1) Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set sail in 1915 with the goal of crossing Antarctica, but their ship Endurance became trapped in ice in the Weddell Sea. 2) After drifting for months, Endurance was crushed by ice in October 1915, forcing the crew to camp on ice floes until the ice broke up in 1916. 3) Shackleton then led a group of men on a harrowing open boat journey across the treacherous Drake Passage to the whaling station on South Georgia Island to fetch help for the others left stranded on Elephant Island.

1. Endurance

2. Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

5. On 19th January 1915, after a five-week sail from South Georgia & 3 days after sighting land, the Endurance was beset by early pack ice at the extreme south east corner of the Weddell Sea

8. Tom Crean “The Irish Giant” & 2 nd Officer He took great interest in caring for the dogs on the journey south aboard the Endurance

9. The crew’s smallest member, Meteorologist Dr. Leonard Hussey, & Samson, the largest sled dog

10. Frank Hurley, the expedition photographer

11. Frank Hurley would go to any lengths to get a photograph On rigging filming as Shackleton examines the ice ahead

12. Shackleton, who had aimed to achieve the crossing of the Antarctic continent from west to east, was forced to abandon his expedition in the face of a more immediate & dangerous challenge

13. “ The night watch arouses his friends, & they sit in a quorum around the bogie fire, discoursing in subdued whispers”

14. After 9 months wedged on floating pack ice, the Endurance was finally crushed & sank

15. Frank Hurley

16. When the Endurance became solidly embedded, dogs were housed in “dogloos”

17. An iceberg ploughed through the pack & bore down upon the imprisoned ship

18. The night photograph of Endurance held fast in the ice of the Weddell Sea, is one of the most famous & enduring of the 120 images to come out of Shackleton’s expedition

19. Saving as many supplies as they could (including Frank Hurley's photo archive), the crew of 28 set up camp

20. Endurance among ice pinnacles: As time wore on it became more & more evident that the ship was doomed - February 1915

21. Endurance is overwhelmed - October 1915

22. Endurance crushed by icepacks of the Weddell Sea - 1 November 1915

23. Captain Frank Wild & the Endurance in Weddell Sea - 1915

24. Initially they set up Ocean Camp, located on the solidly packed ice, from October l915 to January l9l6; & after the sinking of Endurance , Patience Camp, on the volatile ice floes, January-April l916

25. Shackleton & Wild standing at Ocean Camp in Weddell Sea - November 1915

26. Ocean Camp - 15 December 1915

27. On 9th April, as the ice thawed, they hastily abandoned all non-essential supplies & took to the 3 lifeboats

28. Hauling the James Caird

29. Shackleton christened the boats the James Caird , the Dudley Docker and the Stancomb Wills , after the expedition's sponsors

30. At night we drew our boats up on ice & made a blubber fire to warm our frozen bodies, overhead Aurora Australis flamed & waned

31. Men on an ice-floe among many in the Weddell Sea - 1916

32. After a voyage fraught with peril & in appalling icy conditions they arrived at the desolate Elephant Island six days later, on April 15th

33. Ice canoe floating in a pool near an ice cliff on Elephant Island - 1916

34. Landing on Elephant Island, solid rock lies beneath our feet, this was Paradise regained! - 15 April, 1916

35. It was the first time they had set foot on land since leaving South Georgia nearly 1½ years

36. Within a few days of their arrival at Elephant Island, Shackleton decided to fetch help

37. James Caird launched: nearest relief 800 miles away - 24 April 1916

38. On April 24th, the very last day before the pack ice closed in again, Shackleton Worsley, Crean, McNeish, McCarthy &Vincent - set off through the Drake Passage

39. Men on Elephant Island wave farewell Shackleton as they leave for South Georgia, - 24 April 1916

40. They had the almost impossible hope of making landfall on South Georgia, 800 miles away & summon help at the whaling stations

41. This journey involved a crossing of the world's most inhospitable ocean in the depths of Antarctic winter

42. The boat was buffeted by mountainous & tempestuous seas - ice built up on the decking, 15” deep, threatening to overturn the James Caird

43. Hour by hour, frostbitten & numbed with cold, they had to chip away ice from the vessel At other times they were forced to bale for dear life

44. Their only solace was hot meals & the glimmer of a tiny primus stove Their discomfort, hunched below in the James Caird 's 5’x7’ cramped hold, must have been absolute

45. After 16 terrible days at sea, the James Caird sighted land at midday on May 8 th , 1916

46. The boat arrived off South Georgia in hurricane conditions & only at 5 p.m. on May 10 th did they eventually land in a small, inlet

47. They had travelled 1500 miles since the Endurance had been crushed

48. With the James Caird beached in King Haakon Bay to the west, help now lay only some 20 miles away, at the whaling stations on the east side of the island

49. The mountainous interior had never been penetrated before

50. Previous attempts had been defeated by the severity of the elements and the only available map, charted largely by Captain Cook, showed merely the outline of the coast

51. As Shackleton, Worsley & Crean, set off, they were ill-prepared for climbing and had little means to prepare for the glaciers, crevasses & snow storms that lay ahead

52. As Shackleton, Worsley & Crean, set off, they were ill-prepared for climbing and had little means to prepare for the glaciers, crevasses & snow storms that lay ahead

53. But in the end, Shackleton's proverbial luck held

54. Overlooking South Georgia Island

55. In 36 hours & against incredible odds they crossed the island on the only moonlit night before bad weather closed in again, & arrived at the whaling station of Stromness

57. It took 4 more months & 4 attempts before Shackleton finally managed get through the pack ice aboard the steam tug Yelcho to rescue his remaining twenty-two men

58. The steam tug Yelcho

59. The Endurance is overwhelmed, October 1915

62. Shackleton’s snow goggles After crossing South Georgia to reach the safety of the whaling station at Stromness, Shackleton gave these goggles to a Norwegian whaler named Harald Nilsen

63. These boots are most likely those worn by James Mann Wordie during Shackleton's Endurance Expedition Wordie was geologist aboard Endurance

64. Frank Worsley used this pocket watch to help navigate the James Caird during Shackleton's historic open boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia, 1916

65. This chronometer was used by Worsley during the open boat journey, aboard James Caird, from Elephant Island to South Georgia in 1916

66. Shackleton received over 5000 applications including this letter from 'three sporty girls' who were keen to be considered alongside the men

67. The ordeal lasted 20 months Shackleton kept this diary during the months spent marooned on the ice

68. Map drawn from memory by Frank Worsley shortly after his return from the expedition. It shows the route across South Georgia taken by Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean and Frank Worsley in May 1916 during the Endurance expedition

69. Shackleton is buried on South Georgia Island were he died in 1922 as he tried to sail around Antarctica