I thought I was extremely motivated and determined but I could have never , ever survived these unthinkable conditions and yet, the men complained very little(148). From eating pemmican and hoosh and having hardly any water, it is amazing they could even stand , let alone man a boat in the extreme weather conditions.
This leg of the journey was disappointment after disappointment. They had traveled backwards for sometime which made them head directly into the current for the third time. Their clothes were frozen stiff and saturated with the oils from their bodies, the temperature was 4 below and the constant questioning of time took a mental toll on the men. At this point, it was questioned"How much more could they take?" The answer to that was an unbelievable amount of stress and pain. More thirst and hunger, Shackleton becoming anxious, and Worsley changing from excitable and wild to broken down and unable to carry on. Hudson was in unbearable pain, Blackboro had frost bitten feet and Rickenson collapsed of a heart attack........but after 497 days they were on land....1 year and 102 days.....Unbelievable!!!
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I have not reached this point in the book yet. I know that the conditions read about earlier were enough to call it quits for me. Psychologically all the men were scarred, but physically their bodies were in pain and exhausted. Knowing that finally they reached land is mostly what I am looking forward to reading how they reacted to this.
ReplyDeleteThis section was really, really crazy. I can't even imagine the prospect of surviving on a little whaling boat. Or even the Endurance herself. I won't even get on a cruise ship! This chapter was intense. As I've said before on here, I've reached a point in the book where I'm having trouble linking classroom and textbook concepts to Shackleton and his men's journey. The studies presented to us in the text aren't really comparable to what these men were doing.
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