………
1959
(available in paperback from Carroll & Graf, 1999)
ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON’S INCREDIBLE VOYAGE is a thrilling chronicle of the heroic survival of a small group of explorers during a failed attempt to cross Antarctica in 1914 and 1915.
By the early 1900s, the British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton had already attempted to reach the South Pole twice. After the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole in 1912 (beating the British explorer Robert F. Scott by weeks), Shackleton decided it was time to restore honor to his country—and bring fame and wealth to himself—by crossing the Antarctic on foot.
In August 1914, Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, sailed from England, carrying twenty-seven men and sixty-nine sledge dogs. Fifteen months later, immobilized in the ice of the Weddell Sea (southeast of the southern tip of South America, south of the Antarctic Circle), the Endurance succumbed to the enormous pressure of the frozen sea, leaving its crew stranded on an island of ice six feet thick and 346 miles from tiny Paulet Island, where they hoped to find stores of food. With nothing but the sled dogs, several crates of food, three small boats, and his wits, Shackleton had to lead his men back to civilization.
In 1959, after scouring journals and photographs from the adventure, journalist Alfred Lansing wrote what has become the definitive account of Shackleton’s voyage. In Endurance, Lansing paints a portrait of leadership, as Shackleton and his men manage to feed themselves from the spare offerings of the arctic landscape; shelter themselves against severe weather with snow, mud, and rock; and prepare a small boat to make a daring open-ocean run across some of the world’s most unforgiving seas.
A crew member later called Shackleton “the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth, bar none.”
Food and nutrition played a large role in the success or failure of the British and Norwegian explorers of the early decades of the twentieth century. Scurvy, caused by a lack of vitamin C, plagued sailors in large numbers. Fresh food was known to cure the illness. Unbeknownst to Shackleton’s crew, the seal and penguin meat they found contained enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy. If, however, Charles J. Green, the ship’s cook, had followed the British custom of overcooking the meat to kill the fishy taste, he also would have destroyed the vitamin C.
Similar to crackers, biscuits were usually a staple of explorers’ diets. Small and crisp, biscuits packed easily and rarely got stale. Their ingredients varied. Shackleton’s crew probably ate the British version, made with white flour and sodium bicarbonate. Norwegian explorers such as Amundsen enjoyed more nutritious biscuits made with oatmeal and yeast, which provided essential B vitamins. Amundsen described his oatmeal biscuits in his account of his 1912 expedition, The South Pole, Volume 1:
The biscuits were a present from a well-known Norwegian factory, and did all honour to their origin. They were specially baked for us, and were made of oatmeal with the addition of dried milk and a little sugar; they were extremely nourishing and pleasant to the taste. Thanks to efficient packing, they kept fresh and crisp all the time. These biscuits formed a great part of our daily diet, and undoubtedly contributed in no small degree to the successful result.
We include below a recipe for a sweet Norwegian-style biscuit. Containing oatmeal and buttermilk, as well as our own addition of sweet dried fruit, these biscuits are best served warm, straight from the oven, accompanied by honey, butter, or jam.
1 cup all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats |
1 egg 2 tablespoons honey Coarse sugar for topping |
Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and ginger in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter in using a pastry knife or a fork, until mixture resembles coarse meal. With a fork, stir in the oats and dried fruit.
In a separate bowl, beat together the buttermilk, egg, and honey. Add to the flour mixture and stir with a fork until a soft dough forms.
Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Press down lightly on the tops of the biscuits and sprinkle generously with coarse sugar. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
Yield: 14 to 16 biscuits
For more on oatmeal biscuits, see p. 234.
NOVEL THOUGHTS
The Last Thursday Book Club of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is made up of twelve self-described “mildly mature males”—retired military and present and former employees of Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico—who love to read. Given their professional backgrounds, the men’s penchant for numbers should come as no surprise. They have rated more than one hundred books using a numerical system that carries out to the third decimal place.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage ranks third on Last Thursday’s all-time list. Members talked about the almost unbelievable series of events during the voyage, as well as Shackleton’s extraordinary leadership. “We were struck by how much Shackleton and his men were able to accomplish, how they managed to save every last member of the crew,” Tom Genoni says. “I don’t think Alfred Lansing received enough recognition for his wonderful narrative.” Blackledge agreed, characterizing the tale as an illustration of “true leadership, perseverance, and the successes of the indomitable spirit of man” and a “thrilling reading experience.”
To accompany his book club’s discussion of Endurance, Don Benoist of the Last Thursday Book Club served strawberry shortcake with fresh strawberries and thick whipped cream. According to member Mike Blackledge, the rich dessert offered both a visual reminder of the Antarctic landscape and a luxurious contrast to the thin fare that Shackleton’s men were able to glean from that harsh environment. “We would have prepared more authentic fare,” says Blackledge, “but Lansing never told us how to cook blubber or squeeze hoosh from a seal.”
teaspoon ground ginger
cup mixed dried fruit (any combination of golden raisins, cherries, cranberries, and blueberries)