Antarctica Day 4. Elephant Island. Endurance. Chinstraps.
A very rare cloud-free image of Elephant Island from NASA.
There are no elephants here. It is named as such for many reasons. Some of the first explorers to reach these shores sighted elephant seals on its shores. As it turns out, the shape of the island is that of an elephant as well. Anyone who has studied the history of the discovery of Antarctica knows this island was the refuge of Ernest Shackleton and his crew in 1916. For us, this will be our final day in Antarctica and within the Antarctic Circle.
Sunrise: 4:28 AM. Sunset: 11:17 PM. High temperature today 31°.
Agenda for today is to navigate the Antarctic Sound which separates the northernmost point of the Antarctic Peninsula from the Joiner Islands. The sound is approximately 30 miles long and varies in width from 7-12 miles. We will see large tabular icebergs that have broken off from the continental ice shelf and float, sometimes for several years, in the freezing waters. We will sail around Cape Valentine and past Paulet Island and stop for a bit to see several different Adelie and Chinstrap Penguin colonies. This will be the highlight along with viewing Elephant Island as a whole where Ernest Shackleton and his crew were stranded.
We have been cruising for more than 15 hours from Deception Island to reach Elephant Island and the weather lifts enough to go outside onto the Promenade and capture elephant Island from a distance. This area to this east end of the island is known as ‘The Stadium because of the mountains surrounding one open end facing east (just a mile or so north of Walker Point).
Unfortunately the rain and heavy clouds on the east point kept me from capturing the open end to The Stadium but as we made it further around the Cape Valentine and headed toward Point Wild I was able to capture our first image of one of the large glaciers.
We travel around the next point and head into Point Wild. This is an extraordinary site of history that I will share later. Meanwhile, we see as we’re approaching Furness Glacier, the myriad of gentoo and chinstrap penguins, everywhere.
I’ll circle back to the image below later as this is the only image where I captured the monument to celebrate the rescue of the survivors of the Endurance by the Yelcho.
Love this image of mom and dad watching the penguins.
A series of glacier close-ups:
As we move closer to the glacier I begin to capture several videos of the penguins.
For me, this was a ‘moment’ as I watched these two white-bellied chinstrap penguins in the video below… and I admit, with some envy. Not for their manner of life as they’re tougher than I am (and as has been well-documented this place is not fit for humans)… plus I watched ‘The March of the Penguins’ and I know I don’t have the grit they have. But, to witness the ocean wrapping around them, the mist-filled air as the waves crashed… as they seem to just be taking it all in… there was something centering about it for me.
Important Historical Note. This ‘point’ has many highly-documented historical accounts and books written about. Most recently, the highly acclaimed “The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition” which I will read in 2024 after my brief experience with Antarctica.
These five paragraphs below capture in summary why there is a monument here (credit Dr Michael Wilcox who joined us for our expedition) in addition to some content I added from documentation I found that is held by NASA. It’s worth the time…
When explorer Ernest Shackleton and the crew of Endurance lost their ship to crushing pack ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915, their chances of survival seemed dim. The 28 men spent months drifting on ice floes and traversing the Southern Ocean in small lifeboats until they finally spotted land. The hunk of rock and ice was not the welcoming refuge they hoped for, but it was enough. Shackleton and the crew of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition landed on the mountainous, ice-covered island today known as Elephant Island.
Shackleton and his crew initially landed on the eastern coast at Cape Valentine, but falling rocks and the proximity to the sea made it difficult to set up safe campsites. In fact, much of the island’s coastline consists of cliffs with steep slopes rising more than 330 feet in places. Crew member Frank Wild scouted more stable ground to the west, with lower elevation but also more glaciers. The team set up camp there, naming the site Point Wild.
Realizing that there was no chance of rescue by any passing ships and with winter approaching, Shackleton decided to travel to South Georgia where he knew there was a whaling station. In one of the most incredible feats in the history of sailing and navigation, Shackleton sailed off with five other men on an 800-mile voyage in the open wooden lifeboat ‘James Caird’ on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916 arriving at South Georgia almost two weeks later (The image further below this narration shows the crew waving goodbye on April 24, 1916.) His second in command, John Robert Francis ‘Frank’ Wild remained in charge of the 21 other men on Elephant Island for more than four months while Shackleton led attempts to return with a rescue ship. In his memoir, Wild recalled ‘We gave them three hearty cheers and watched the boat getting smaller and smaller in the distance. Then seeing some of the party in tears, I immediately set them all to work.”
Indeed, there was much work for the stranded party. Because the island had no natural source of shelter, they constructed a shack and wind blocks from their remaining two lifeboats and pieces of canvas tents. To combat the perpetual darkness, they made lamps out of sardine tins, used surgical bandages for wicks, and burned seal blubber oil.
They hunted for penguins and seals, neither of which were plentiful during the autumn and winter months. The crew, many of whom were already ill and frost-bitten, were now also in danger of starvation. After four and a half months of waiting, one of the stranded men spotted a ship on August 30, 1916. The ship, led by Shackleton, was the borrowed tug boat Yelcho, from Punta Arenas, Chile, commanded by Luis Pardo, which broke through the ice surrounding the island to finally rescue all of the men who set out on the original expedition, none were lost.
Today, the island hosts one small research station occupied only during the summer by up to six scientists.
After learning about the above, to my Amazonian friends and colleagues I say… and I thought peak was tough!
My thought for myself…. what excuses do I truly have that stand between me and what I need or desire to accomplish, create, transform, overcome… … …. ?
April 24, 1916. NASA Archives.
As I mentioned earlier, I would circle back to an image I captured as we approached Point Wild (below).
Just under the red arrow is a tiny little monument and I couldn’t locate it clearly when we were on the other side of this island you see front and center so this is my only capture of it above. However, I researched and found this image below (and you can see close up the chinstrap on the penguins too if you click on the full-res image below).
A bust of Captain Luis Alberto Pardo, with a monolith and plaques, were placed at this point to celebrate the rescue of the survivors of the Endurance by the Yelcho. The inscription reads:
"Here on August 30th, 1916, the Chilean Navy cutter Yelcho commanded by Pilot Luis Pardo Villalón rescued the 22 men from the Shackleton Expedition who survived the wreck of the Endurance living for four and one half months in this Island".
This monument was placed here during the XXIVth Chilean Antarctic Scientific Expedition in 1987–88.
Credit: Andrew Shiva Location: 61° 5′ 58.88″ S, 54° 51′ 34.48″ W
As the boat turns to exit Point Wild, now the next point we will go around too is covered with the colonies of the penguins. We’re losing light due to clouds and fog so they’re a little grainy but sharing nonetheless.
But before I capture that other side, I hoof it as quick as I can to the highest deck of the boat to capture the penguins along the top of this rock to our port side and hence the drone-like view.
And fine, I’ll admit, I may have a growing obsession with penguins. And no, I’m not particularly close to these penguins like the ones I will experience in a few days. But, I just couldn’t get enough videos of them on the rocks and icebergs as we left this historical place.
Penguin Peak (yes, I made it up):
Video of the day:
I love watching the penguins ‘fly’ out of the water onto this iceberg. Extraordinary to me how they can climb this glassy slope of ice. I back out mid video and you can see all sorts of penguins swimming and jumping through the water.
Final image/video of the day. 41 seconds of the iceberg I probably watched for 10 minutes… amazing.
And now… we head towards the Drake Passage again. Will it be the Drake Lake, or the Drake Shake?
Tomorrow we will awake to some clues. We were fortunate to experience the Drake Lake when traveling south to Antarctica. It’s a full day at sea with our Silver Gala tomorrow evening as we head north to The Falkland Islands.
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