This Week in History

CWA # 1436
This Week in History
08 August 1914: Endurance leaves England for Antarctica Expedition

Ayush Bhattacharjee
10 August 2024

Photo Source:

On 8 August 1914, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton led a British mission from England, the Endurance Expedition, formally known as the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea coast to the Ross Sea coast via the South Pole from 1914 to 1917. 

The Endurance Expedition 
Sir Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish explorer popularly known for his expeditions to Antarctica. Previously, he joined Robert Falcon Scott’s British National (Discovery) Antarctic Expedition as a Third Lieutenant in 1901 and later in 1908, he led his own expedition known as the British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition.  

During the planning of the Endurance Expedition, the possibility of World War was looming. Sir Shackleton volunteered to cancel the expedition and offered the ship, Endurance at the disposal of the government. However, the First Sea Lord and Prime Minister of the UK, Winston Churchill instructed him to proceed. The Expedition was planned to head South but Sir Shackleton avoided the Falkland Islands because of the possibility of being attacked by the Imperial German Navy. Thus, it was planned to set out from the previously unexplored region of the Weddell Sea which is located in the South of South America, to the Pole and then to the Ross Sea which is located to the South of New Zealand.  

Constructed in a Norwegian shipyard, the Endurance ship was built to withstand the Polar climatic conditions and was intended for cruises to the Arctic. The 144-foot-long ship was equipped with extra-thick wood planks to protect the ship against destruction from the pack ice floating in the Southern Ocean. 

While Shackleton led the Endurance crew to set off for the Pole from the Weddell Sea, another separate party called the Ross Party was bound on the ship Aurora. It was tasked to place depot and food supplies to support the Endurance crew in the second part of their expedition (from the South Pole to the Ross Sea). 

The Endurance Expedition was overwhelmed with applications from volunteers to join the crew despite the tragic end of Robert Scott and his team after reaching the South Pole in 1912. The crew of Endurance consisted of 27 men (plus one stowaway), 69 sledge dogs and Mrs. Chippy, a cat. It comprised an engineer, a surgeon, a geologist, a photographer, artists, carpenters, a cook and a stoker. Sir Shackleton appointed Frank Worsley as the captain of the expedition ship. 

On 8 August 1914, the Endurance sailed from Plymouth, England via Buenos Aires, Argentina for Grytviken, a Norwegian whaling station on South Georgia Island. The Endurance made its way through thousand miles of pack ice for over six weeks and was one-day sail away from its destination when the ice closed in around the ship on 18 January 1915. By the end of February, temperatures fell to -20 degrees Celsius and the ship froze in for the winter. This setback was not foreseen by the Endurance crew. 

On 23 October, Shackleton’s crew decided to abandon the ship due to it being crushed under the pressure of the ice. Boats, gear and sledges were lowered from the ship onto the ice and camps were established on an ice floe a mile and a half away from Endurance. On 21 November 1915, Endurance broke apart and sank below the ice and water of the Weddell Sea. The crew saved as many supplies as they could before the ship sank. As Spring was setting in, the ice started to break up. On 20 December, Sir Shackleton decided to abandon the camps and march to the nearest land at Paulet Island. 

On 9 April 1916, the crew had to bind themselves on the three lifeboats – James Caird, Dudley Docker and Stancomb Wills due to the increasing fragility of the ice. On 12 April, Shackleton found Elephant Island and made landfall after 497 days since they set foot on land. Shackleton decided to travel to the whaling station in South Georgia to rescue the stranded 28 men. 

Legacy of the Endurance 
The Endurance was a failed expedition; however, it depicts a story about the perseverance, dedication and leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton. The story of survival against the extremities has consolidated Sir Ernest Shackleton’s image along with other heroic figures of Antarctic exploration like Robert Falcon Scott and Ronald Amundsen. Ernest Shackleton’s journal Diary of a Survivor and Frank Hurley’s photo documentation provide an in-depth depiction of the eventualities that the crew faced and survived. 

106 years later, on 5 March 2022, the Endurance22 Expedition of Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust located the wreck of Shackleton’s Endurance under 10,000 feet of the Weddell Sea. 

About the author 
Ayush Bhattacharjee is a. Undergraduate student of the Department of International Relations, Peace and Public Policy, St Joseph’s University, Bengaluru. 

