Absolutely unbelievable that anyone survived. To say this first person account is heroic is an understatement.

The expedition was an attempt to cross Antarctica coast to coast via the South Pole. After leaving from London they sailed down and their ship was trapped in ice. They then had to spend the winter onboard the ship trapped in a block of ice that no sea or land could be seen. The ship was then crushed by the ice (it had a hull 7 feet thick and was still obliterated) and the 28 men abandoned on sleds and foot.

Okay pretty bad but not too bad.

They then hiked and sledged around this massive floating piece of ice, dragging the life boats with them waiting for summer while the ice drifts aimlessly around the southern ocean. The ice pack breaks up and the closest land is Elephant Island 80 miles away, which is completely deserted. At this point they’re running out of food and have no freshwater left. So they casually sail these rowboats over there avoiding these massive icebergs that could crush or drown them if they get too close, and land on this island.

Getting pretty bad. So there’s 28 people, some food, no fresh water, and three boats. This island is in the middle of nowhere, it’s 700 miles from the southern tip of South America (whose coast has the highest winds and worst seas in the world, sailors avoid this area if at all possible) and it’s 800 miles from South Georgia island where (maybe) the whalers haven’t left the island for the close of the season.

So, Shackleton and two others take one of the lifeboats and TRAVEL 800 MILES ACROSS OPEN OCEAN. ITS STILL SO COLD THAT THE OCEAN FREEZES ON THE OARS AS THICK AS TELEPHONE POLES. The waves were so tall that they couldn’t see the horizon, or even the sky without looking upwards. Oh and they’re still getting frostbite, and now sores all over them from the salt and constant exposure. After doing this for SIXTEEN DAYS they finally land on South Georgia.

But they land on the opposite side from the whaling port. So they then hike over the mountains and glaciers (that have never been mapped) and make it across the island after a few days. No big deal.

They then meet up with a manager of the port and arrange for a rescue mission, (Which is a whole other disaster including 4 attempts in 3 different ships). By chance the final attempt succeeds as there happens to be an opening in the ice near elephant island and the ship is able to get to the shore and rescue the remaining men. All survived.

There’s enough in this expedition alone to fill a 4 hour action packed movie.

Pretty solid book until they named one of their dogs the N word, went downhill pretty quickly after that. Really interesting for the first half where they're doing the actual boat stuff. 2nd half was just a separate group of guys walking around on the ice for 2 years. Like the book version of Hobbes and Shaw, just went on for way too long.

The star review is for the edition only (I'm not sure I had the specific edition listed here, but it was definitely a Stanford Travel Classic edition).

The story is, of course, an amazing epic of survival in incredibly harsh conditions. Stars all round. However, the edition I read had no maps whatsoever, aside from a crappy representation of Antarctica on the cover. Having no maps makes a book like this so much more difficult to follow--half the events refer specifically to directions, geography and latitude/longitude. A map is even more crucial when these events take place in a part of the world which most readers are only vaguely familiar with. So that was very annoying. Don't buy the Stanford Classic version, I suppose.

Fascinating! This is a detail-packed, fascinating read. At times mind boggling at how long they were gone and how they survived on so little. I highly recommend the version read by Steven Crossley.