SHACKLETON EXPEDITION

Nelson Evening Mail, 5 August 1916, Page 5

SHACKLETON EXPEDITION

DASH FROM ELEPHANT ISLAND.

BOAT'S CREIVV AIRRIVE IN LONDON

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.)

[LONDON 1 , Aug. 4. Monish, Vincent and McCarthy, three of the Endurance's crew who volunteered to accompany Sir Ernest S'hackleton in a small boat from Elephant Island, have arrived in London.

Monish, in an interview, was optimistic regarding thd chances of those marooned on Elephant Island, especially undter the able leadership of Mr Wild. "The worst feature," he says, "is that the marooned men may think that our small boat foundered 1 , for there was only one chance in a hundred that the boat would get through; "Wihen we first landed at Elephant Island (Mr Wild prospected and found a camp in the north-west of the island, which we christened Wild's Beach. It was wild' in every sense. The wind blew everlastingly and we had to. crawl on our hand's and knees to make headwav.

"'ln 'Weddell Sea it was absolute calm, and' .we called. it _ the windless sea, 'tout on Elephant Island it was always blowing gales. "The "journey was worse than we expected, but when things seemed hopeless Sir 'Ernest Shackleton rose as usual to the occasion. 'We are going to get there all right-,'' he said, and we did. '"We had the greatest difficulty in -making South Georgia, encountering enormous seas on a dead! lee shore. If Sir Ernest Shackleton had inot set a. reefed sail we would not have- been alive xiow. We had to tale continuously. ; The wind shifted at a critical moment in- our favour. Our water was exhausted, and as we reached' the wrong side of South Georgia- we were all frost bitten. We managed to kill three albatrosses, which gave /us a supply of needed food'. We had tasted (nothing nicer since we -had dog cutlets when the Endurance was smashed'.''

PERILOUS JOURNEY.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.)

(Rec. Aug. 5, 9.5 a.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 4. Monish tells a thrilling story Sbacldeton's perilous "voyage from Elephant Island. He says it was one chance in a hundred that a. small boat could ever get through, and only a miracle that they escaped' drowning. Thev decided to push oni to the nearest island. They -fitted tihe largest boat with box lids and canvas, 'but it seemed, a crazy l craft, in which they) sailed 750 miles through ice and gales, the ice constantly forming on the boat. One man was employed all the time cutting away. They had 1 to .■jettisora supplies to keep aifloat. They lost their sea anchor: owing to the rope being put by the ice. They never saw Shackleton in better form than that day, despite the fearful peril. We were frostbitten and famished with hunger. We ;-had no water when we reached South Georgia.