Voyage of the James Caird
The voyage of the James Caird was a journey of 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands through the Southern Ocean to South Georgia, undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions to obtain rescue for the main body of the stranded Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917. Many historians regard the voyage of the crew in a 22.5-foot (6.9 m) ship's boat through the "Furious Fifties" as the greatest small-boat journey ever completed.
Launching the James Caird from the shore of Elephant Island, 24 April 1916
Endurance, listing at a steep angle, shortly before being crushed by the ice, October 1915; photograph by Frank Hurley
Shackleton's party arriving at Elephant Island, April 1916, after the loss of Endurance
Elephant Island party waving goodbye to sailors on the James Caird, 24 April 1916
Elephant Island is an ice-covered, mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands, in the Southern Ocean. The island is situated 245 kilometres north-northeast of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, 1,253 kilometres west-southwest of South Georgia, 935 kilometres south of the Falkland Islands, and 885 kilometres southeast of Cape Horn. It is within the Antarctic claims of Argentina, Chile and the United Kingdom.
Elephant Island
Elephant Island
Chinstrap penguins and Antarctic fur seals at Point Wild, Elephant Island
Elephant Island party, 1916