A teenage stowaway, a daring adventurer, and an expedition to the most dangerous place on Earth
Learning Objective: After learning about the expedition, students write diary entries as if they are members of Ernest Shackleton’s crew.
Scene 1
April 1916, the Southern Ocean
George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images
Ernest Shackleton
SD1: The moon shines down on churning, inky water, where men in three lifeboats are being tossed about.
SD2: Giant chunks of ice hurtle toward the boats.
Ernest Shackleton: Row! Row! Row for your lives!
SD3: The crew struggles as sleet stings their cheeks.
SD1: Shackleton looks at his crew. Their lips are cracked and bloody, their clothes and beards crusted with ice.
Shackleton (to Worsley): We’ve no fresh water. The men haven’t slept in days. One more night on the open sea and I’m afraid some of the crew won’t make it.
Captain Worsley: It’s hopeless, Boss. We are at the mercy of Nature, and she cares not if we perish.
Bill Bakewell: The water is up to our ankles!
Tom Crean: Bail it out or we’ll sink!
SD2: Perce Blackborow tugs on Bakewell’s sleeve.
Perce Blackborow (shivering): I . . . I can’t feel my feet.
Bakewell: Hold on, my lad. Hold on.
Scene 2
October 1914, off the coast of Argentina
Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images
Perce Blackborow was just 18 when he snuck on board the Endurance.
SD3: A woman enters and speaks to the audience.
Peggy Blackborow: A year and a half earlier, young Perce Blackborow—who would one day be my father—was onboard the Endurance. What a grand ship she was! Three hundred tons, 144 feet long, powerful steam engine, fine living quarters.
SD1: The Endurance steams through the water. The sun sparkles overhead.
Peggy: The famous explorer Ernest Shackleton was sailing from Argentina to Antarctica. Then he was going to trek 1,500 miles across the continent via the South Pole. It had never been done before. And oh, how my father longed to be part of it!
SD2: On board the Endurance, the crew swabs the deck and hauls ropes.
SD3: Shackleton and Worsley pore over a map.
Worsley: The ice is thick this year.
Shackleton: Aye, Skipper. But this ship was built to smash through those polar ice packs. You’ll see.
SD1: Frank Wild drags Perce in by the collar.
Frank Wild: Boss, look what we found hiding in a locker.
Worsley: A stowaway!
Shackleton: Of all the idiotic, ill-advised, thick-headed—I should throw you overboard!
Worsley: We can’t toss the lad, and it’s too late to turn back. He’ll have to come with us.
SD2: Shackleton gives Perce a steely-eyed look.
Shackleton: Have you got experience in snow and ice?
Perce: No, sir, but I can learn.
Shackleton: Learn? You’re barmy! There’s no telling what may happen to us out there—we could freeze or starve or drown. I cannot guarantee you will return alive.
Perce: A life without adventure is no kind of life.
Shackleton: We get hungry on these journeys. The first to be eaten are stowaways.
SD3: Perce considers Shackleton’s stocky frame.
Perce (sheepishly): With all due respect, sir, the crew would get more meat off you.
SD1: Shackleton hides a smile.
Shackleton: I believe we can find a place for you in the galley.
Perce: You won’t regret it, Boss!
David Merron/500px Prime/Getty Images
The Place
Vast and frozen, Antarctica is about the size of the United States and Mexico combined. It is almost completely covered in ice—nearly three miles thick in places. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica was 144 degrees Fahrenheit below zero!
Scene 3
January 1915, the Weddell Sea
SD2: The Endurance rams an ice floe—a sheet of floating ice.
SD3: The ice cracks apart, and the ship plows forward.
Peggy: The Weddell Sea was a maze of ice. Day and night, the crew made their way through the floes. Perce kept busy preparing three meals a day for 28 hungry men.
SD1: In the ship’s galley, Perce grabs a potato from a massive pile. He whistles as he peels it with a knife.
Charlie Green: I’ve never seen anyone so happy to peel potatoes.
Perce: I’ve got nothing to complain about.
I want to prove to the Boss that he was right to keep me ’round.
SD2: Up on deck, Shackleton looks through binoculars.
Shackleton: We’re making good progress, Skipper.