PREVIOUS COMMENTS

February 2026 | CWA # 1959

Yesasvi Koganti | Yesasvi Koganti is an undergraduate student from Madras Christian College, Chennai.

UK and China
February 2026 | CWA # 1957

R Preetha | R Preetha is pursuing post-graduation in the Department of International Studies, Stella Maris College, Chennai, and is a Research Assistant at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.

The India–US interim trade framework
February 2026 | CWA # 1956

Lekshmi MK | Lekshmi MK is pursuing post-graduation in the Department of Political Science, Madras Christian College, Chennai, and is a Research Assistant at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.

End of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)
State of Global Politics 2025
December 2025 | CWA # 1931

Padmashree Anandhan

NATO Summit 2025
State of Global Politics 2025
December 2025 | CWA # 1924

Padmashree Anandhan

NATO Summit 2025
This Week in History
August 2025 | CWA # 1801

R Preetha

28 August 1963
TWTW note
August 2025 | CWA # 1780

Abhiruchi Chowdhury

Trump tariffs:
This Week in History
August 2025 | CWA # 1778

Lekshmi MK

28 July 1914
TWTW Note
June 2025 | CWA # 1694

Aashish Ganeshan

The US:
CW Note
May 2025 | CWA # 1689

Padmashree Anandhan

Ukraine
CW Note
May 2025 | CWA # 1688

Ayan Datta

Gaza
CW Note
May 2025 | CWA # 1675

Lekshmi MK

Turkey:
CW Note
May 2025 | CWA # 1673

Padmashree Anandhan

Ukraine:
TWTW Note
May 2025 | CWA # 1667

R Preetha and Brighty Ann Sarah

East Asia:
NIAS Global Politics Database
March 2024 | CWA # 1251

NIAS Africa Team

Africa This Week
NIAS Global Politics Database
February 2024 | CWA # 1226

NIAS Africa Team

Africa This Week
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1189

Hoimi Mukherjee | Hoimi Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in Bankura Zilla Saradamani Mahila Mahavidyapith.

Chile in 2023: Crises of Constitutionality
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1187

Aprajita Kashyap | Aprajita Kashyap is a faculty of Latin American Studies, School of International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi.

Haiti in 2023: The Humanitarian Crisis
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1185

Binod Khanal | Binod Khanal is a Doctoral candidate at the Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi.

The Baltic: Energy, Russia, NATO and China
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1183

Padmashree Anandhan | Padmashree Anandhan is a Research Associate at the School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangaluru.

Germany in 2023: Defence, Economy and Energy Triangle
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1178

​​​​​​​Ashok Alex Luke | Ashok Alex Luke is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at CMS College, Kottayam.

China and South Asia in 2023: Advantage Beijing?
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1177

Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri | Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri is a postgraduate student at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at the University of Madras, Chennai.

China and East Asia
The War in Ukraine
October 2023 | CWA # 1091

Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri

Issues for Europe
IPRI Quarterly Forecasts I Triggers, Trends, and Trajectories
July 2023 | CWA # 1012

Bibhu Prasad Routray

Myanmar continues to burn
2022: The World This Year
December 2022 | CWA # 879

Padmashree Anandhan

The Ukraine War
Europe: Heatwaves, Wildfires, Droughts, and Ice Melt in Alps
November 2022 | CWA # 838

Rishma Banerjee

Tracing Europe's droughts
NIAS Africa Weekly
March 2022 | CWA # 705

NIAS Africa Team

In Focus: Libya
The World This Week: 150th Issue
December 2021 | CWA # 630

GP Team

Europe in 2021
Pakistan Reader
October 2021 | CWA # 588

Abigail Miriam Fernandez

TLP is back again
NIAS Fortnightly on Science, Technology & International Relations
August 2021 | CWA # 528

STIR Team

Space Tourism
Science, Technology and International Relations
September 2019 | CWA # 162

Lakshman Chakravarthy N

5G: A Primer
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 71

Mahesh Bhatta | Centre for South Asian Studies, Kathmandu

Nepal
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 70

Nasima Khatoon | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

The Maldives
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 69

Harini Madhusudan | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

India
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 68

Sourina Bej | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

Bangladesh
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 67

Seetha Lakshmi Dinesh Iyer | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

Afghanistan