Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/10/expedition-will-hunt-for-ernes.html
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Imagine how much more exciting this story would be if it was in the perfect tense, not the future subjunctive.
“Cool” would be somewhat of an understatement given the circumstances.
Also, do you want to awake a cursed crew of ice zombies? Because this is exactly the kind of story that usually ends with someone awaking a cursed crew of ice zombies.
It’s all fun and games until you mistakenly thaw out The Thing.
Shackleton’s Boat Journey, by Frank A. Worsley, is a great read. It gives a good overview of that third expedition, then focuses on the rescue effort, a wildly improbable 800 mile voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island (which was seasonally populated by whalers) in a lifeboat. Your library probably has a copy.
It’s probably well preserved in those waters.
Worsley is as much a hero as Shackleton on the Endurance expedition. It’s amazing that those men in their three small boats survived at all. Compare their success to the crew of the Karluk, another 1914 polar expedition. More to the point, compare Shackleton’s leadership of the Endurance expedition to Stefansson’s leadership on the other.
Is the Karluk the one where all but a handful of the sailors were incapacitated by ketoacidosis because of malnutrition? Too lazy to Google just now…
Never mind…Yup! That’s the one:
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