BLEEDING hands grip the tiller of a tiny boat as it is battered by a wild Antarctic sea. The helmsman is worried. His weary crew are displaying the first signs of exposure as they bail water and beat ice off a frozen, canvas sail.
Then he notices a break of light to the south and tells his navigator that the sky is clearing. But wait.
"A moment later, I realised that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave," the navigator writes later. "During 26 years' experience of the ocean, in all its moods, I had not encountered a wave so gigantic. It was a mighty upheaval, a thing quite apart from the white capped seas that had been our tireless enemies for many days."
The moment of suspense seemed "drawn out into hours". They felt their craft being lifted and flung forward like a cork in a breaking surf. "We were in a seething chaos of tortured water but somehow the boat lived through it, sagging to the dead weight and shuddering under the bow."
And they lived through it too - a crew of six on the 23 foot lifeboat, James Caird. Among them were three Irishmen, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean and Tim MacCart by, whose epic 800 mile rescue mission from Elephant Island across the Southern Ocean to South Georgia has gone dawn in history as one of the most famous Polar survival stories of all time, and "the worst journey in the world".
Now, over 80 years later, seven of their compatriots wish to re create it.
Or try to, at least. Frank Nugent, Himalayan mountaineer, and Paddy Barry, Arctic and trans Atlantic Galway hooker skipper, swear they are not masochists at heart. Shackleton, leader of the 1914-17 British TransAntarctic Expedition, was driven by the need to rescue other members of his group left behind on Elephant Island. The main concern of this venture, named South Aris, is to pay tribute to those unsung Irish heroes. And to survive.
A replica of the James Caird is being built through a FAS scheme in Co Kilkenny, but this time there will be radio contact, lots of grub, and the equipment won't be the same. It was a malnourished, exhausted Shackleton who set out with five others to find help, after the ship in which they were attempting the trans Antarctic crossing, the Endurance, was crushed in pack ice in the Wed dell Sea. Only the miserable plight of the 22 left behind on Elephant Island kept them going at times, until they eventually made landfall on the treacherous South Georgia coast.
STILL far from safety, Shackleton, Tom Crean and Frank Worsley traversed 30 miles of peaks and glaciers to reach the whaling station of Stromness on the far side of the island. They had no proper gear. They eventually came home to a world less interested in their feats and far more interested in war and an Ireland that had been through a traumatic rising.
Unable to shake the Antarctic out of his blood, Shackleton returned yet again in 1922, but only made it to South Georgia, where he is buried. Crean, who served with both the tragic Scott South Pole expedition and with Shackleton, returned to his native Annascaul in Co Kerry. He opened a pub - the South Pole Inn - married, had two daughters who are both still alive, and died in 1938 at the age of 63.
Frank Nugent, the Dublin born FAS manager and deputy leader of the successful first Irish Everest expedition in 1993, has long regarded Shackleton as the great forgotten Irishman, though he is ranked internationally with Scott and Amundsen. "And never mind Pat Spillane or Bomber Liston," Nugent says. "Tom Crean is the greatest Kerryman and Tim MacCarthy is the unknown cheerful Corkman."
Nugent is not alone. Three years ago, four British sailors attempted to retrace the explorers' steps, making a successful sea passage but avoiding a landfall on Elephant Island. It was on a sailing and climbing trip last year to Scotland that Nugent and Paddy Barry resolved to set a campass course south in early 1997.
Barry, a Cork born local authority engineer, completed the first trans Atlantic voyage by a Galway hooker in his bad mor, Saint Patrick, 10 years ago. Since then, he has sailed north to Spitzbergen and to western Greenland. Like fellow Arctic (and Antarctic) sailor, John Gore Grimes, he was awarded the prestigious Blue Water Medal by the Cruising Club of America.
Nugent approached another Barry - Mike - who had been with him on three Himalayan expeditions and played a crucial role in the successful summit of Everest by Dawson Stelfox in 1993. A native of Tralee, Barry is a restaurateur and climber with some sailing experience under his belt and has spent three months exploring the South American rain forest.
Jamie Young, a native of Cullybacky, Co Antrim, is owner of Little Killary Adventure Centre. He has competed in a trans Atlantic, single handed race, skippered a US racing machine, led a kayaking expedition to Guinea Buisseau and most significantly for this trip - paddled around Cape Horn.
The fifth recruit was Jarlath Cunnane, a Co Mayo construction manager who was dragooned into crewing and building the boat. He has extensive sailing experience in the north Atlantic and Mediterranean and has twice won the Irish Cruising Club Atlantic Medal.
Cunnane commissioned Michael Kennedy of Dunmore East to work on a craft, based on the traditional lifeboat design, in a shed in Tullyroan, north Kilkenny, with the help of FAS trainees, Des O'Connell, John Gregg and Phil Coogan. Now framed up, planking has begun, and the craft will do its sea trials in July.
Two more Everest veterans, John Bourke and John Murray, finance manager and film maker respectively, were enlisted. They will crew the support ship, provided by the experienced round the world yachtsman, Skip Novak, who co skippered the Soviet Union's first Whitbread Round the World entry, Fazisi, in 1989-90.
The group have given themselves just a few months to prepare, raise funds, ship the replica craft to South America and fly down to meet it just after Christmas this year. The two objectives are sailing and climbing, with attempts on Mount Paget and the unclimbed Mount Roots. Sailing will be the priority, according to Paddy Barry. The landfall in South Georgia is expected to be the most difficult section of the trip and the barometer, in an area of intensely variable conditions, will be the most important nautical instrument.
Apart from weather, cabin fever on a small craft in harsh conditions will be a constant hazard. It was Shackleton's magnetic personality that prevented his group from disintegrating under a weight of depression and despair. He was "remorseless" in his determination to prevent a breakdown of morale, according to Roland Hunt ford's hiography, Shackleton. As they camped on a drifting ice floe and dreamed improbable dreams of rescue, he banned use of the word "scurvy". The one challenge to his authority was dealt with swiftly and directly - on pain of being shot.
Others under duress have drawn "much inspiration from the feats of the Co Kildare man. Shackleton was forced to turn back for safety reasons just 97 miles short of his target during his earlier South Pole attempt. "This charismatic Irishman, not always well prepared, never achieved any of his objectives as an explorer, yet never in his life did he give up," the Brazilian Polar sailor and author Amyr Klink has written. "He knew how to transform failures and disasters into a single story of optimism and success. He never lost one single man under his command and never did he simply follow routes that others pointed out to him."
A South Aris postbox has been established in Tralee, the Irish Forestry Board has expressed interest in promoting the wider use of wood and Frank Nugent is learning to play the mandolin.
So, the obvious question: apart from rediscovering Irish Antarctic heroes, why?
"There is never one reason, never one answer," Jamie Young replies. "There is always a combination of circumstances. One has a free spirit, one does not wish to be confined to the usual boundaries of living."
"I wanted to get away from the cold, Irish, January climate," Jarlath Cunnane says. "And," adds the bearded Paddy Barry with the irrepressible grin, "sure tis time to have an outing again".
