Endurance Part Three (ch. 1-3)

This is a picture of a massive leopard seal hunting a hopeless penguin

After settling into their new camp named "Mark Time Camp," the crew begins to realize the severity of their situation. After five days they had only traveled nine miles. There was one immediate advantage to their new position; food was abundant for the time being. The hunting parties had brought in several seals in a few days. A crew member named Orde-Lees survived an attack by a leopard seal which was twelve feet long. This seal was shot and provided a good amount of food. At one point, Shackleton told the hunting parties to not bring back the slain seals because they had plenty of food, but this turned out to be a failure in his judgement. Within only a few weeks, they were running out of food, and Shackleton made the decision to shoot four of the dog teams in order to save food for themselves. In his writing, Lansing provides an example of bathos: "In a tired hand he concluded the entry: 'my dogs will be shot tomorrow.' " In this sentence and the phrases leading before it, the author creates an overly sentimental attitude towards the killing of the dogs. As I read it, I began to feel pity for the dogs and the drivers who had to kill their own dogs which is exactly what the author intended. I myself have a dog, so I could never imagine having to kill my own dog.

Adelie Penguins

Macklin and Hurley's teams made trips to Ocean Camp in order to retrieve more supplies, but after they returned they too were given the order to shoot their dog teams. This left only Greenstreet's dog team as the only surviving team. Then that night a southerly gale picked up which recorded speeds of up to seventy miles per hour. This gale lasted for six days and blew the floe a total of eighty-four miles. This was welcome news to the crew because they were now approximately 170 miles from Paulet Island. The bad news was that there was still no sign of open water. Then Shackleton gave the order to bring back the third boat from Ocean Camp. However, there was a dangerous shortage of food and blubber for cooking until they had a slight change in fortune when they were able to capture almost 600 Adelie penguins in a week.

The floe continued to travel and on the fifth of March they were now approximately 91 miles from Paulet Island. Also, the men started to become excited because they felt the swell of the ocean for a day, but this was just a tease. The pack ice did not break apart and open water was no where in sight. The men became noticeably demoralized after this. The physicist Reginald James darkly noted: " 'Paulet Island probably already to the south of us.' "