When I went to bed it was still foggy, the forecast predicted more of the same. When I walked out onto my icy balcony at 7:30 it was snowing and the fog was still there, although less dense than the day before. Captain Rens told us his plan for today was to sail around the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula into the Weddell Sea but when I looked at my navigation application, we were well north of that, headed for Elephant Island. Captain Rens came on the PA at 8 and told us we were making for Elephant Island to do some exploring. He had some new charts that enable us to get closer to some of the historic sites than was possible in the past.

Elephant Island is in the South Shetland islands. It was discovered by both Russian and English sealers in 1821. The Russians called it Mordvinov Island, but the English sealer George Powell called it Elephant after the elephant seals there. Looking at a map you could also conclude the name was based on the island’s shape. But my favorite origin story for the name is the old Cockney sailors’ tale. “It’s an ‘ell of an island.’”

This is where the Anglo-Irish explorer Earnest Shackleton and his crew made landfall after their ship, Endurance, sank beneath the Weddell Sea pack ice. It was their first dry footfall in 500 days. They had camped on the ice after Endurance sank and then made off in their lifeboats toward the island. It took six days to get there. The party first landed at Cape Valentine on the Northeast corner of the island. Shackleton wrote of his men “They were laughing uproariously, picking up stones and letting handfuls of pebbles trickle through their fingers like misers gloating over hoarded gold”.

But Cape Valentine was not a suitable place for a camp, so the lifeboats coasted almost another 7 miles to Point Wild, ultimately named for Shackleton’s first mate, Frank Wild. It was adjacent to the Furness Glacier, so had a supply of fresh water, and was on a penguin rookery, which meant that while it smelled bad it had a supply of fresh meat.

Shackleton left Wild in charge while he and 4 others made off in one of the lifeboats in what became one of the most storied tales of navigation, to South Georgia, 800 miles to the Northeast. It took 17 days in tumultuous seas. They landed on the wrong side of the island and had to hike for 36 hours across the mountains and glaciers to the Norwegian whaling station at Stromness.

From there Shackleton returned to South America to mount a rescue effort. He made 4 attempts to get through the ice to rescue his men on Elephant Island. A hundred and twenty-eight days after Shakleton left Point Wild he made it back, led by a Chilean naval sea pilot Louis Pardo. Pardo’s bust now stands on Elephant Island. Approaching the beach Shackleton called out to ask if all were alive. Wild called back “We are all well, boss.”

Antarctic Explorer Raymond Priestly wrote: “For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”

Shakleton’s leadership and management style and skills have been studied for over 100 years. He started by taking care in picking his team. He not only wanted expertise in sailing, science and survival, but he wanted musicians who would bring their instruments, a chef who could prepare tasty meals, and he brought sports equipment. Shakleton led from the front.

We followed Shackleton’s course along Elephant Island’s coast, approaching the island from the south, rounding Cape Valentine and making our way to Cape Wild. As we traveled the fog lifted. We ended up with a dramatic day. Captain Rens maneuvered the ship, so we got a good view of Cape Wild and the bust of Naval Pilot Prado, surrounded on the beach by the descendants of the penguins Shackleton’s crew ate.

On the sail out to the North we went past a huge table iceberg, many times the size of Volendam and continued north toward the Falkland Islands.