After a 19-day voyage to the southern reaches of the world, this lifelong wanderer came away with a new reverence for the explorers of centuries past.

Twelve hundred miles off the southernmost tip of South America, there is a legendary place among travelers and historians. They speak of South Georgia Island in hushed, almost reverent terms.

This small and mountainous island, with peaks above 9,000 feet, is located hundreds of miles from the closest beaten path. But the rugged and remote wilderness is famous for another reason. South Georgia Island served as the final stage in one of the greatest survival stories of all time: Ernest Shackleton's voyage to the southern seas aboard the Endurance.

First discovered in 1675, South Georgia was claimed by the British Empire a century later when Captain James Cook became the first person to set foot on the island. The famous navigator named the isle in honor of King George III. For roughly 100 years, the isolated island remained nothing more than a sliver on the map.

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Kraig Becker
A pair of penguins walk the beach on South Georgia while the National Geographic Explorer drifts in the background.

In the waning years of the 19th century, a new industry claimed South Georgia as an Antarctic outpost in the middle of fertile hunting grounds. Whalers from around the world flocked to this island as a place to berth their vessels between hunts in the southern seas. Even today, the ocean around South Georgia is rife with whales, dolphins, and other wildlife. Back then, when marine life in the region was even more abundant, sailors of a bygone profession voyaged to the Antarctic seas to harpoon great leviathans from small boats and skip along the water's surface in "Nantucket sleigh rides."

I caught sight of the elusive blue whale, which at 180 tons is the largest creature known to have lived on Earth.

South Georgia is a land of jagged snowcapped peaks, towering glaciers, and rugged canyons. Even with its fame, the island remains a pristine wilderness largely untouched even in the 21st century. Recently, I made my way there aboard the National Geographic Explorer, an adventure cruise ship operated by Lindblad Expeditions. After reading for years about this desolate spit of land in the southern reaches, I finally got to see the island of Shackleton's salvation for myself.

A Doomed Expedition

Those well-versed in Antarctic exploration know that South Georgia played a key role in Ernest Shackleton's third expedition to the southern reaches of the world. In August 1914, the veteran polar explorer—called "the boss" by his crew—set out from London aboard a vessel christened Endurance. Shackleton and his men were to attempt the first full traverse of the frozen continent in the south. Little did they know the Endurance was embarking on one of the most ill-fated expeditions in history.

By January 1915, Shackleton's ship had become trapped in pack ice, and it stayed firmly in place until October of that year. It was then that the tremendous pressures of the ever-shifting ice sheets cracked her hull, sending the Endurance to the bottom of the sea.

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Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers
The Endurance, trapped in the pack ice of the Antarctic Ocean. Most photographs from the expedition were taken by Frank Hurley, who at one point dumped food out of his lifeboat rather than abandon his camera equipment.

The crew abandoned ship and made camp on an ice floe, which would remain their home for many weeks. But the unforgiving environment of the pack ice made it difficult to survive. "Huge blocks of ice, weighing many tons, were lifted into the air and tossed aside as other masses rose beneath them," Shackleton would later write. "We were helpless intruders in a strange world, our lives dependent upon the play of grim elementary forces that made a mock of our puny efforts."

How Shackleton and his teammates managed to wander through that forbidding place at such a rapid pace remains a mystery to this day.

After visiting these desolate and icy seas, I can hardly imagine how the men of the Endurance managed to survive adrift in the Antarctic Ocean. Their provisions dwindling, the crew were forced to kill and eat the sled dogs they planned to cross Antarctica with. Further hunting on the ice floes was inconsistent at best.

Shackleton knew they couldn't stay out on the ice forever. He ordered his crew into lifeboats that had been salvaged from the sinking Endurance and set out on a desperate voyage to reach a godforsaken spit of land in the frozen ocean called Elephant Island. Enduring foul weather, hypothermia, and frostbite in their extremities, the crew arrived at the island—little more than a rock jutting from the sea—some five days later. It was the first time any of them had set foot on solid ground in nearly 500 days.

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Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers
Shackleton\'s crew pulling a life boat across the ice floes.

Elephant Island was an inhospitable place that offered little hope of rescue. Shackleton knew that in order for his men to survive he would need to reach the larger island of South Georgia to the northeast where whaling stations could offer assistance. With only a general sense of heading, he and five of his strongest men set out once again in a lifeboat.

To make small craft more seaworthy, the sides were extended and an upper deck was added to seal off a makeshift cabin. The boat was named the James Caird in honor of one of the expedition's benefactors. The sailors loaded the craft with enough supplies to last a month at sea. Shackleton later wrote, "if we did not make it to South Georgia in that time we were sure to go under."

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Launching the James Caird from the shore of Elephant Island, April 24, 1916.

