Book thoughts: Endurance by Alfred Lansing
The book Endurance by Alfred Lansing is a detailed account of Ernest Shackleton’s attempt in 1914 to become the first explorer to traverse Antartica.
Spoiler alert: his expedition fails. Shackleton and his crew of 28 men spend nearly two years fighting for their lives on land and water near Antartica. Miraculously, in the end, all survive.
Yes, Shackleton fails. But here's what’s I love about his story is:
Shackleton is one of the greatest explorers of all time, not in spite of his failure, but exactly because of it.
His “failure” to reach the South Pole enables him to accomplish something much more impressive (at least to me): surviving a shipwreck in Antartica and the ensuing 550+ days with little food and supplies. Under his leadership, all 28 men of the party survive.
Truly incredible.
He thought his life story was going to be about grand exploration and conquest. And yet he only "achieved" it, by failing at the very thing he set out to do.
One must read the book to truly understand the scale of the challenges Shackleton and co overcome.
But here’s one of the craziest:
To get back to civilization, eventually Shackleton and other men must cross perhaps the world’s most dangerous ocean crossing, called Drake’s Passage, using only a tiny rescue boat they’ve salvaged from their larger shipwreck.
Their boat was 22-feet long, while the icy waves in Drake’s Passage can exceed 65 feet high. This part of the journey has been called the greatest small boat journey of all time. And they did it after more than a year of living on literal blocks of ice in Antartica.
Wow. Just wow.
Clearly, all this is incredible. But what does this have to do with our lives today?
We all live such “cush” lives today, but to me, Shackleton and co show we can push ourselves physically and mentally so much further than most of us (certainly me) do every day.
I’m fascinated by this theme. It’s the same reason I’m intrigued by mega triathlete and cringe motivational dude David Goggins.
In an age of abundance and relative ease, I think it’s important to remember there are some who have (and still are) pushing themselves far far beyond what anyone might think possible. It’s good motivation for me to push just a little harder in my day-to-day.
How was the book overall? Would I recommend it?
While I’m glad I stuck with it, I almost quit the book. The thing to know is it was meant to be a detailed, play-by-play of the journey. It does not seek to provide context or perspective; rather, it is chronicling each painstaking step in Shackleton’s voyage.
And the result is … a little painstaking. It kind of drags on and on. The hurt keeps coming for Shackleton, almost to a degree of lulling (at least this “cush” reader) into a monotonous boredom.
However, with one billionth the persistence of Shackleton, I persisted and finished the book about Shackleton.
By the end, I realized (and marveled) that THAT was the point. To comprehend what these guys did and the true enormity of it, one must read about each one of their seemingly never ending challenges and how they barely survived them.
The payoff for sticking with the book was wonderful for me. I felt shivers down my spine when Shackleton and his men make it back to civilization.
I also teared up when the totality of their journey is honored by possibly the only group of humans in the world who could truly appreciate the enormity of what they’d done: a room full of whaling captains who regularly sail (with much much larger boats) the treacherous waters Shackleton and company somehow survived.
In the end, I’m very glad I read it. I’m considering going even deeper into Shackleton’s life with other books for my next read.