Moving West

Part Two, Chapter Six: Moving West

Term: concrete details



The crew has been drifting on a floe of ice for awhile, anxiously awaiting their sight of land. This chapter begins with an inspection team heading out early in the morning to the west. Shackleton informs the crew that they will proceed westward toward land. After losing the Endurance, Shackleton and his crew were forced to resort to their three smaller ships. Later that night, Shackleton handed a note to Frank Worsley, instructing him to take the note back to Ocean Camp. "In the essence the note said that the Endurance had been crushed and abandoned at 69°5' South, 51°35' West, and that the members of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition were then at 67°9' South, 52°25' West, and proceeding to the west across the ice in the hope of reaching land" (Lansing 91). This note explained what had happened to Shackleton and his men in 1915 to those who might come over. Part two comes to an end after Shackleton and his men celebrate Christmas with a huge feast and anxiously wait for the beginning of a new year. Shackleton's use of concrete details in his note help to give those who may come after him a precise explanation as to where his crew was headed. Throughout history, leaders of many expeditions have left either notes or signs behind for explorers to find in the future. These signs and symbols from many decades ago continue to serve as helpful clues for those who discover them today.