and his team to use as they crossed the continent from the Weddell Sea. Here as on the Endurance disaster struck at the very beginning. The Ross Sea party's ship was blown out to sea, marooning the men for two years with little more than the clothes they stood up in. Fortunately, the lavishly equipped Scott Expedition had departed in a hurry four years before and left a surprising amount of stuff behind. Hard-headed Aeneas Mackintosh and his men carried out their task despite their own precarious position, laying depots that would never be used. The cost was the lives of three men, including Captain Mackintosh himself.
The loss of the ship was something no one could have prevented, but the deaths were fundamentally due to inexperienced leadership, which ultimately went back to Shackleton, who left ambiguous orders about who would be commander: Mackintosh, captain of the ship but with only one short sledging journey to his credit, or Ernest Joyce, who had gone south with Scott on the Discovery, with Shackleton on the Nimrod, and had selected dogs for Douglas Mawson. The stubborn Mackintosh insisted that final decisions were his alone. His refusal to heed Joyce's advice led directly to the death of three-quarters of their dogs by the end of the first sledging season. The Expedition never fully recovered.
The author doesn't have the English language quite under control, particularly his verbs. "Men's legs burying deep in the drift"? I blame his copy editor.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A29XH5ULN4YVOY
• Gripping Tale, But Lousy Maps 11 March, 2008
This would have been a five-star book, had the maps not been so poorly presented. Of the three maps printed in the book, none of them have a scale, which is the cardinal sin of cartography. Ten miles? A hundred miles? Beats me. Also, while the map of all of Antarctica understandably does not have a north arrow (when you're at the South Pole, every direction is north), one of the smaller maps has south as up while the third has north as up, which is needlessly confusing.
These quibbles aside, the story is fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time. Saying "never have so many done so much for so little" sounds cliched, but it's true. What a horrible exercise in futility, although of course at the time the men did not know their efforts were for naught. Overall, I highly recommend this book and just wish the maps could be corrected.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ASA9QWHDVAIOJ
• Heartbreaking And Inspiring 26 September, 2007
In all the other books I've read about Shackleton's adventures, there have been little more than passing references to the men entrusted with laying the provisions that would have sustained Shackleton's party for the second half of their intended journey across the ice. Completely cut off from the world, abandoned on the ice, those brave men struggled more than a year in horrific conditions to lay the depots that would have been the salvation of Shackleton's party. Daily, they weighed their lives against those of their comrades for whom they were preparing and the harshness of reality against the bond of their word.
With enough background and history to provide clear understanding of the parties and resources involved, the book offers a suprisingly detailed look into the lives and hearts of these valient men. I found their courage inspiring and their devotion to each other and their mission moving. Informative and touching, this book is a must read!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2NML53YCHS80S
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