Walking in Shackleton's Footsteps

The six men braved the Southern Ocean for 16 days and sailed some 720 nautical miles before reaching their destination, but unfortunately upon making landfall, they found themselves on the wrong side of a 103-mile-long island. Three members of the party were too sick and exhausted to continue, so Shackleton embarked to cross the island with two of his most trusted confidants—Tom Crean and Frank Worsley, captain of the Endurance.

The three men marched across the wild and mountainous terrain of Georgia Island, covering 32 miles in 36 hours to reach the Stromness whaling station—and help at long last. Always the English gentleman, Shackleton reportedly apologized to the station manager for the party's woeful appearance and obvious lack of personal hygiene. He and his men had been stranded for months at that point, and Worsley said they looked like "a terrible trio of scarecrows."

During my travels, I hiked part of the very route that Shackleton, Crean, and Worsley trekked when they crossed the island a century ago. Hiking through the overgrown mountain trails and snowy paths, I finally arrived at the remains of the Stromness whaling station where the 19th century explorers' desperate march came to an end.

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Kraig Becker
Rugged terrain and unpredictable weather make South Georgia an adventurous destination anytime of the year.

After a few hours literally walking in Shackleton's footsteps, I gained even more respect for the man and what he accomplished. The interior of South Georgia is rugged and demanding to say the least, with towering peaks, steep valleys, and crystal-blue alpine lakes frequently presenting impassable barriers. High winds, rain, and snow, coupled with rough terrain, made my walk a challenging one, even equipped with modern hiking gear and a clear path to follow. The men from the Endurance did it in clothing that was practically threadbare, wearing boots with screws tapped into the sole to provide extra traction. To move faster, they carried provisions for just three days, a small cook stove, 50 feet of rope, and a carpenter's adze to serve as an ice axe of sort. They would later abandon the stove in an effort to lighten their load even further.

How Shackleton and his teammates managed to wander through that forbidding place at such a rapid pace remains a mystery to this day. Their march has become legendary among modern adventurers, many of whom have tried to repeat the feat over the years with varying degrees of success. In 1955, British explorer Duncan Carse would become the first person to actually retrace Shackleton's route across South Georgia. When asked about the effort he simply said, "I do not know how they did it, except that they had to."

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Ernest Shackleton shortly after the loss of the Endurance.

Despite the challenge of the hike, the scenery along the route was utterly spectacular. South Georgia's snowcapped mountains tower overhead while the icy waters of the Southern Ocean lap at the coastline below. The route is rocky, often steep, and snow and ice frequently cover the way. Dark, heavy clouds hovered menacingly overhead, drifting in and out of distant valleys. Only tantalizing clues could be gleaned of what lies hidden in the vast wilderness beyond.

While wandering in silence through that wild landscape, I could almost feel the ghost of Shackleton trudging along beside me. I had read about this very place many times over, but never dreamt that I would one day hike a portion of the legendary route. It was impossible to not wonder what was going through Shackleton's mind as he continued to trudge along, long after most men would surely have given up. The hardships that he and his crew faced just to get to that point are unimaginable, and no one would have faulted them had they stopped and succumbed to the frozen antarctic. But their leader pressed on, not because his life depended on it, but because the fate of his crew rested on his shoulders.

"He was married to me, but his heart belonged to Antarctica."

Eventually, the trail I followed took a turn and plummeted down a slope for several hundred feet, crossing snow, mud, and loose scree. At the bottom of the steep hill the ground leveled off and ran flat for a mile all the way back to the ocean, where the shell of the Stromness whaling station stood waiting. It is a mere shadow of what it must have been when the explorer himself trudged in after months brutal survival and hardship. Back then, at the height of the whaling industry, the station was a hive of activity. Today, it is a quiet, almost forgotten monument to a bygone era.

It would be another three months before a ship could reach the crew of the Endurance still stranded on Elephant Island, but when all was said and done, not a single soul was lost. Some suffered from prolonged exposure to the wind, sun, and cold, and a few had contracted severe frostbite, but in time they would all recover. The crew of the Endurance had spent more than 18 months lost in the Antarctic, but they survived the ordeal, largely thanks to the leadership of the boss, Ernest Shackleton.

An Island Reclaimed By the Wild

By the mid-1960s, the whaling industry had essentially abandoned South Georgia altogether. After decades of over-hunting, the whale populations in the seas off the island's shores dwindled to frighteningly low numbers, making it increasingly costly to continue operating from the southern outpost. With little incentive to stay, most of the people living and working in South Georgia returned home to Europe, Japan, or the Americas. Only the abandoned whaling stations and scattered shipwrecks serve to mark their stay on South Georgia.

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Scott Polar Research Institute/University of Cambridge//Getty Images
A blue whale on the flensing plan at Grytviken, South Georgia. Photo taken by Frank Hurley during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-1917, led by Ernest Shackleton.

