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Javier Cacho has been obsessed with Ernest Shackleton’s feat all his life. He is the only Spaniard who has published a biography about the British explorer who sacrificed his dream of being the first man to cross Antarctica, with the aim of saving all the members of his expedition. His ship, the Endurance, had sunk on November 21, 1915 in an attempt to achieve that feat. Since then he has been unaccounted for. There were not a few expeditions that had been launched in search of the famous boat, but without success.
This week, at last, it has been found at a depth of 3,008 meters in the Weddell Sea by the SA Agulhas II.
This ship had left Cape Town on February 5, but the search with a mini-submarine began on January 17. In the final stretch of the expedition, when they were about to abandon their tasks, the work was successfully completed… more than a century after it sank.
Cacho, today one of the leading experts on this feat and loss that occurred between 1914 and 1915, and author of the only biography of the British explorer written by a Spaniard –’Shackleton the Indomitable‘ (Fórcola, 2013)–, was at home when he found out about news that he thought would never happen. “I found out from the BBC and then it was crazy, because I started getting countless messages from friends and colleagues.”
“What’s the first thing you felt when you heard about the discovery?”
—When I saw the first images of the Endurance, I almost burst into tears. He was very excited. I’ve seen it so upright at the bottom of the sea that it made me want to get on the ship and sail on it as if I were Shackleton on one of his expeditions… honestly, I didn’t think they could find it. In fact, they have done it at the last moment.
“How difficult has it been to locate him, considering he’s been missing for a century?”
—Of course, keep in mind that Shackleton did not have a GPS in 1915 to fix the exact point of the sinking. They have searched for him in an area of 250 square kilometers. That is outrageous! And at that depth no light reaches, the drone sees nothing.
—How would you rate the simple idea of considering crossing Antarctica at that time and with the means of that time?
-Crazy. Without a radio, any accident was a tragedy foretold. Shackleton’s greatness is that, without being able to tell anyone where they were trapped, he was able to keep his companions alive.
‘The South Pole had already been conquered four years earlier. Shackleton might have considered that there was nothing left to discover.
—The coast of the famous race between Amudsen and Captain Scott was known, but not that of the Weddell Sea, more than 20,500 kilometers unexplored. Shackleton, however, didn’t want to discover anything, just accomplish a world-shocking feat that hadn’t been done before.
—In your book, ‘Shackelton, the indomitable’ (Fórcola, 2013), you assure that this trip was more difficult than the Apollo XIII mission to the Moon.
—The adventures are similar, but the Apollo XIII astronauts were able to call Earth and ask Houston for help. We have heard the famous “Houston, we have a problem” message a thousand times. Shackleton, however, in an equally inhospitable place, had to pull the chestnuts out of the fire by himself. He had no chance of sending a similar message, like “London, we have a problem,” and calmly waiting for them to come for them.
“Wasn’t the Endurance sufficiently prepared for this adventure?”
“Yes it was.” She was a fantastic and very strong ship, although at that time in Britain many people said that she was a normal ship and doubted her characteristics. In fact, she was built for arctic tourism. Her initial name, by the way, was Polaris, although Shackleton later renamed it Endurance, in reference to his family motto, which meant “Endurance is victory.”
—What was for you the most dramatic scene of all those experienced by the expedition?
—There are many dramatic scenes, but I would stick with the moment when they arrive at Elephant Island, because it is the first time in two years that they set foot on solid ground. Being a desert island, in which there was absolutely nothing, they soon lost all hope. The psychological damage was tremendous, as they suffered intense cold, hunger, rheumatism, sciatica and everything. It was there that Shackleton decides to go for help with five companions, on a five-month trip that can be considered suicidal. It was the most tragic moment, but also the greatest, because he was able to rescue all of his companions alive. Although this last rescue still cost him four attempts.