Endurance

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton led an expedition in an attempt to become the first to cross Antarctica on foot.

In December 1914, the ship Endurance set sail from a remote whaling station on an island off the southern tip of Argentina. It headed south toward Antarctica, where famed British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton hoped to lead the first crossing of the Antarctic continent on foot. Shackleton brought 26 crew members, almost 70 sled dogs, one stowaway and a cat. Even if everything went well, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition would be an unsparing test of the men’s courage and resourcefulness. Things didn’t go according to plan, and what followed was a nearly two-year adventure in one of the most unforgiving environments in the world. All 28 men survived, in large part thanks to Shackleton’s leadership: He molded them into a team, and induced them to push past their limits again and again.

Shackleton had participated in two Antarctic expeditions, but never reached the South Pole. That honor went to Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who beat Robert F. Scott’s British team in 1912. When Shackleton wrote a fundraising prospectus...