Withstanding gales, eighty-foot waves and sixty-mile-per-hour winds, the sailors overcome inconceivable hardships and finally arrive on South Georgia Island. In April of 1918, Shackleton selects five crew members to accompany him on a final effort to reach help on South Georgia by traversing the Drake Passage in a small wooden boat. While they are finally ensconced on solid ground, it is clear that they cannot survive on the island indefinitely. After a perilous series of horrific misadventures, the boats and crew reunite on Elephant Island, where they establish a camp on a narrow stretch of beach. In spring of 1918, Shackleton directs the crew into three small, open wooden boats. On more than one occasion, the men evacuate on an emergency basis when deep crevices form in the floe on which they are camping. Warming sea temperatures lead to the pack ice breaking up it also causes deterioration and cracking of the floes. Their carcasses are dressed and cooked the men claim that they taste delicious.

Eventually, the sledge dogs are executed. They accustom themselves to diminished food stores as well as a diet consisting largely of penguins and seals. Nonetheless, the crew remains essentially jovial and optimistic, despite the onset of the six-month-long polar night.

It becomes clear that travelling by ice floe toward the possibility of finding help at South Georgia Island is quicker however, this plan leaves the group entirely dependent upon the capricious nature of wind direction and sea conditions.

The men are forced to hack the pressure ridges with axes in order to allow the sleds to progress. Attempts are made to traverse the pack ice by dog sled however, the condition of the ice makes such travel excruciatingly slow and difficult.

Endurance alfred