MAKING MEANING

Comparing Texts
In this lesson, you will read and compare the narrative
nonfiction “The Voyage of the James Caird” and
review the photo gallery “The Endurance and the
The Voyage of the THE ENDURANCE AND THE
James Caird
James Caird in Images.” First, you will complete the JAMES CAIRD IN IMAGES
first-read and close-read activities for “The Voyage of
the James Caird.” The work you do with your group on
this title will help prepare you for the comparing task.

About the Author

The Voyage of the James Caird
Concept Vocabulary
As you perform your first read of “The Voyage of the James Caird,” you will
encounter these words.

pitched   reeling   upheaval

Caroline Alexander Context Clues If these words are unfamiliar to you, try using context clues
(b. 1956) was born in Florida to help you determine their meanings. There are various types of context
and has lived in Europe,
clues that you may encounter as you read.
Africa, and the Caribbean.
In her writing, Alexander Restatement, or Synonyms: The recent dearth of milk has resulted
often combines literary in a shortage of other dairy products.
detective work with travel
writing. She is also drawn
Elaborating details: Singing protest songs and waving placards, the
to the reinterpretation of
demonstrators were clearly ardent about their cause.
legendary figures, including
Achilles, the hero of Homer’s
Contrast of ideas: After the coach derided the team during the
Iliad, and Ernest Shackleton,
whole game, it was strange that she praised them afterward.
the true-life adventurer
whose spectacular failed
Apply your knowledge of context clues and other vocabulary strategies
expedition serves as the
subject of Alexander’s
to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words you encounter during your
critically acclaimed book, first read.
The Endurance.
First Read NONFICTION
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an
opportunity to complete a close read after your first read.

NOTICE the general ideas of ANNOTATE by marking

the text. What is it about? Who vocabulary and key passages
 STANDARDS is involved? you want to revisit.
Reading Informational Text
By the end of grade 9, read and
comprehend literary nonfiction in the
grades 9–10 text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as needed CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing
at the high end of the range.
the selection to what you the Comprehension Check and
Language
already know and what you by writing a brief summary of
Use context as a clue to the meaning
of a word or phrase. have already read. the selection.

178 UNIT 2 • SURVIVAL

 NARRATIVE NONFICTION

The Voyage
of the
James Caird
from The Endurance

Caroline Alexander

BACKGROUND
Ernest Shackleton was a British explorer famous for his failed attempt to cross
Antarctica. His ship, Endurance, sailed from London in August of 1914 and
crossed the Antarctic Circle in December. Icebound, the ship drifted for months
and finally sank. Encamped on Elephant Island, Shackleton decided that he and
five others would sail in one of the lifeboats—the James Caird—800 miles to
South Georgia Island, where there was a whaling station.

Tues 25th Fine WSW breeze running all day sky overcast. NOTES

Wed 26th W.SW gale squally & cloudy run 105 mile
Thurs 27th Northerly gale overcast & heavy squalls hove too.
Friday 28th Light N.W to W winds misty high NW swell
Sat 29th Fresh W to SW breeze sqaly running high seas
Sunday 30th hove too at 8 AM & put out sea anchor at 3 PM heavy
sprays breaking over the boat & freezing solid.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Mon May 1st SSW gale laying to sea anchor & mizzen
Tues May 2nd —
—Henry McNish, diary

“T he tale of the next sixteen days is one of supreme strife amid

heaving waters,” wrote Shackleton. The crew of the Caird had
departed on a day of rare sunshine that made the water sparkle and
dance, and the peaks and glacial slopes of Elephant Island glittered
with deceptive beauty as they slowly fell away behind the boat. An
hour and a half after taking leave of the line of dark figures on the
lonely beach, the Caird’s crew ran into their old enemy, the pack.
Once again, they entered the eerie landscape of fantastically shaped
ancient, wrecked bergs. A channel they had spotted before departure

