Elephant Island and the launching of the James Caird

My Shackleton Moment.

With the wreck of Shackleton’s Endurance having being found last week after 107 years on the floor of the Weddell Sea, I was inspired to revisit photos of an impromptu call at Elephant Island ten years ago whilst sailing by.

A tiny and exposed peninsula, it’s not often possible to land safety due to swell, ice and wind. However on this day conditions were favourable and we made a quick stop to see where Shackleton and his men had set up camp under their lifeboats before Shackleton, Worsley and four crew courageously and famously sailed 800 miles in the lifeboat ‘James Caird’ to South Georgia to seeking rescue.

I took this photo of our expedition leader Robin West holding the Zodiac here whilst on shore, and it was only after returning to our ship that I realised I had been standing in the exact same spot (with a pretty similar focal length) where Shackleton’s expedition photographer Frank Hurley took the famous image (overlayed) of the launching of the James Caird on April 24, 1916.

So quite a special moment! Two images nearly a century apart fitting perfectly together. If you haven’t read Shackleton’s story yet, it’s well worth the read.