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S7.E6 - Endurance - Part 6
20 Plays5 days ago
Stehlin leads our discussion of Part 6 from Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing.
- (1:30) The guys share their general thoughts on Part 6 of the book
- (9:44) What component of the voyage sounded most miserable?
- (22:20) This story is considered to be one of the greatest expedition survival achievements in history. What were your thoughts when you read that they made it to the island safely?
- (27:15) What is your personal greatest achievement?
Next week we’ll discuss Part 7 (pages 323 - 353).
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See you next week! Until then - read, reflect, and connect.
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Transcript
Motivational tactics: The shame troll
00:00:33
Speaker
With 2025 here, do you need a little extra accountability this new year? Say you've made the same New Year's resolution for the past five years and still can't seem to buckle down. Well, look no further. Now introducing the shame troll. This little troll doll isn't for the sensitive. This is for those that want that hard truth.
00:00:55
Speaker
The troll doll is manufactured and programmed to detect foods that are put on a do not eat list. Say you want to stay away from Twinkies. Program that into your shame troll and sure enough, the next time you open a Twinkie, it'll pester you with comments like, are you sure you want to eat that? Come on you bum, throw it away. And you are what you eat, you Twinkie.
00:01:17
Speaker
With all that shame, you'll surely put that Twinkie down 2025. Let's kick some butt and stay off the Twinkies with shame troll.
The crew's daring journey begins
00:01:27
Speaker
nice that's good i like it We are currently reading through endurance, the true story of Shackleton's incredible voyage to the Antarctic by Alfred Lansing. This week we read and are discussing book six. Let's get into a summary. So we last left off with the majority of the crew, 22 men left on Elephant Island, awaiting the return of a rescue boat. This section tells the story of the small group of men that left on the James Card, including most notably Captain Ernest Shackleton and navigator Frank Worsley, who left for South Georgia Island.
00:02:00
Speaker
They were beginning a journey from Elephant Island with the hopeful destination being the small whaling port of South George Island, a distance of 870 miles. Their ship, the James Card, was a 22 foot long and 6 foot wide vessel they hoped would bring them through the most treacherous stretch of ocean in the world, the Drake Passage.
00:02:17
Speaker
located off the southern tip of South America. Some descriptions of the section of ocean describe winds of 150 to 200 miles an hour, waves exceeding 90 feet high, and the usual cold and stormy weather that has become all too familiar at this point for the crew.
00:02:33
Speaker
In addition to the extreme conditions, navigation was nearly impossible. Frank Worsley, the lead navigator, utilized a sextant for determining location in addition to various charts and maps. This in conjunction with the nearly constant cloudy skies meant that they could only determine their location and thus the distance from their final destination once every couple days.
00:02:52
Speaker
Navigating accurately, the South George Island seemed like a nearly impossible task, and missing the island meant sure death. The voyage was truly miserable. Extreme weather, constant work between bailing the boat and controlling the sail, little no sleep, and being drenched constantly. The men grew weak from the work, but also from minimal food and lack of physical activity for their legs.
00:03:14
Speaker
Finally, though, they see South Georgia. I can't even imagine the excitement as they're approaching the island. They are as close as three miles away, but their hopes are quickly dashed as the wind and waves pick up again. Worsley and Shackleton did not think that they were going to make it while they were so close to completing the journey. After over two grueling days of fighting the wind, waves, and the fear that their ship would be thrown into the cliffs of South Georgia Island, they finally made land. They had completed this 870-mile journey, and it took them 17 days.
Endurance amidst perilous conditions
00:03:43
Speaker
So overall thoughts from this section or anything that I missed that you guys wanted to note or share. Have you guys seen videos or pictures of the Drake Passage?
00:03:56
Speaker
now but No, but I want to. Yes. It looks, it looks terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. You guys have all probably seen it, but it's like videos of a hundred foot waves. And usually the video is from like this huge ocean liners or barges or whatever. And they just look so tiny and they're getting rocked by these ginormous waves. And it's, there's like no end in sight. yeah I cannot imagine being on that tiny of a boat.
00:04:26
Speaker
And having to use oars to cross that sea. Sounds so awful. yeah it's like There's a part of me that's seems like, no way this part of the book is real, you know? yeah like After looking at some of those photos, I'm like, no way this rinky dink little boat was able to withstand and like stay on top of these waves this whole time. But I don't know, man.
