IR Blog Post 2

The Endurance by Caroline Alexander

"It was all up. At 5 p.m., Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship. The dogs were evacuated down canvas chutes, and the supplies that had been readied were lowered to the ice. Shackleton, standing on the quivering deck, looked down the engine room skylight to see the engines dropping sideways as the stays and plates gave way...the men are numbed by fatigue. None of the diaries evinces much concern for personal safety; all emotion was expended on the death of the ship" (Alexander, page 89)

I chose this part of the story because it truly shows the mindset of the sailors. Their ship has been pinched between two ice slabs and the boat was thrown on its side. Although they could not sail anywhere, at least they were able to live in their ship. Now, because the ship is on its side, they must leave the ship to survive on the ice. Rather than the sailors being worried about how they are going to stay alive in the extreme cold, they are depressed about the death of their ship. Shackleton seemed to be most affected by the event. To him, the ship was more than a floating home and he had to watch it slowly die. There was a light on the ship that was left on, but as the ship was crunched by the ice, the light slowly flickered out. This symbolized the death of the ship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDQEsQa5TyQ&feature=related

In the video above, we see how the men were living in the ship. It talks about the respect that the sailors have for their captain, Shackleton. He is a kind and generous man. The reason why I think no one has died on this voyage yet is because he cares about each person individually. At approximately 5 minutes into the video, we see how the men use the dogs. The dogs were there to help with carrying the load and to keep the men company. Later in the section, I start to see that feeding the dogs is becoming a hassle. It probably saved many of them from going insane. In the 8th minute of the video, there is footage of the wrecked ship. You can see the ice blocked that took the ships life. If the sailors did not trust the captain, they all could have died.

http://blog.crowdspring.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/endurance2.jpg

After hearing the moans of the ship in the night, Shackleton knew his ship was being damaged. He felt comfortable in the ship so he did not want to leave. I think this compares to Chris McCandless's journey. When Chris was in the wild, he was not going to last long until he found refuge at the bus. The sailor's bus is the ship. The only reason why Chris was staying alive was because of the bus. Now that the sailors must leave their ship, will they end up dead?