The James Caird is a small, open boat, just 23ft-long, in which six men sailed, in the winter of 1916, from Elephant Island, south of Cape Horn, to South Georgia, 800 miles through the gales and enormous seas of the Southern Ocean. Thanks to this great feat of seamanship (and the traversal on foot of the South Georgia snowfields and glaciers), Ernest Shackleton was able to rescue all 22 of his men on Elephant Island. This is a beautifully printed, lavishly illustrated book, a notable addition to Collins' Antarctic series. It features a rich selection of Frank Hurley's miraculously preserved Endurance exhibition photographs and riveting accounts of the voyage from Shackleton and Frank Worsley, master navigator, who got them to South Georgia in atrocious conditions using a sextant and rare glimpses of the sun.