00:04:50
Speaker
My mind went to the perfect storm. So you guys probably remember that movie. It came out and, you know, probably 20 years ago now, 25 years ago. And yeah, I mean, that's a lot of like CGI and stuff, but that is probably like almost exactly like what it would look like just being on these like massive waves on the super tiny boat. Like I'm sure there was times when the boat like was like perpendicular to the to like the normal surface of the the ocean. It just sounds awful. Yeah. Yeah. And then you couple that with all the strain, the frostbite, the lack of sleep, everything that those guys went through. And then having to do that, it's pretty amazing. They even survived.
00:05:32
Speaker
The only thing I'd comment on is just if I have one frustration with this book, it's my own ignorance about sailing and what the terminology means. And yeah, I, it sounds like the Drake passage is brutal. It's hard for me to understand just how brutal it was.
Navigational challenges in Drake Passage
00:05:54
Speaker
But from what I gathered, the hardest part, it would have seemed like it at least for me is, and if you in the book, they have like ah the map of their route. And this whole time I thought they had landed on the Island South of the Georgia Island.
00:06:12
Speaker
But reading this, I realized the swell or whatever, again, i'm I'm not good with my terminology, basically like sucked them to this other island. And from the book's description, they all thought they were going to die. Like they thought they were going to just get smashed into that island. So they actually didn't land on that island. They just came so close to it on the map. It looks like they did.
00:06:35
Speaker
But that would have just been so defeating just looking at that route. It's like, we're three miles away. We're one mile away. And then they can't land. And then they get swept back out further away from the island to this other island where there's nowhere to land. And like, can you just imagine making it that far? You're that close.
00:06:58
Speaker
And then one of the guys recorded, this is it. This is how we're going to go. And then somehow they survived. I just, I don't know. that I just can't imagine mentally going through that. Yeah. I mean, they mentioned the three miles reference, like they were like, that would take like an hour or even less. And yet this happens and it literally takes them over 48 hours to then get in for there from there. Be very frustrating. I enjoyed the, the riding style with.
00:07:27
Speaker
with how part five was from the guys on the islands point of view and then part six is you go back in time right because part five ends and it's august or whatever and then part six starts when it's april i think you're going four months back in time and you're getting to see it from their lens I thought that that was really cool and it kept me on the edge of my seat just reading that and and the Drake Passage just being like this monster that they had to overcome and this battle that they were under. It was ah really cool reading this part, so I enjoyed it for sure. Who is the real hero of this story?
00:08:14
Speaker
Frank Worsley, man. Yeah, he's really good at sailing for sure. Worsley is the man. Worsley, it's got to be the hero. He's the man. Yeah. I mean, it just seems so unlikely that you're... So I looked up like the the length of the island that they're landing on, and it was 106 miles, so it's... Who's it got the width to?
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, that was like 25 miles. So it's much longer than it is wide. I don't like it. But I think I think it's like 106 miles, which is a pretty big like length. But even still, it just seems it would be hard, hard to grasp the idea of reaching this island. But I talk about how if they miss this island, because as I think Garrett mentioned and I think Rob mentioned in in the last episode, they're using the wind to to bring them, and if they miss the island, they're literally an open ocean, and there's 3,000 miles until the next land, and that's the southern tip of Africa. So it's like, if you miss it, you're you are dead, without a doubt.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, let's get in the next section here.
Reflecting on Shackleton's hardships
00:09:25
Speaker
So the crew had already endured an unimaginable amount of suffering to this point, but this journey sounded like the most miserable part of the expedition so far. In reading this section, what component of this particular portion of the voyage sounded most miserable? For me, I think would be those last three miles. Yeah. Being so close and not knowing if you were going to make it.
00:09:48
Speaker
I mean, Garrett, you talk about like being impatient. I mean, certainly if it was warmer, just jump off the boat and start swimming, you know, like it's literally. Are they going to be able to make it? I mean, could you imagine going 800 plus miles and getting to the last little stretch and then you don't, there's no way to get in. There's no way to make it. I mean, the book kind of ended. There was all this like drama of that last bit and then, Oh, all of a sudden Shackleton steps on land and it's like, Oh, come on. It wasn't that easy. Like, you know, did anybody kind of read it like that?