Worsley: According to my calculations, we could reach Antarctica tomorrow.
Peggy: But that was not to be. That very night, the ice got so thick, it closed around the ship and trapped it.
Wild: All hands on deck! Grab whatever you can—poles, axes, crowbars! We’ve got to hack our way out!
SD3: Members of the crew hop down onto the ice.
Peggy: They attacked that ice for days and days.
SD1: Shackleton calls up to the crow’s nest.
Shackleton: Crean, what do you see? More icebergs?
Crean: Nothing but bergs, bergs, and more bergs!
Peggy: The ice drifted with the current. And every day, it carried the Endurance farther from land—farther from Antarctica, farther from their dream.
Perce: We’re stuck as stuck can be, Boss.
Shackleton: Aye. That we are, lad. That we are.
ullstein bild via Getty Images (Endurance)
The Disaster
In the early 20th century, there was a race to be the first to reach the South Pole. Though Ernest Shackleton never made it, he did come as close as 75 miles. This photograph shows the Endurance being crushed by ice.
Scene 4
October 1915, drifting on the ice
Peggy: The Endurance was stuck in the ice for more than nine months. Temperatures dipped to 40 below zero. But at least the crew had the safety of the ship. Then one day . . .
SD2: Worsley is peering through binoculars when—
SD3: A large hunk of ice slams into the ship, causing it to shudder.
SD1: The ship’s timbers groan in agony.
Wild: We’ve got a leak!
Shackleton: Start the pumps! Get the water out!
SD2: Perce appears.
Perce: We’re flooding belowdecks, Boss. The ship’s beams are starting to crack.
SD3: Shackleton pulls Worsley aside.
Shackleton: This may be the end of the Endurance.
Worsley: Aye, the ship is doomed.
Shackleton: What the ice gets, the ice keeps.
Worsley: But what about the expedition?
Shackleton: All that matters now is saving the crew.
SD1: More ice slams into the ship. Its sides buckle.
SD2: Shackleton signals to Wild.
Shackleton: Move the lifeboats onto the ice along with whatever food and equipment you can grab.
Peggy: The crew abandoned the ship. Standing on the ice, they watched in stunned silence as the Endurance broke apart and began to sink into the freezing sea.
Shackleton: The ice may have gotten our ship, but that doesn’t mean it will get us.
Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images
The Year on Ice
When the Endurance became trapped in ice in 1915, the crew worked hard to try to set the ship free—but they were not successful.
Scene 5
November 1915–April 1916, on the ice
Peggy: For five months, the crew lived on the floating ice with only thin tents to shield them from the weather.
SD3: We see a montage of the crew dragging the lifeboats across uneven terrain.
SD1: They are pummeled by snow and wind.
SD2: Sometimes the floating ice breaks apart. The crew must scramble to move their gear before it—or they—are swallowed by the frigid water.
Peggy: At long last, they got their lifeboats to open water. They thought they were safe. But the worst was still to come. . . .
Scene 6
April 1916, Elephant Island
SD3: We jump to the morning after the events of Scene 1. The three lifeboats are still afloat, and the men, though utterly exhausted, are alive.
Peggy: Somehow, the crew survived that awful night. And when dawn came . . .
Worsley: Look! Rocks!
Shackleton: Elephant Island!
SD1: They row to a beach.
Shackleton: We have not touched land in 18 months. I think the youngest of us should have the honor of being first.
SD2: Shackleton hoists Perce over the side of the lifeboat. Perce falls to his hands and knees.
Shackleton: What’s the matter? Get up.
Perce: I can’t, Boss. My feet . . .
SD3: Shackleton looks ashamed. He motions to Crean, who helps Perce onto the island.
Peggy: Never had the crew seen a bleaker place. But it was land, so it seemed like paradise to them . . . at least at first.
SD1: The men try to rest as wind rips holes in their tents.
SD2: Shackleton gathers his crew.
Shackleton: No one knows we’re on this island. No one lives here. No ships come here. If we do nothing, we will all perish.
Crean: But what can we do?
Shackleton: Six of us will take one lifeboat and attempt to sail to South Georgia Island.
Crean: How far is that?
Worsley: 800 miles.
