September 26, 2007

Book #4 (Shackleton's Forgotten Men)


Shackleton's Forgotten Men wasn't a great book, but if over the winter you are looking for an interesting story then I recommend it. The book starts off slow and by no means is there a Hollywood ending, but it is history. From the little I remember about Shackleton from the IMAX movie I watched with my brother back in Boston, it was a failed attempt at crossing Antarctica. Shackleton's story is interesting because after his ship was trapped (and crushed) in sea ice, he and his men, survived by hunting seals and traveling from ice flow to ice flow. Shackleton then built a small sailboat from the scrap wood and sailed to a small island that he needed to traverse to find help at a whaling village. The great part of the story is that out of the 20+ crew, everyone survived even after spending 2 years in the barren place.
Shackleton had a great outcome, but on the other side of the continent, he had a team of men setting food caches for his trip. These are the men of this story. The best part of the story is when the men are marooned after a storm that rips the ship from its mooring. This leaves 10 men with few supplies and equipment. To survive (and complete their task of laying the food caches), they found old food and equipment left behind by Scott and his men.
I don't want to kill the story, but like the other books I read, scurvy takes its toll. It may be worth while to research this trip on the Internet instead of reading the whole book.

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