Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 to 1917 attempt to cross Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea via the South Pole. The ship Endurance became beset in the Weddell Sea pack ice in January 1915 and was crushed and sank in November 1915. The 28 men camped on the ice, reached Elephant Island by boat, and Shackleton with five others made an 800-nautical-mile open-boat passage to South Georgia in the James Caird; all survived.