Bakewell: And the rest of us? You’re leaving us here?
Shackleton: I will not abandon you. If we make it, I will get a ship and come back for you all.
Doc: Take the lad. His frostbite is getting worse. He needs proper medical care.
Shackleton: We can only take those fit for the journey.
Perce: It’s all right. I don’t want to be a burden.
Peggy: A few days later, Shackleton sailed away from Elephant Island. My father and everyone else left behind watched as six of their friends shrank to tiny specs in the monstrous sea.
Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images
The crew plays soccer on the ice.
Scene 7
August 1916, Elephant Island
SD3: The men huddle in a small hut made of stones and two overturned lifeboats.
Peggy: They called their makeshift hut “the Snuggery.” The 22 men lived in there for more than four months.
Bakewell: Do you think they’re ever coming back?
Perce: If anyone can do it, the Boss can.
Green: What if they never even made it to South Georgia Island? The uncertainty is driving me mad. Are we going to starve to death, one by one?
Perce: Hey, what’s the first thing you’ll eat when you get home?
Wild: Apple pudding with cream on top.
Bakewell: A fresh peach!
Green: I’d give my left foot for some eggs.
SD1: The men shoot a look at Green.
Green: Oh! Sorry, lad.
Perce (smiling): No need to apologize.
Peggy: My father’s frostbite had gotten so bad that Doc had to amputate. I’ll spare you the gory details. His mates gave him some chloroform, and when he woke up, he had five fewer toes.
Perce: I just wish I could do more than lie here like a useless rag.
Bakewell: You just lifted us out of despair. I wouldn’t call that useless.
Perce: It would be better if I could lift ice to melt for drinking water.
Green: Listen, mate, you never balked at a single task I gave you. In fact, you were happy to do it. That kind of attitude is worth more than muscles sometimes.
SD2: There is shouting outside. Doc bursts into the hut.
Doc: A ship! I see a ship!
SD3: The men scramble onto the beach.
SD1: Meanwhile, out on the water, Shackleton looks through binoculars at the camp.
Worsley: How many men do you see?
Shackleton: Two. No, I see six—eight! More are coming!
SD2: The men wave and cheer.
All Crew: We are saved!
SD3: Bakewell and Green carry Perce out of the hut.
Worsley: Are they all there, Boss?
Shackleton: . . . 20, 21, 22. They’re all there! All of them!
SD1: Shackleton leaps into a small boat and rows toward the shore, shouting.
Shackleton: Are you all well?
All Crew (shouting): All well!
SD2: Shackleton reaches the beach. The men surround him, laughing and hugging each other.
SD3: Shackleton walks over to Perce.
Shackleton: Still glad you stowed away on my ship?
Perce: I’ll never regret it. (He pauses.) And I never doubted that you’d come back.
SD1: Shackleton’s face is full of emotion.
Shackleton: That’s the highest compliment you could have paid me.
PA Images via Getty Images
The Rescue
The men wave goodbye as Shackleton and five others leave Elephant Island to get help. Shackleton never gave up on rescuing his stranded crew. It took more than four months for him to get back to the crew, which he finally did with a ship provided by Chile. Shackleton didn’t know if he would find the men alive, but incredibly, not one crew member was lost.
Epilogue
SD2: A spotlight appears. Peggy steps into it.
Peggy: The crew arrived safely in Chile, where a giant crowd welcomed them. My father recovered and was able to walk again. He eventually went home to Wales and got married and had six children. I was the third.
SD3: Shackleton appears in a second spotlight.
Peggy: Five years later, Shackleton set out once more. But he never did cross Antarctica. His heart gave out on South Georgia Island, and he was buried there.
SD1: In a third spotlight, Perce appears.
Perce: They say our story is one of the greatest survival stories of all time. And it was because of our Boss. He felt that no risk was too great if it could bring his crew home.
Writing Prompt
Choose a member of the crew. Then write a diary entry as that crewmember at any point in the story. Be sure to convey what is going on and how the character is feeling.
This play was originally published in the November 2021 issue.
1. PREPARING TO READ (15 minutes)
2. READING AND DISCUSSING (45 minutes)
3. SKILL BUILDING AND WRITING (30 minutes)
