SHACKLETON, Sir Ernest. South. The Story of Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Expedition.

With coloured frontispiece, 31 photographic plates and folding map. London: Heinemann, 1983. Crown octavo. pp. xxi, 368. Brown leatherette decorated in red. All edges gilt. A very good copy.

Shackleton’s epic journey across treacherous seas to summon help, after the ‘Endurance’ had been crushed and sunk by huge ice-floes, was truly one of the greatest feats of human endurance of the twentieth century. Tom Crean, later of The South Pole Inn, Annascaul, accompanied his fellow countryman on this expedition. Their ship was 200 miles from the nearest land, and 1,000 miles from human assistance.

It was the beginning of one of the most astonishing voyages in maritime history. In a 22 foot long whaling boat they faced roaring seas and shrieking gales, their skin was flayed at every joint with sea blisters, their hands chafed and bleeding, their throats sore with thirst. For two long weeks they were continually bailing and chipping away ice formed by spray. But they got through, moreover, Shackleton and two others followed their miraculous sea journey with an astonishing feat of mountaineering. On South Georgia, in darkness of mists, without guides or maps, they made the first ever crossing of a snow- clad mountain range, sliding and staggering down the far side to reach the Norwegian whaling station and safety. ‘South’ is Shackleton’s monumental record of an adventure story crammed with human drama and endurance.