A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2786, 2 June 1916, Page 4

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

The news of the safety of Sir Mnest Shackleton and five of his Antarctic Exploring Party is dark6ncu by the tidings ho brings of his 22 comrades left sheltering in an ice cavo at a desolate spot in the Antarctic Ocean known as Elephant Island. They are short of necessaries and their situation must give ground for anxiety. At time of writing few details of this terrible struggle against misfortune and the rigours of the Antarctic have reached ' us, but such as we havo thrill the blood and set us marvelling at tho splendid courage and endurance of the men who_ shared in this ill-fated venture. Like the section of the party which left in the Aurora to establish depots at the Boss Sea side of the great Antarctic No-man's Land, Sir Ernest Shackleton appears to have met with misfortune before ho '■was able to begin the real task which ,he had set out to attempt. His vessel, the Endurance, was caught in the Ice of the Weddell Sea and damaged as the Aurora was damaged when engaged in carrying out the work of establishing the depots which were to ensure the safety of the leader and his party at the end of their journey, should they succeed in crossing the ice continent. Tho .Endurance drifted in tho icepack, kept afloat apparently by tho ice, for a distance of about 700 miles until Elephant Island, the most northerly island of the South Shetland group, was reached. There apparently, or possibly before reaching that point, tho vessel had to be abandoned, 'and the explorers took refuge in an ice cave on the island. The nearest inhabitated land from this point would probably be tho inhospitable shores of the southern portion of tho South American Continent, some 600 miles away. Tho plight of the Endurance party must ; indeed have been a terrible one. The only available means of crossing tho great waste of stormy, ice-strewn ocean to safety was a small boat, ?2 feet in length, ill-fittod indeed to battle a<mid conditions which test the skill and endurance of- the hardiest sailor even in modern whaling vessels. 'It must have been looked 011 in tho light of a forlorn hopo when Sik Ernest Shackleton and his crew of five set out in this frail craft to seek that assistance which was thb only hope to saving the lives of all. The boat party seems to have aimed at reaching South Georgia Island, somo 900 miles to the north-east of Elephant Island, but probably on 'account : iof adverso winds or ice-floes turned off in a north-westerly direction and reach-, cd the Falkland Islands. The privations they endured; the dangers and difficulties they overcame on that long and terrible voyage must be almost without parallel. That story has yet to be told. In tho meantime their safe arrival has mado known the urgoncy of the need of their comrades at Elephant Island who have been awaiting in suspenso and doubt, ignorant of how thoso who had gone to seek aid wore faring in their desperate endeavour. Tho British Government had already dccidcd to set about the work ol rescue, and the necessity for hastening with this task will be recognised. In addition to the men at Elephant LI and thero are also the partics left behind by tho Aurora, on the shores of Ross Sea, to be rescued. _ It has proved an ill-fated expedition as well as an ill-timed one.