25th of August
Historical Antarctic Pictures and Events
Ernest Shackleton, Trans Antarctic Expedition on the ship Endurance, 1914 - 1917
1916 - Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean and Frank Worsley set sail for Elephant Island in their fourth attempt to rescue the crew of the Endurance. Their boat is a tug "Yelcho" loaned by the Chilean government and captained by Luis Pardo. The small vessel was entirely unfit for Antarctic waters, there was no radio, proper heating, electric lighting, or double hull, it had to make the 500-mile (800 km) crossing of the Drake Passage in the depths of the Antarctic winter, it was already old and too fragile to touch ice but winter was waning and there was a chance to get through.
