Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 10, 2014

The voyage of the James Caird was a small-boat journey undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean, a distance of 800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi). In October 1915, Endurance, the ship of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–17, had been crushed by pack ice and sunk in the Weddell Sea, leaving the 27-man expedition stranded thousands of miles from safety. In April 1916, when the floe on which they were camped broke up, the party made its way in the ship's three lifeboats to the uninhabited Elephant Island. Shackleton decided that the best chance for rescue would be for a crew of six to sail a lifeboat to South Georgia; the James Caird was deemed the most likely of the lifeboats to survive the journey. After overcoming a series of dangers, including a near capsizing, the boat reached South Georgia after 16 days. Shackleton was then able to organise the relief of the Elephant Island party, and to return his men home without loss of life. The James Caird's voyage is regarded as one of the greatest small-boat journeys ever accomplished. (Full article...)

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