MovieChat Forums > The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition (2001) Discussion > Loss of life on Shackleton's expedition

Loss of life on Shackleton's expedition

posted 17 years ago by katentek
3 replies | jump to latest

This is a great doco, and a terrific story of determination and survival, but it is not the whole story and it is not true to say that no people lost their lives on this expedition ... read "Shackletons Forgotten Men: The Untold Tale of an Antarctic Tragedy", by Lennard Bicke for what happened to the convieniently overlooked men who were set the task of prepairing the food and supply drops that Shackleton was to need if he went ahead with the cross Antarctic trek.

They battled horrendous conditions and death to have the supplies in position, even though they were never needed. These people are never mentioned by anybody as though they never existed ... even Shackleton seems to ignore the tragedy they faced.

"Everything is safe till it goes wrong" - Joe Simpson, "Touching the Void" - book only.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] lvreplicas 17 years ago

Remarkable story. I highly recommend reading the book as well. Inspiring. Insightful and truly a miracle.

"If you have a hunchback, just throw a little glitter on it honey and go dancing!"

[–] ckn8 17 years ago

Yeah, I thought the Bickel book shed more light on the part of the story that is usually ignored. I don't know if they were really "conveniently overlooked" though. I'm not sure that Shackleton really "ignored" the men as he led the party that ultimately came to their rescue. Their story, in itself, is also rather amazing, even more so knowing that only three died. Frankly, despite their losses and and the conditions they faced, their story has little of the magic that has made the Shackleton story so memorable. It survives today, merely as a footnote. If it weren't for the wild success in the 90's of merchandise/books/films about Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expidition, a book about the Ross Sea Party would have never been written.