Shackleton's Epic: Recreating the world's greatest journey of survival by Tim Jarvis

Author:Tim Jarvis [Jarvis, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-07-31T12:00:00+00:00

Picture of focus: me during the storm.

Emerging on deck to steer in rough seas was like being in the passenger seat of a car, woken from deep sleep by the driver and handed the steering wheel as it entered a massive skid—there was very little time to readjust to the noise and speed at which the world around you moved. By the time you had focused and recalibrated, the hatch had closed and you were left alone on deck, responsible for everyone’s safety. Alone, that is, save a skua or albatross wheeling high overhead.

I took the reins and began battling the bucking bronco, the Alexandra Shackleton reminding me of a small toy boat my sons play with. We were just a tiny speck in a vast ocean with the water crashing against the sides of the boat, making it shudder and groan with each big-wave impact. The top of our mast was routinely dwarfed by the waves around us as we lingered in dark, black valleys surrounded by malevolent walls of gray topped with hissing white foam. Each time waves above us threatened to curl over and engulf us completely, the Alexandra Shackleton would miraculously bob back up. I fought to keep her at right angles to the steep slopes of massive waves down which she careered, conscious that if I made a mistake, we would potentially be rolled. For a land-based explorer, it was intimidating and exhilarating in equal amounts. As Worsley said, “In a short time our ideas of size altered amusingly.” Incredibly, being alone in the turmoil up on deck gave me the chance to contemplate the journey I’d been on personally up to this point and the enormous pressure I’d been under. The logistical, financial, and personnel issues that I’d dealt with right up until leaving Elephant Island had been intense, and, frankly, it had taken the enormity of this voyage to preoccupy me and banish thoughts of the issues that awaited me on my return. Survival in the Southern Ocean in the company of a team of great men was the perfect antidote for now. I remembered Discovery Channel’s insistence that it was imperative for us to reach day four of our journey so they could get enough footage. It was a friendly but firm and oft-repeated maxim: without four days’ worth of footage from the journey the documentary wouldn’t be workable.

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