That’s an astonishing degree of accuracy for a position determined with mechanical tools, book-length tables of reference numbers, and pen and paper.


The expedition looking for the ship had been searching an undersea area of 150 square miles – a circle 14 miles across. Nobody knew how precise Worsley’s position calculation had been, or how far the ship might have travelled while sinking.


But as a historian of Antarctic exploration, I was not surprised to find out how accurate Worsley was, and I imagine those searching for the wreck weren’t either.


Navigation was key


The Endurance had left England in August 1914, with the Irishman Shackleton hoping to become the first to cross the Antarctic continent from one side to the other.


But they never even landed on Antarctica. The ship got stuck in sea ice in the Weddell Sea in January 1915, forcing the men off the ship into tents pitched on the frozen


ocean nearby. The force of the ice slowly crushed the Endurance, sinking it 10 months later, and kicking off what would become an incredible – and almost unbelievable – saga of survival and navigation by Shackleton and his crew.


Shackleton’s own leadership has become the stuff of legend, as has his commitment to ensuring that not a man was lost from the group


under his command – though three members of the expedition’s 10-man group in the Ross Sea did perish.


Lesser known is the importance of the navigational skills of the 42-year- old Worsley, a New Zealander who had spent decades in the British Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy Reserve. Without him, the story of Shackleton’s survival would likely have been very different.


Sir Ernest Shackleton aboard the Quest (Image credit: Mirrorpix)


Ernest Shackleton, left, with members of his crew at their encampment on the frozen ocean after the Endurance sank. Photo credit: Underwood & Underwood/Corbis via Getty Images


108 | The Report • June 2022 • Issue 100


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