We arrived in Stromness on foot, crossing the green, boggy plains below Shackleton Falls to reach the shore where we rejoined our ship – aptly named Endurance, after the ship Shackleton used for his attempted trek across Antarctica. We had just hiked in his footsteps from Fortuna Bay. Read on!
On the morning of 20 May 1916, when Shackleton arrived with Tom Crean and Frank Worsley, they were so starved and bedraggled after 36 hours of crossing the mountains and glaciers of South Georgia – after previously spending a week sailing the Earth’s roughest seas 800 miles from Elephant Island – after previously spending a winter camping on ice floes, adrift in the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica – that children fled from their sight and the men of the whaling station could not recognize them. This station, Stromness, had been Shackleton’s last port of call 18 months earlier, when they set off on their grand expedition. Now, Shackleton hoped he could arrange to rescue his men left on the other side of South Georgia and an even larger group on Elephant Island. It is an incredible story, but he managed to rescue them all.
Today, a sunny fall morning in early March, the whaling station was a dilapidated collection of rusting buildings and machinery. Off-limits to visitors, because the buildings are unstable and include asbestos, we contented ourselves with exploring the edges and visiting with the Gentoo penguins and fur seals. I was especially entranced by one curious fur seal [video]. Check out the rest of the gallery!
David Kotz 