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The night photograph of the “Endurance,” held fast in the ice of the Weddell Sea, is one of the most famous and enduring of the images to come out of Shackleton’s expedition. In his diary entry for August 27, 1915,  photographer Frank Hurley wrote:

“During the night take flashlight of ship beset by pressure. This necessitated some 20 flashes, one behind each salient pressure hummock, no less than 10 flashes being required to satisfactorily illuminate the ship itself. Half blinded after the successive flashes, I lost my bearings amidst the hummocks, bumping my shins against projecting ice points and stumbling into deep snow drifts.”

The Endurance was beset in the ice of the Weddell Sea in in mid January, 1915. The men of the Imperial-Trans Antarctic Expedition over-wintered on board the beloved vessel (when this photograph was taken), until the austral spring, when she was crushed by the pack on October 27th, and then sank on November 21.

The men were forced to abandon ship and take refuge on the ice. All hope of completing the Trans-Antarctic crossing were finally and completely shattered. Shackleton gathered his men around and, without emotion or melodrama, said, “...(the) ship and stores have gone - so now we’ll go home.” (From A. Macklin’s diary).

Photography by: Frank Hurley
Image Source: Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK
Dimensions: 19.5" X 27" (49.5 cm X 68.6 cm)