I read Alfred Lansing's Endurance on the flight to Chile, on my way to board an Antarctica expedition. The timing felt perfect, so I captured the ideas that stayed with me—especially around optimism, patience, and what it means to stay human when everything is bleak.
- Having people like each other is a real advantage when assembling a team.
- Human will against nature: the drift of the ice pack versus the ship and the arduous march.
- Spirit and morale versus immediate needs such as food and warmth.
Though everyone was fully aware that their situation was becoming more critical by the hour, it was much easier to face danger on a reasonably full stomach.
- Hope versus the ability to tolerate a bad situation.
- Small joys still matter in the hardest situations.
- Even in miserable moments, the crew talked about mundane things—like Green asking if he could eat as much as he wanted while on pastry duty.
- I want to learn how to use a chronometer and a sextant.
- Shackleton knew how to assemble a team.
- The importance of feeling optimistic.
Macty [McCarthy] is the most irrepressable optimist I've ever met. When I relieve him at the helm, boat iced & seas pourg: down yr neck he informs me with a happy grin "It's a grand day sir" I was feeling a bit sour just before...
- The importance of being patient.
Thus, in the space of only an hour, or maybe a little more, the outlook on board the Caird was completely altered.
- The suffering is both pointless and destined.
Unlike the land, where courage and the simple will to endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most that he can hope for is not to be defeated.