00:10:27
Speaker
No, yeah, for sure. Yeah. I would have wanted to just like crash into some rocks and hug the land. I would have just been like, I i don't really care if we don't have a boat anymore after this. I just want to get, get over there. So, I mean, it I probably took a lot of discipline for them to actually do it right and not just kind of go in and say, I'm so thirsty. I'm so hungry. I have to get dry. Yeah. Whatever it takes. Yeah. I mean, I think Rob kind of hits on it there too, where,
00:10:55
Speaker
There, it seems like there's been ample opportunities for them to take a little bit more risk to end things or stop things, but the like patients to continue to wait, continue to wait, to take this sale down, to realize that the win is even though it's going, bringing them quicker.
00:11:13
Speaker
Well, it's just slightly off of the trajectory. I think that kind of patience is just amazing. Yeah. First off, every part sounds the most miserable. It's almost impossible to choose one side note. You asked other thoughts about the book or this section. I think the more I read this, the more I feel. I don't know what the right term is, but just disheartened. Like, I don't think anyone could do this nowadays. No one.
00:11:43
Speaker
I just don't think anyone could. And I was going to say the most miserable part would have been being surrounded by water and about to die of thirst.
00:11:57
Speaker
But then I'm also like, no, I think being so perpetually soaked in freezing water, that'd be the worst. I just can't pick one. I think being thirsty, working for a drinkware company, being thirsty sounds rough, but then being surrounded by water everywhere you look. You can throw a plug in Garrett, go ahead for it. something think you want to Shout out to single modern.
00:12:23
Speaker
Shout out to, shout out to the new company we just launched, DrankTrevvy.com. Hydration should never be boring. So let me, I'll stick with the water, but honestly, all of them. All of the above. For sure. So on on this note, for you guys, when in your life have you been most physically uncomfortable?
00:12:46
Speaker
man, there was a time when I had to sleep on the floor for like three days when I was moving. That was pretty rough. Let's see how like pathetic that sounds compared. The Snizzle crib was pretty uncomfortable. I'm not going to lie. The Snizzle crib, AKA the best hint was pretty uncomfortable.
00:13:16
Speaker
So we went hard, dude. We, we went Goggins level on that, on that sleeping surface.
00:13:24
Speaker
When I had pancreatitis, had to get my gallbladder taken. The worst pain in my stomach I've ever experienced in my life. It's awful.
00:13:35
Speaker
I would actually say one of the days when I was working for FedEx where it was like 102 and like 100% humidity outside and no AC in the truck. I had to go home at like 1pm that day because I felt like I was about to die. That was pretty brutal. Yeah. Shout out to the FedEx.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Shout out. Work for them. Working conditions. Good times. You really built me into the man I am today. Shout out to all our current and former employers. yeah Except for Zynax.
Personal tales of endurance
00:14:13
Speaker
They can suck an egg.
00:14:19
Speaker
i have I actually have a pretty decent story. It's not a hundred and We're 574 days at sea, but when I studied abroad in China, we were trying to travel from Qingdao to Xi'an where the terracotta warriors are and the start of the ah Silk Road is. It was during China's week-long equivalent of our July 4th. We have one Independence Day. They have like a full week. and Basically, we did not
00:14:54
Speaker
reserve train tickets the day that they opened, like they released tickets a week in advance and we got confused and they were sold out when we went to buy them. And we were college students, didn't want to pay an airfare ticket. And we did the next thing, which was buy a bus ticket. It was supposed to be a 13 hour overnight bus rides. It's like, okay, if I like sleep over half the time, that's not horrible. Let me paint a picture of what this bus is.
00:15:23
Speaker
An overnight bus in China in 2011 is a ah big bus with bunk beds, three rows of bunk beds along the entire like bus.
00:15:36
Speaker
But there's not like a nice lovely, uh, bathroom. It's like a porter potty in the middle that like smells like a urinal at a campsite. um And then the there were three drivers, you know, in case you fall asleep, they'd swap in and out and they were like chain smokers.
