Read the passage "Shackleton's Epic Voyage" before answering the questions
Shackleton's Epic Voyage Michael Brown Marooned on desolate Elephant Island, the British explorer Shackleton and five other men make a grim voyage across the icy seas to reach a whaling settlement after their ship has foundered.
"Stand by to abandon ship!"
The command rang out over the Antarctic seas, and it meant the end of all Ernest Shackleton's plans. He was the leader of an expedition which had set out to cross the unknown continent of Antarctica. It was a journey no one before him had ever attempted. For months his ship, the Endurance, had been trapped in ice. It drifted helplessly in the Weddell Sea, over 400 miles east of the Antarctic mainland and 1,200 miles south of the southernmost tip of South America. The pressure on the hull of the Endurance was extreme, and the ship's timbers groaned under the strain. Now Shackleton's first goal was to lead his men to safety. They would try to cross the polar sea on foot, head for the nearest tiny island, 250 miles to the west. Slowly the men climbed overboard with the ship's stores. Shackleton, a gaunt bearded figure, gave the order "Hoist out the boats!" There were three, and they would be needed if the ice thawed. Two days later, on October 30th, 1915, the Endurance broke up and sank beneath the ice. In the bitter cold, the chances of survival seemed small. But spurred on by Shackleton the 27 men set off, dragging their stores and the ship's boats on sledges across the uneven ice. For five months the crew of the Endurance pushed their way slowly northwest across the frozen seas. Sometimes they dragged the sledges painfully behind them. Sometimes they drifted on large ice floes that slowly split into smaller and smaller pieces until they had to be abandoned. At times they took books to the boats and sailed or rowed through melting ice.
At last, in April 1916, they reached Elephant Island—a tiny, barren, rocky outcrop 540 miles from the nearest inhabited land, Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. By now the situation was grim. Food and other supplies were low. Still worse, five months of constant cold and hardship had weakened all of the men. They were in poor condition to face the coming winter. Seeing this, Shackleton knew that he and his crew could not last much longer. He decided on a desperate attempt to find help before winter set in. He turned to the men. "We will make our camp here. Six of us will take the James Caird and try to reach Stromness. It's our only chance." Stromness was a whaling base on the island of South Georgia, 800 miles N.E. of Elephant Island. To reach it they must cross some of the stormiest seas in the world. The James Caird was the biggest of the ship's boats. Even so she looked pitifully small to face the great grey seas of the southern ocean. Shackleton had the keel: a central structure in the bottom of a ship's frame strengthened and added make-shift decking to give more shelter. By April 24th all was ready, and the James Caird was launched from the beach. Some of the crew were soaked to the skin as they worked; this could be deadly in the bitter cold and wind so they changed clothes with those who were to stay behind. Shackleton shook hands with the men he was leaving, and then amidst cheers the James Caird set sail. The little knot of men left behind was dwarfed by the high peaks of Elephant Island, and was soon lost from sight. The James Caird was alone on the vast heaving seas. With one arm gripping the mast, Shackleton guided the boat through the ice floes that threatened to hole the sides. At last they were in clear water and, with a fair wind, set their course for South Georgia.
1 What did Shackleton want to do that no one else had tried before?
2 Why did Shackleton attempt a voyage across the dangerous seas to the whaling base?
3 Pick out a sentence from the passage which supports the idea that the Antarctic seas were far more dangerous than anyone could have expected?
4 What does the word 'painfully' in the passage suggest?
5 According to you, which qualities of Shackelton helped him and his crew to safety?
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