Stuck
Shackleton prepared his crew to stay put for the Antarctic winter. Ship surgeon Alexander Macklin said Shackleton “did not rage at all, or show outwardly the slightest sign of disappointment.” They had come 12,000 miles, with 1,000 of it spent battling pack ice, but now they were stranded. But the Endurance was stuck in a northerly-migrating ice floe.
Adding insult to injury, they could see the land above Vahsel Bay as they drifted past their intended destination. But they stayed with the ship. It had cost too much to launch the expedition, and they had spent too much time and effort on the voyage to just abandon the Endurance and escape to land. Shackleton planned to wait out the winter. Once spring arrived, the ice would loosen and the Endurance, one of the sturdiest ships in the Antarctic exploratory fleet, could complete its journey to Vahsel Bay.
