Highly, highly recommend – Lansing pulled from the seamen's own journals and interviews with them and their families to tell the, frankly, unbelievable true story of 28 men's survival, first in their ship (the Endurance), stuck in an icepack in the Weddell Sea, then taking to the ice itself to camp out for months after the ice crushed and sank their ship, then in ~20' sailboats through Drake's Passage into the open Southern Ocean as they searched for land and then making an incredibly perilous overland trek on South Georgia Island to find their eventual rescuers.
That every man survived, that for the most part they kept their spirits up, some some of them returned to Antarctica following such a disaster! A wonderful exploration of grit, skill, determination and the spirit of adventure.
My copy also had some fantastic photos from Frank Hurley, the expedition's official photographer.
I read Richard Byrd's Alone just before and find myself working backwards through the Antarctic Age of Exploration. Alone was also beautifully written. Byrd meditated on human spirit and friendship/community quite a bit. His survival in his own words is quite shocking too.
I'm planning to ready Amundson's The South Pole next, if anyone can recommend a book about Robert Scott, I'd much appreciate!
by beaverscleaver