The James Caird - Bob Grimson

When the Endurance broke up and sank, the 28 men of the Shackleton expedition took to the ice with three of the ship's boats, The James Caird, Stancombe Wills, and the Dudley Docker, eventually making their way to Elephant Island.   

 

Realising that they could not survive indefinitely Shackleton decided to attempt to sail to the South Georgia Islands to summon help in the 23ft James Caird.  The boat was modified and decked over by cannibalising timber from the Dudley Docker. Shackleton and five of his crew set sail on April 24th, 1916 and undertook what is still considered to be one of the greatest ever small boat voyages, covering the 800-mile Southern Ocean passage in seventeen days. 

 

That he was successful, and that eventually all his stranded men were rescued - is a tribute to the indomitable nature Ernest Shackleton and his crew.