Endurance Part I, Chapters 2-8

Quote: “The Endurance was one microcosmic speck, 144 feet long and 25 feet wide, embedded in nearly one million square miles of ice that was slowly being rotated by the irresistible clockwise sweep of the winds and currents of the Weddell Sea.”

Discussion- This display of strength by the floes was not the first or the last that would wreak havoc on the ship.  Every time it seemed that the ship would be crushed, she managed to get out or somehow overcome the ice, and each time, the men grew more confident in the power of the ship.  The quote shows the utter helplessness of the situation, for the men could do absolutely nothing to reverse or change the effect the ice would have on the ship.  Still the crew, with the exception of Shackleton himself, continued to keep their optimism about the fate of the ship and the future of the expedition. The men may have believed that the ship could withstand any amount of barraging, but the author leaves little hints while describing the making of the ship that foreshadow the possibility that the ship will not deal with the pressure as well as everyone thinks she will.  When describing to the reader how the Endurance was built, the author makes a note to point out that the ship was not designed to cut through thick floes, only to swiftly move through loosely packed ice.  The ship was carefully, delicately, and meticulously formed using thick timbers of oak, double the number of frames, and employing other measures to strengthen the ship.  It was even said that she was the second-strongest wooden ship ever built.  In addition to the detail the author gives to the ship, he also thoroughly describes most of the crew members and how they came to be a part of the expedition.  Shackleton’s method of choosing the men lent a lot to his character, as he was quite whimsical and capricious.   By this point in the novel, the reader understands how the ship was built, how the expedition came to be, how the crew was chosen, and the intense effects of the ice and its pressure on the ship.  The reader also begins to wonder how the ice will continue to damage the ship and affect the crew.

Literary Term: foreshadowing- The reader becomes prepared for more damage caused by the ice when the author continually mentions the movement of the ice, the gales, and the subsequent pressure the ship had to endure.

Weddell seals were a great source of food