Stranded in Antarctica: A Selection from Nicholas A. Christakis’s Blueprint (2020)
“In 1914, seasoned polar explorer Ernest Shackleton is said to have placed an advertisement in a London newspaper: ‘Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.’
Shackleton, who had ventured to Antarctica twice before, was assembling a crew to accompany him on his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the goal of which was to sail across the entire continent via small and shifting gaps of open water. However, on January 18, just forty-five days after the Endurance departed from South Georgia Island, the water surrounding the ship froze. The twenty-eight men aboard were trapped in a wasteland of ice. The promise of bitter cold, complete darkness, and constant danger had been realized.
For nine months, the ship, firmly wedged in an ice floe that was slowly drifting away from Antarctica, served as a home for the stranded men. Realizing that their survival, not the original expedition, was the new goal, the men began to make the necessary preparations to endure the harsh winter months, personalizing small living spaces within the ship, organizing the ship’s food supply, and occasionally venturing out onto the ice to exercise or hunt penguins and seals.
On September 2, the Endurance started to buckle under the crushing pressure of the encapsulating iceberg. On October 27, the men reluctantly abandoned the ship and pitched their tents directly on the ice. The ice floe was drifting toward Elephant Island, which had not previously been visited by humans due to its inaccessibility and its inhospitable weather and landscape.
When the island came into view, on April 9, the crew set out in three small boats (one whaleboat and two cutters), traveled through some of the world’s coldest and most turbulent waters, and successfully landed there seven days later. Given the crew’s dire circumstances, Shackleton made a decision: he and five other men would take one of the small boats, sail the eight hundred miles back to South Georgia Island, and then hike across snow-clad mountains to reach the small whaling station there.
Astonishingly, four months after leaving Elephant Island, Shackleton returned in a small steamer to rescue the twenty-two men who had stayed behind. Thus, all twenty-eight crew members stayed together as a community for a total of five hundred and thirteen days, and twenty-two men spent an additional one hundred and twenty-eight days together before Shackleton returned to rescue them. No one died.
How did these men, confined and isolated for almost two years, organize themselves into a functional community and interact on a day-to-day basis? How did their social arrangements contribute to their success? The work required to sustain this community was constant and overwhelming—hunting penguins and seals, building cabins, pitching tents, preparing meals, moving supplies, taking care of the dogs, and standing watch in awful conditions. But by and large, it was shared equally and amicably among crew members . . . . The men chosen for this expedition—biologists, carpenters, physicists, surgeons, navigators—came from specialized backgrounds and different levels of society, but they cooperated and worked together effectively.
Frank Worsely, the commander of Endurance, noted the interpersonal dynamics of the group in his diary: ‘We are now six months out from England, and during the whole of this time we have all pulled well together and with an almost utter absence of friction. A more agreeable set of gentlemen and good fellows one could not wish for shipmates. Any and every duty is undertaken cheerfully and willingly and no complaint or whining is ever heard no matter what hardship or inconvenience may be encountered. The principal credit of this is due to the tact and leadership of the Head of the Expedition [Shackleton] and the cheery happiness and bonhomie of Wild [Second-in-Command]. They both command respect, confidence, and affection.’
Many have echoed Worsely and attributed this success in building a cohesive and cooperative group to Shackleton, who asserted that whether they lived or died, they would do it together. Shackleton required that all men, regardless of profession or status, yield to his authority and contribute to all forms of labor. Meals and meetings were strictly scheduled and mandatory, labor was allocated in a clear and fair manner, and food rations were split equally among the men (though, tellingly, Shackleton often gave his designated allotment to his crew).”—Nicholas A. Christakis, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society (2020)
