Elephant Island / Point Wild

In 1916, British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven suffered a terrifying ordeal after their ship, the Endurance, became lodged in an icebank. For eight months the icebank served as the unelected navigator of their impaled vessel, but the men were ultimately forced to abandon ship, lest they sink along with her. They boarded tiny lifeboats that delivered them to refuge at the edge of a glacier on the south of Elephant Island. The nightmare was far from over.

Shackleton and a select few ventured blindly to seek help, as the rest of the crew endured unimaginably harsh conditions—using lifeboats as shelter and surviving off seals and penguins for four and a half months. (FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS!) From then on, the small, rocky spot was known as Point Wild—named not merely because of the ordeal but also to honor Frank Wild, who was left in charge of those left waiting.

Finally, a smoke signal appeared offshore. It wasn’t a mirage but Shackleton himself. He had miraculously made it to a whaling station on South Georgia Island, borrowed a tugboat from the Chilean government, and returned to save the crew. He called from the craft, “Are you all right?” to which the men replied, “All well.”

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