Chapter 2
WHERE IS THERE?
There is a land where there is no more sea—our faces are steadfastly set towards it; we are going to the place of which the Lord hath spoken.v In 1914 Ernest Shackleton headed toward the Antarctica on his ship, “The Endurance,” with the purpose of being the first man to cross the Antarctica. Sailing out of South Georgia toward Wendell Sea on the northwestern side of Antarctica, disaster confronted them. The expedition was halted when “The Endurance” became frozen in the ice floes.
They could not get free from ice, leaving Shackleton and his men trapped on their ship for over a year. When spring arrived they were still in the clutches of those frozen waters with no hope of continuing their journey. A thousand miles from the nearest civilization, they eventually had to ditch their ship and set up camp on an ice floe where they watched as their ship sunk into the frozen waters. With their camp set up on the ice floe they were hoping that it would drift toward Paulet Island.
After two months and failed attempts to reach the Island, they set out in their life boats and landed on Elephant Island. This was the first time that they had stood on ground in 497 days. It was clear that they were in serious trouble far away from any shipping lanes. Shackleton made plans to leave the ice floe with five of his men. They took the best of their lifeboats with the hope that they might reach South Georgia.
Shackleton gave the order that each man was limited to two pounds of weight for their personal items. To illustrate just how serious he was, he discarded his own valuables in front of the men.
Then he held up a thick book and said, “This is the ship’s Bible that was given to us by the Queen before this voyage. I am keeping only three pages.” He placed the Bible down on the ice and held up those three torn, thin pages. Then he read one line: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, forThou art with me.” In spite of their desperate situation, Shackleton knew that they were in a critical place but they werethere, a place where God was with them.
For the next fifteen days they sailed through the waters of the southern ocean. Their lifeboat was pounded by the treacherous seas. Finally, they were in sight of the cliffs of Georgia. But this was not the end. They were trapped in hurricane-force winds and had to ride out the storm as their boat was pummeled by the pounding waves and powerful winds. The storm finally subsided and they were able, finally, to land on the unoccupied southern shore.
After a period of rest and recuperation, rather than risk putting to sea again to reach the whaling stations on the northern coast,