Notes on Endurance

Notes on Endurance

Having ppl like each other is important factor for assembling a team

Human will vs nature
Ship, arduous march vs the drift of ice pack

Spirit/morale vs immediate needs being satisfied (food, 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 vs ability to tolerate bad situation

Small joys of life in the most difficult situations

Some of the most mundane topics in some of the most miserable / desperate moment: eg asking Green if he was permitted to eat all he wants on the job when he was a pastry shef

I'd like to learn how to use a chronometer and a sextant

Shackleton had a lot to teach about 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 are 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."