Finding Endurance

Since the discovery of the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance on the bed of the Antarctic ocean, the world has been enthralled anew by one of the greatest stories of all time. South African writer Darrel Bristow-Bovey, himself a Shackleton aficionado, revisits this dramatic event, which managed to sweep the tide of anger and rancour off the timelines and front pages of the world. He asks how so many ordinary people, who don’t know a nunatak from a barquentine, were so moved at the finding of a small wooden ship once sailed by a half-forgotten Irishman? In re-examining the story and its players, he presents new details and a new understanding of the courage and hardship of the Endurance voyage, and reminds us of how extraordinary humans can be.