In the years that followed, the island began to reclaim the areas once inhabited by humans. Both plant and animal life reemerged in dramatic fashion. The whales of the Southern Ocean have also returned in large numbers, and today it is not unusual to see these massive, peaceful creatures cresting the surface of the ocean as they migrate to and from the Antarctic.

During my crossing of the notorious Drake Passage aboard the National Geographic Explorer, one of the roughest sections of open water in the world, I spotted no less than five species of whale. In addition to humpbacks and fin whales, I caught sight of the elusive blue whale, which at 180 tons is the largest creature known to have lived on Earth. Seeing the massive animals leisurely swimming alongside the Explorer was a dream come true for this traveler, who had never hoped to see one in his lifetime. Once critically endangered, the blue whale has begun to claw its way back from the brink of extinction, but they remain among the rarest creatures on the planet.

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Kraig Becker
A seal pup sits in the shadow of a snowcapped peak on South Georgia.

While the whalers of the 19th and 20th century came to South Georgia to hunt, the 21st century sailors who venture to the island engage in research and conservation work. South Georgia was a wilderness long untouched by outside forces, and today marine scientists are working to protect the island so it may become a pristine and wild place once again.

Even today, getting to the island of South Georgia is an adventure in and of itself. Ships set out from Ushuaia, Argentina—the southernmost city in the world—and spend a minimum of three days at sea. The crossing isn't always an easy one either, as turbulent seas plague anyone who has ever felt the least bit seasick. Some of the passengers aboard the National Geographic Explorer didn't fare so well, often confining themselves to their cabins during the rougher sections of the journey.

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Lindblad Expeditions
The National Geographic Explorer.

Lindblad is one of a small handful of companies that operate in the Southern Ocean, offering passengers a rare chance to explore not only South Georgia, but the Falkland Islands and Antarctica as well. It is a part of the world that few people ever get the chance to see, and yet it is filled with wonders that defy expectations.

South Georgia has been called the "Serengeti of the South" due to its diverse wildlife. There are penguin colonies on the island that number in the hundreds of thousands, and fur seal and albatross populations are not far behind. Offshore, the marine life is equally captivating, with whales, dolphins, large fish, and other aquatic life great and small lurking just below the ocean's surface.

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Kraig Becker
A massive penguin colony numbering more than 400,000 birds on South Georgia.

Wildlife rules South Georgia once again, as the human population on the island is comprised of only about two dozen people, most of whom are part of a British research team stationed at King Edward Point. The scientists conduct marine research and work to support sustainable commercial fishing in the area. They also provide an official presence for the British government on the island, something that was deemed necessary in the wake of the Falkland War of 1982, when the island was temporarily captured by Argentine forces.

A handful of other human inhabitants live near the research station in the town of Grytviken, which is the site of an old Norwegian whaling station abandoned more than 50 years ago. A museum dedicated to the history of South Georgia, as well as a historic church, lure visitors passing by on their way to and from Antarctica.

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Kraig Becker
The historic church in Grytviken, not far from Shackleton\'s final resting place.

A century after the Endurance expedition, Shackleton's shadow still looms large over South Georgia. His tale is known to history buffs, armchair adventurers, and travelers far and wide, but what isn't so widely known is that despite his best efforts, the island did eventually claim the legendary explorer and become his final resting place.

A few short years after World War I, Shackleton, perpetually called to the south, organized yet another expedition to Antarctica, this time to circumnavigate the continent by ship. While en route, however, he suffered a heart attack and eventually arrived back on South Georgia, this time in rapidly declining health. In early January 1922, he succumbed to his illness and passed away aboard his new expedition vessel, the Quest.

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Kraig Becker
Ernest Shackleton\'s grave inside the tiny cemetery of Grytviken.

When Shackleton's loyal crew sent word to his wife Emily to inform her of his death and coordinate the return of his body to England, she is said to have replied, "He was married to me, but his heart belonged to Antarctica." So, according to Emily Shackleton's wishes, the great explorer was buried on South Georgia in Grytviken where his grave remains to this day.

Many pilgrims still stop by the tiny cemetery of South Georgia to pay their respects to the boss. Befitting his legacy, Shackleton's large headstone is easy to spot among the scattering of graves enclosed by a white fence in the foothills of the mountains. Upon arriving at the site, I raised a glass of fine Irish whiskey to the man and his legacy. The heroic age of Antarctic exploration may be gone, but the men who were a part of it, and their stories, are far from forgotten.


Kraig Becker is a wanderer and travel writer who runs The Adventure Blog.

Headshot of Kraig Becker
Kraig Becker

 Kraig Becker is a freelance writer based out of Nashville, Tenn., who covers mountaineering expeditions, polar exploration, adventure travel, and outdoor gear. He is the editor of The Adventure Blog, the host of The Adventure Podcast, and a frequent contributor to National Geographic, Outside Magazine, Gear Institute, Digital Trends, OutdoorX4 Magazine and others.