Robert Walton Letters

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the Worldvividly recreates one of the most extraordinary adventure stories in history. In August 1914, Ernest Shackleton and 27 men sailed from England in an attempt to become the first team of explorers to cross the Antarctic continent from one side to the other. Five months later and still 100 miles from land, their ship,Endurance, became trapped. The expedition survived an Antarctic winter in the icebound ship, then, afterEndurancesank, five months camped on the ice followed by a perilous boat journey through storms and icebergs to remote and unvisited Elephnat Island, 600 miles from Cape Horn. From there, their only hope was for someone to fetch help. In a dramatic climax to this amazing survival story, Shackleton

Robert W. Smith was born on October 24th, 1958 in Daleville, Alabama. He went to secondary school in Daleville, after which he cleared out for Troy State University, where he played lead trumpet in the Sound of the South Marching Band. Besides playing trumpet, he also studied composition during his time at TSU with Dr. Paul Yoder.

The first narrator in the story is the man who writes the opening letters, Robert Walton. In the first letter, Walton is writing to his sister about a journey that he is taking to the North Pole in attempt to discover some amazing feature of the Earth, such as the root of its magnetism, or a new passageway to the Pacific Ocean. Walton uses diction in his

to find the new world and their first encounter with the natives that live on the island they landed on.

In Endurance Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing recounts the tale of one of the greatest successes of the Twentieth Century. Ironically, Lansing's detailed account of the 1915 Trans-Antarctic Expedition illuminates the stark reality that Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition did not fulfill its goal. In fact, the expedition never even set foot upon the continent that they had intended to cross. The outstanding success of that motley crew of adventurers was in their ability to endure the harsh Antarctic climate. Despite having their ship crushed by an ice cap, spending the dark Antarctic winter hopelessly alone, suffering through a stormy voyage in

64. How many years did Matthew Henson and his group search for the North Pole?

My interest in these places began as a kid, when I found a book about the arctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, and the epic survival story of his failed quest to reach the South Pole. On the way, the crew’s ship was trapped between icebergs, and eventually crushed, leaving them

But, we realize almost immediately, the man has only a superficial knowledge of the Arctic. As he stands on a bank of the Yukon about to plunge into an almost absolute wilderness, he has little or no understanding either of his immense isolation relative to his surroundings or of the extreme danger posed by the cold snap. But all of this, London comments at the beginning of the third paragraph, "The mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all, made no impression on the man." Thus, the man also knows, in addition to the fact the sun will reappear, that it is fifty degrees below zero, but he does not know the meaning of this fact, it portends death for anyone who makes himself vulnerable to its ability to kill. "Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head."

At the beginning of the novel, Robert Ross comes across as timid and uncomfortable around others, as well as a little naïve– his impressions of the world and its hardships are boyish and altogether idealistic. When it comes to sea travel, Findley writes, “Calmer waters on earlier voyages had given him [Robert] a false impression: the sea was… temperate. It rolled to your

“ Ralegh’s instruction for the expedition have not survived, but it is likely that he ordered his two commanders to find a convenient route to the mid- Atlantic coast, make contact with local Indian people (bring them back to “England)and locate a suitable site for the colonist that Ralegh intended to sent out the following year.”

But since the ship has a radar they can get through the winter storm. They sailed through icy waters in the great lakes. Then SS Harris Burdick sailed through the Erie Canal and some rivers to the North atlantic. They had finally got to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Mid-July discovered them at Collin's Bay, which is 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle. By the sixteenth, they were beginning to see numerous ice shelves, and on the 31st, with the course north of the Svalbard archipelago hindered by ice, the ship started the arrival excursion to England.

Shackleton?s yearning to explore the Antarctic was born out of his desires to achieve the improbable and attain fame and notoriety (Morrell and Capparell 32). Both the Artic and the Antarctic remained unexplored in the first decade of the twentieth century, and the promises of celebrity, honor for one?s country, and possible wealth were the romantic rewards for the explorers of the day (28, 55).

On July 7th, Robert writes another letter to his dear sister. She is still in England, and his location is currently unknown to his sister. He says that the third letter will reach his sister through a very fortunate merchantman traveling from Archangel to his homeland. This letter is exceptionally shorter than the rest of the letters he has sent her way. His main concern for this one is to inform Margaret that he is safe. His crewmen are very brave individuals who seem not to be bothered by the floating glaciers of ice that indicate danger in the upcoming areas. Although the glaciers are still present, Robert and his crew are embarking upon the height of summer. He explains to his sister that it is unexpectedly warm where they are; however,

The case study examined Ernest Shackleton and his Antarctic exploration with his ship the Endurance. This expedition took place in 1915 and was set to cross the continent from sea to sea. Shackleton was aiming to sail the boat through the Weddell Sea and then take his men to the Ross Sea on the opposite side of the continent, therefore making it a 1500 mile journey for the