#BookReview: Fresh take on Shackleton’s expedition to Hell
Coincidentally, South African icebreaker SA Agulhas II played a key role in the expedition to find the Endurance 107 years after the event.
When news broke last month that the sunken shipwreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition in 1915 was found east of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Weddell Sea, it again revived the story of the ship crew’s legendary fight for survival.
Shackleton’s attempt to traverse the Antarctic was cut short when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in and then crushed by the ice.
The disaster left the 28 men at their own mercy in the frozen South Pole, and their eventual escape is arguably the most famous adventure story in history.
Much has already been written about Shackleton. So, did it warrant another book?
What perhaps makes the latest offering, Shackleton: A Biography, more meritorious is that it was written by the world’s greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
No other author could have hoped to match Fiennes’ unique authority to write about Shackleton’s expedition and the man himself – a hero to most but also a controversial figure.
Fiennes himself perfectly summed up his credentials to pen the latest book, when he said: “To write about Hell, it helps if you have been there.” And Fiennes has been there – often.
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