Author(s): Kelly Tyler-Lewis

Adventure

A previously overshadowed maritime mission, this is the extraordinary story of Shackleton's forgotten support party from the Aurora, who desperately continued laying supplies across the Antarctic, unaware that Shackleton had aborted his journey.In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set forth to make history with the first-ever crossing of the Antarctic continent. He could not undertake this epic journey, some seventeen hundred miles, without support. On the eve of the Great War, Shackleton disappeared into the Weddell Sea aboard the Endurance, while a ship called the Aurora made for the Ross Sea on the opposite side of the continent. Under the command of Aneas Mackintosh, the Ross Sea Party, twenty-eight strong, was poised to build a lifeline of vital food and fuel depots to supply the crossing. 'This programme would involve some heavy sledging, but the ground to be covered was familiar and I had not anticipated that the work would present any great difficulties', Shackleton wrote. Yet, all went tragically wrong when the Aurora tore free of its moorings in a storm, leaving ten men stranded ashore with woefully inadequate gear to perform their task. Left with little more than the clothing on their backs and rudimentary equipment cobbled together from salvaged materials, the men vowed to carry on in the face of impossible odds. Meanwhile, the crew of the disabled Aurora, cast adrift at the mercy of the elements, battled for survival. With no hope of rescue from civilization, the lost men struggled to save themselves and carry out their mission. Kelly Tyler-Lewis throws Antarctic exploration into nail-biting new perspective as this previously overshadowed maritime mission and its unforgettable protagonists come alive in this richly researched chronicle.

First published 2006.