The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party. While the story of Ernest Shackleton's crew of the Endurance is well known, the fate of Shackleton's Ross Sea support party has largely been forgotten—until now.

---

Product Description

The excruciating tale of the Ross Sea party, the other side of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed south aboard the Endurance to make history by crossing the Antarctic continent. Shackleton’s story is legend, but few know the harrowing story of the Ross Sea party, Shackleton’s support group dispatched to the other side of the continent to build a lifeline of food and fuel depots to bear his crossing.

“I had not anticipated that the work would present any great difficulties,” Shackleton wrote. Yet everything went tragically wrong when the Ross Sea ship, the Aurora, tore free of her moorings and disappeared in a gale, leaving ten men marooned with only the clothes on their backs and few provisions. With little hope of rescue from a world embroiled in World War I, the men decided to accomplish their mission against all odds.

Long overshadowed by the mission these men bargained their lives to sustain, this heartrending story of survival against all odds now gets its due in this definitive, surprising account of the final journey of the heroic age of polar expedition.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #466192 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-20
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
While the story of Ernest Shackleton's crew of the Endurance is well known, the fate of Shackleton's Ross Sea support party has largely been forgotten—until now. Charged with laying supply depots for Shackleton's aborted 1914–1916 trans-Antarctic trek, the Ross Sea party became stranded when its ship tore free of her moorings and disappeared in a gale. Cambridge historian Tyler-Lewis's account of the 10-man party's plight relies heavily on the men's journals, which are amazingly detailed, considering the physical (snow blindness, scurvy, frostbite) and mental (depression, paranoia) problems they faced. The men's decision to lay the depots despite the obstacles demonstrates their courage, but Tyler-Lewis's narrative doesn't focus solely on heroics. Instead, the heart of the book lies in Tyler-Lewis's dissection of the men's relationships with one another. As friends are made, alliances formed and resentment festers, humanity is never lost, even amid inhumane conditions. Given the collection of military, civilian, scientific and blue-collar personnel that made up the expedition, it's compelling to see how each man deals with his fate. Add in the party's adventures of sledding in subzero temperatures with the sociological aspects of being stranded for nearly two years in such an inhospitable place, and the result is a gripping work. Maps, illus. (Apr. 24)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Many books tell the story of Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition across the Antarctic aboard the Endurance. Tyler-Lewis focuses on his supply team, the Ross Sea party, whom Shackleton sent to the opposite side of the continent to support his crossing with food and fuel. While Shackleton traveled south, the Ross party were to sail aboard the Aurora into the Ross Sea and set up supplies for Shackleton every 60 miles. But the Aurora was torn from its moorings in a storm and washed out to sea, leaving 10 men stranded on the shore. They were finally rescued after two years. Tyler-Lewis writes that in the face of catastrophe they persevered, and contrary to the very instinct of survival, with most of their clothing, food, and equipment gone, the stranded men chose to risk their lives, marching 1,300 miles to build a lifeline of depots for Shackleton's party. Tyler-Lewis, a historian, located the diaries and logs of 16 survivors. She also found public records and private papers and interviewed the families of the Ross Sea party members. An exciting book. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Men's Journal
Electrifying. Brutal and inspiring tale of adventure and endurance.

---

Customer Reviews

Gripping saga of leadership, adventure and cold discomfort.
The world remembers swashbuckling Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as a selfless leader who would do anything for his men. But this tale of the hardships suffered by his support crew paints a different picture of Shackleton - a charismatic and courageous figure, yes, but also a man whose disorganization and carelessness wasted the lives, health, loyalty and courage of half his party. Three members of Shackleton's Ross Sea party died while leaving supplies of food that Shackleton never used. Historian Kelly Tyler-Lewis uses the survivors' journals and interviews with their families to chronicle the Ross Party's relationships and sacrifices in compelling detail, illuminating the missteps and mismanagement that caused the expedition to go awry. We recommend this study to managers who want examples of how to respond - and how not to respond - in a crisis.

Inspiring tale of adventure and discovery
This book is quite a gripping story both in based in tragedy and triumph.
I saw the PBS special on the Shackleton Journey, but many times, like this, the book is much better.
The book was highly researched and vividly written describing the many astonishing moments of the expedition.
It was a ten-man journey the relies heavily on personal journals about some happy moments and some very terrible times. It goes into detail about the decreasing health of the journeymen and stuggles with scurvey, frostbite, snow blindness and the horrible mental and emotional anguish that many sucumb to on this dangerous 1330-mile mission to Antarctica.

Can You Be A Hero If Your Efforts Are Ultimately Pointless?
Both sucessful and failed feats of courage are lauded by literature. Many have heard (and read) of the failed expedition of Ernest Shackleton to cross Antarctica. Shackletom failed to even reach the continent, as his ship, the Endurance failed to reach land.

Less well known is the story of the Ross Sea Party -- the group charged with laying in supplies that Shackleton would need as he crossed the pole and returned northward. This book tells the saga of the poorly funded "other half" of the planned expedition.

Focusing more on the shore party, rather than on the shipboard party on the Aurora, the book details the mistakes that were made in the first summer attempt to stock the depots, where Macintosh drove the sled dogs to death and made very little progress, to the stranding of the shore party at the end of the first summer when they were not picked up by the ship.

Presuming the ship lost, and wondering if a rescue would even be attempted during WWI, the 10 men were determined to do the job they were sent to do and proceeded through all odds to strive to lay the depots that Shackleton would never need.

Kelly Tyler-Lewis examines the physical and mental struggles of the shore party including their deep divisions over leadership styles. Culled from the diaries of the expedition, she has weaved a gripping tale of man's struggle against incredible odds.