00:15:56
Speaker
okay And then the beds were, and I'm not mean stereotypical, it just was what it was. The beds were made for an average height of a Chinese person, which is about six inches shorter than me. And I could not physically fit like full extension into the bunk bed into my bed and so and like to make sure that you don't kick the head of the passenger in front of you they had it like a car like walled off so i had to like have my legs out into the aisle
00:16:33
Speaker
And it was a long journey. Thankfully I was positioned where I didn't smell the smoke and I didn't smell the urinal, but they took an extra three hours. So it was a 16 hour bus ride and it was just, it was long. It sounds awful on my first backpacking trip. So this was probably like 20, 2014, 2015. I was down in the watchtow mountains down by Garrett. It's like, uh,
00:17:02
Speaker
I guess that's part of Oklahoma and I could send Oklahoma. Yeah. And there was this, uh, this loop that I was doing with a couple of friends, Steven, Steven Gregory was actually part of it. And, uh, a guy was in grad school with, and it was like a 35 mile thing that we're going to do two nights, three days. And we were gonna on the second night.
00:17:25
Speaker
We were going to meet. So Ruth was in Little Rock and at the time for an internship and we're going to meet her at a specific site because specific campsite on the on this loop that we're going to do this 35 mile loop. And so there was like a destination that we like had to be at and like no cell phone service and that kind of thing.
00:17:42
Speaker
And we started the hike late, and then it ended up like raining. um And there was like some chance of rain, but it literally ended up raining like the whole first like two and a half days. So we got maybe a couple hours of hiking without rain.
00:18:00
Speaker
But with the rain, there was also like all these stream crossings, I think it was like 20 to 25 stream crossings. And without rain, they would have been like ankle deep, but some of them were like, almost chest high, like no exaggeration. And so we have to get to this specific site. And so we're like,
00:18:17
Speaker
Hiking quickly with like all this gear on, it's raining on us. um We started late like the first day, so I think we ended up having to hike like something like 25 miles the second day like with all this backpacking gear. and It's just pouring rain. We're going through these stream crossings and we ended up getting to the place like where we were going to meet them, but we were like three hours later than I had anticipated us being. and Ruth and a friend was joining her. They they weren't there.
00:18:43
Speaker
And so we like crawl into tents. It's like super cold and rainy and just miserable. And all your clothes are soaked and you know because you're carrying all your stuff for the day. Everything is wet. And yeah, it was just like one of the most like miserable nights. And then on top of feeling so physically uncomfortable, I felt just so bad because I couldn't tell Ruth. I couldn't contact Ruth. I don't know where she was at. She didn't know where I was at. She was like that fear too. And so we had to finish like the last few miles of the hike the next morning.
00:19:10
Speaker
And was finally able to like contact her like an hour or two after we got back into self-service and I found out that her and her friend went to the campsite and waited for like two and a half hours and had left like minutes, minutes before we got there. He has my watch and and it was like we got there at like 8.50 something PM and they had left.
00:19:33
Speaker
Like she was like, oh yeah, we probably left around like 8 45. It's like, are you kidding me? Definitely. It definitely was a fun, fun story um to tell. But I think all of us can relate with those sort of things or, or travel the most because air travel is just so uncomfortable these days unless you want to spend a crazy amount of money. You got you medical dudes know what a pilot needle abscess is. Yes. Dude, I had one of those.
00:20:03
Speaker
that had to have been one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever had. Getting that thing like oozed out and then having to like shove gauze up it for a week, painful. I don't even want to know. Dude, that lower back pain I had after that deadlift injury in 2016 was like laying on your bed. You're just like, one,
Discussing greatest achievements
00:20:30
Speaker
two,
00:20:31
Speaker
Three. Oh, shit. Was not after you were trying to break your 700 pound. Did you decide to finally go for 705 and just couldn't do it? No comment. andone shout-out The poll that we did yesterday, 86% of people said being a provider and emotionally stable was more masculine than Deadlifting, 700 pounds, doing cart maintenance and chest hair. Dalen, I feel like you already know this, but chest hair did get two votes. One of which was Ruth yeah and the other was Gus Gibby.
00:21:19
Speaker
ruth Ruth, so Ruth actually did that. It wasn't me. And I was like, why would you, like, why is that more, is that more manly? And she's like, women physically can't grow chest hair, but they can provide and be be emotionally stable.
00:21:37
Speaker
some women could deadlift 700 pounds i know but they can't grow they can't grow chest hair though in the same okay well i don't know man it depends on uh There's a lot of things going on growing around there. You never know. ah So Rob kind of mentioned this a little bit already, but when they finally saw land, Shackleton was quoted as simply saying, we've done it. Many of you, this voyage is one of the greatest achievements in Antarctic and oceanic exploration. I can even imagine the feeling when seeing the island and then landing on the shore, what thoughts did you have on reading that they had made it safely? And then what do you feel like your comparisons life? What is your greatest achievement?
