Advertisement
Published: December 18th 2007
Edit Blog Post
OK, I know, I only updated my Travelblog a few days ago and already there is another instalment winging its way through cyber space as we speak. Well, that’s the benefit of being stuck on a little red ship travelling to Antarctica. There isn’t actually loads to do during our time as passengers on this ship so I thought I would give you all a little tour of the ship along with explaining what there is to do here.
First of all a little piece of history to explain about the man behind the name
‘Sir Ernest Shackleton’ Sir Ernest Shackleton is probably best known for leading a thousand mile open boat journey across the treacherous Southern Ocean after losing his ship to the crushing ice floes of the Weddell Sea. The story of the Endurance is truly amazing, but there is much more to admire about Shackleton. Even before he attempted his Trans-Antarctic Journey, Shackleton was considered an Edwardian Hero.
In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole, followed by Scott who died on the return journey. In 1914, Shackleton made his third trip to the Antarctic with the ship Endurance, planning to cross
Antarctica via the South Pole. Early in 1915, Endurance became trapped in the ice, and ten months later sank.
Shackleton's crew had already abandoned the ship to live on the floating ice. In April 1916, they set off in three small boats, eventually reaching Elephant Island. Taking five crew members, Shackleton went to find help. In a small boat, the six men spent 16 days crossing 1,300 km of ocean to reach South Georgia and then trekked across the island to a whaling station. The remaining men from the Endurance were rescued in August 1916. Not one member of the expedition died.
RRS Ernest Shackleton is a Royal Research Ship operated by the British Antarctic Survey. She is primarily a logistics ship used for the resupply of scientific stations in the Antarctic.
She was launched in 1995 having a displacement of 4028 tonnes and a total length of 80 meters.
That’s all the technical stuff out of the way, now, what to do while on board?
We are officially passengers while traveling South, due to being an external contracting company, so there is no work to be done on the journey. The first part of the trip
involves everyone trying to get their sea legs and stopping themselves from throwing up everywhere!
Luckily I don’t seem to suffer too bad with seasickness so my days soon turn into a little routine. Meals begin to become the only real event of the day so everything is planned around these.
0730 Breakfast, followed by a few cups of tea, read the days news in the papers, followed by some more cups of tea. Check internet, go whale watching.
1200 Lunch. Try and keep it light for later. Later, workout in gym, sauna.
1800 Dinner. Retire to movie room. This season we have been watching all the series of Scrubs, pretending its First Aid Training.
1930 Movie time on the Big Screen
2230 Retire to bed.
As you can see, it’s a hard life traveling South. However, its not all fun and games and at many a point we have to get serious and do some work. This includes lifeboat drills, Health & Safety meetings, Team briefings, Job explanations, Captains Rounds etc etc.
There is always the opportunity to have a nice stroll around deck at any time looking out for whales, birds and penguins. Also watching
the ship crashing through the ice packs is quite an amazing site.
That’s about it really. Yes, its not exactly hard but it’s the only way in to base. This time next week I will be grafting away on the Ice shelf fighting through 12 hour days in the snow and gales this continent has to offer. Also, Christmas is officially canceled and hopefully, all going to plan, we should manage at least 2 beers for New Years Eve. Woohooo, bring it on!!
Finally, a good quote.
For scientific leadership, give me Scott. For swift and efficient travel, Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get on your knees and pray for Shackleton.
By the end of this season, i just might be on my knees.
Thanks for the messages, keep them coming. Speak again soon, only not quite as soon as this one.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.128s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0334s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Mum
non-member comment
History lesson
Ian, Mr D and your old history teacher would be proud of you......... seeing as you never did any work there either!!!!! Love you millions xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx