Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

The sea calms by about 3:00 am, and a magnificent pink and gold sunrise thereafter serves to lift the men’s spirits. They rejoice when they see the peaks of Clarence and Elephant Islands, which are approximately 30 miles away. Shackleton orders immediate departure, but the group is delayed by facial frostbite during the preceding night, as well as by painful boils. McIlroy, a physician, advises Shackleton that the feet of Blackboro, the young stowaway, are apparently lost due to lack of circulation. Two of the ships have had to be freed from ice inside and out by hours of chipping, prior to sailing. When the boats set sail, many of the men are so dehydrated that they are unable to eat their ration of biscuits. Shackleton suggests that they try “chewing seal meat raw in order to swallow the blood” (208), but then orders that raw meat be given only to men whose thirst seems to be “threatening reason” (208), in order to preserve the supply.

Dr. Macklin and First Officer Greenstreet find their feet to be frostbitten. Contrary to his prior self-absorbed behavior, Orde-Lees offers to massage Greenstreet’s feet in order to restore circulation. He does so for quite a while, and then places the man’s feet on his own bare chest in order to complete the warming process.