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The adventure of the James Caird
The
James Caird experienced the most incredible sea voyage in the history of polar
exploration. It was initially a lifeboat on the Endurance, the flagship of Sir
Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition. The Endurance drifted in the ice
of the Weddell Sea for ten months before finally sinking on 21 November 1915.
Shackleton regarded the James Caird as their salvation. The carpenter McNeish
expanded and reinforced the lifeboat, the photographer Frank Hurley built a
bilge-pump and the engineer Rickenson installed a rudder. When the crew managed
to seek refuge on Elephant Island, Shackleton decided to sail with the James
Caird to a whaling station on South Georgia, a distance of 1,450 kilometres (800
miles). After 17 terrible days in the world's stormiest seas, the six men
reached their destination. The entire crew of the Endurance were later rescued.
The James Caird is about 7.16 metres long (23 feet, 6 inches) and built of
Baltic pine (planks), American elm (keel and ribs) as well as English oak (stem
and stern-post). It was named after the Scottish businessman who had financed
the expedition. The James Caird is now owned by Dulwich College in London, where
the young Shackleton was educated.
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