Shackleton

Just for fun, today I decided to catch an IMAX movie at Exploris in Raleigh. I went in the evening, after the museum was closed, so there weren't too many people in the theater, which is how I like it. The film was "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure," and the tale told was quite amazing. Shakleton planned to cross the whole of Antarctica on foot (in 1914). His boat was trapped in ice and destroyed, his crew camped on an ice flow for a few months, and traveled 7 days by life boat to an uninhabited island. But that was only the beginning. Shakleton, with a few other men, then sailed 800 miles in a life boat to South Georgia island (a remote whaling station) and made the first ever crossing of the island (filled with dangerous caves and crevices). Then he traveled back to the island where most of his men were staying and rescued them. At the end of this 15 month ordeal, the number of expedition members dead was 0. Yes, zero.

A biography of Shakleton has been added to my Amazon.com wishlist.