00:22:18
Speaker
Man, why you gotta ask me that question? That's too hard. Let's start with the simple one. so what what like What was your thought as you as you read and that they had reached land? What I thought was the being in data a lot with my job and statistical analysis and nowadays You hear things. The probability of this thing happening is X percent. Is that Trump getting struck by lightning? No, it wasn't. yikes that' bad Yeah, No, I just mean like, what was the statistical probability when their boat got stuck in that ice flow?
00:23:03
Speaker
that they would live and all of them live. One, one millionth of 1%. I'm not exaggerating. I just can't believe you were talking about the Drake Passage. Every scenario, the Worsley guy navigating them accurately to the island, 870 miles away. Are you kidding me? ah Everything was a fraction of 1%.
00:23:32
Speaker
Success rate and then they did it over and over. I mean That was what I thought the author ends each part with Like a five-word sentence that is so nonchalant that just makes you laugh at the end and it was I think they're like epic though Yeah, they are but they but he he plays it off like super nonchalant where he's just like I Yeah, they landed. There was a stream. They bent down and drank it, you know? It was life and death to get to that water. You know? Like, no overselling it. Just super... I just think they always finish the parts super well, but... Yeah, I mean, Garrett, to your point, I'm surprised nobody's dead, yeah, at this point.
00:24:22
Speaker
You know? Like surely somebody would have died over a year and a half if people were to try this today, you know? But with all that global warming, you know, it's it's probably way, way warmer. There's probably no ice flows that even are out there now. data stack I mean, they're basically in, you know, according to Al Gore.
00:24:44
Speaker
Al Gore. You know, when something horrible happens, you're like in disbelief. Like, you just can't process it for a while. That's probably how he felt, but kind of the other way around. Like, just he probably felt like, I swear we were going to die. And this can't be real, you know, like I must be in heaven or dreaming or something like that, because there's no way we made it is probably how I would have felt. Yeah, I imagine just being overcome with emotions, especially in this scenario. And I wonder if that happened.
00:25:18
Speaker
No, I'm sure. I hear that. ah Definitely. There had to have been some like wave of relief. But from how the authors describe Shackleton, I imagine he's too focused and what we'll learn in book seven is OK. We're halfway there. Now we got to get everybody else back.
00:25:37
Speaker
I don't think he he did not seem to be one like we did it. Let's celebrate. I bet some of the other guys were like, yes. And like this isn't this isn't time because again, based on that map, it looks like they had to then like hike over the island to get to the other side. I just can't wait to read this next part. What would be really cruel, though, is, it you know, those movies that are like a dream the whole time and the the main character wakes up and it was all fake.
00:26:06
Speaker
If that's what happened here, Shackleton just dreamt the whole thing. I think Shackleton's like, just another Thursday.
00:26:19
Speaker
I don't think he I don't think his reaction is the same as obviously what ours would be. Yeah. See so much more hardened. Which one of us would be the best at surviving this whole voyage though? Not me. I mean, Garrett's an Eagle Scout.
00:26:36
Speaker
Probably Garrett. True. Yeah. Totally. You have the most chance here though. I was thinking, uh, I was thinking Stalen. All the long distance, like... The cold though, man. The cold. I feel like Fles is pretty tough for the cold after all of his ice baths.
00:26:54
Speaker
Well, in kind of in in closing, does anyone want to share a greatest achievement? Maybe just if one person has something they want to share? Becoming a dad. Hell yeah. Boom. That's good.
00:27:06
Speaker
Getting married. Getting through residency. My wife's residency. Family. Mental health comebacks. a That's good. I think for for me, what I think of is like getting through some marital conflict that we had a couple years ago, and then just family stuff in general. There's just so many huge accomplishments to choose from. I just can't choose one. you know
00:27:31
Speaker
Catching those waves. Some gnarly waves, and there's this one time where... Yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna have to think about it. That's hard. That's our question. Will you record it for us, though? Yeah, hold on. Let me use my phone.
00:27:50
Speaker
Got him! That's my greatest accomplishment for you, bud.