The Voyage of the James Caird 179

 from the beach led them through the heaving, strangely rustling pack
NOTES to open water by nightfall. Even on this first, relatively easy day the
Caird shipped water, soaked by spray and soused by breaking waves.
The crew wore woolen underwear under ordinary cloth trousers,
Jaeger sweaters, woolen socks, mitts, and balaclavas.1 Over these,
each man had his Burberry overalls and helmet.
2 “These, although windproof, were unfortunately not waterproof,”
Worsley observed.
3 Shackleton hoped to run north for a few days, away from the
ice and towards warmer weather, before bearing east and setting a
course for South Georgia Island. This was not the nearest landfall—
Cape Horn was closer—but the prevailing westerly gales made it the
only one feasible.
4 The men took their first meal under the low canvas deck in a heavy
swell, fighting to steady the little Primus stove on which hot food
depended. Unable to sit upright, they ate with great difficulty, their
chests almost pressed against their stomachs. The staple of their diet
was “hoosh,” a brick of beef protein, lard, oatmeal, sugar, and salt
originally intended as sledging rations2 for the transcontinental trek
that now lay on the fringe of memory. Mixed with water, hoosh made
a thick stew over which the coveted Nut Food could be crumbled.
All but Worsley and McCarthy were seasick. After the meal, McNish,
Crean, McCarthy, and Vincent crawled into their wet bags and lay
down on the hard, shifting ballast of stones, while Worsley and
Shackleton shared the first watch. With the Southern Cross shining
from the clear, cold sky overhead, they sailed north by the stars.
5 “Do you know I know nothing about boat-sailing?” Worsley
reports Shackleton as saying with a laugh, on this first night watch.
He continues: “‘Alright, Boss,’ I replied, ‘I do, this is my third boat-
journey.’”
6 Worsley’s report of the conversation was intended as a tribute
to Shackleton’s courage in undertaking such a dangerous voyage
as a land explorer whose seafaring days were behind him. But in

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

fact, it is striking how many of the British polar explorers were
experienced sailors. Not only had Shackleton served twenty years
in the Merchant Service, but each member of the James Caird’s small
crew had so many years of experience at sea that expertise was taken
for granted. Each man had the assurance that when he went “below
deck” to crawl into his bag, his companions above who worked
the sails and tiller knew, even under the unprecedented conditions,
exactly what they were doing.
7 By dawn, when Crean emerged to light the Primus, the Caird had
made forty-five miles from Elephant Island. Breakfast was prepared
below deck, with the sea breaking over the canvas covering and
running down the men’s necks. In the afternoon, the wind rose to

1. balaclavas (bol uh KLOV uhz) n. hats that cover all but part of the head and face, usually
leaving the eyes, mouth, and nose open.
2. sledging rations food to be eaten while sledging, or sledding.

180 UNIT 2 • SURVIVAL

 a gale from the west-southwest, with a dangerous high cross sea
that racked the heavily ballasted boat with a hard, jerky motion. NOTES

Shackleton divided the crew into two watches, with himself, Crean,
and McNish taking one, and Worsley, McCarthy, and Vincent the
other, rotating four-hour shifts.
8 “The routine,” wrote Worsley, “was, three men in bags deluding
themselves that they were sleeping, and three men ‘on deck’; that is
one man steering for an hour, while the other two when not pumping,
baling or handling sails were sitting in our ‘saloon’ (the biggest part
of the boat, where we generally had grub).” Going “below” was a
dreaded ordeal: The space amid the increasingly waterlogged ballast
was only five by seven feet. The men had to line up one behind the
other and crawl, in heavy, wet clothes, over the stones and under a
low thwart to reach their bags. With the boat rolling and shipping
water, entrapment in this narrow space held all the horror of being
buried alive, and many times men who had nodded off awoke to the
sickening sensation that they were drowning.
9 “Real rest we had none,” wrote Shackleton. The worn-out reindeer-
skin bags were shedding badly, and their bristly hairs appeared
everywhere—in the men’s clothes, in their food, in their mouths.
There was nothing to relieve the long hours of darkness, from six at
night until seven in the morning; the boat carried only a makeshift
oil lamp and two candles, which provided meager, carefully hoarded
light. On the first night out, the cries of penguins coming from the
dark sea reminded the men of lost souls.
10 On the third day, despite snowy, stormy weather, Worsley
snatched the journey’s first observation of the sun between patches
of racing cloud. Kneeling on a thwart while Vincent and McCarthy
strained to brace him in the pitching boat, Worsley managed to fix
his sextant3 and take his “snap.” The precious almanac and logarithm
charts, against which the observations were calculated, had become
dangerously pulpy, the pages sticking together and the numbers
blurred. Nonetheless, Worsley’s calculations revealed that they had
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

come 128 miles from Elephant Island.

11 They were, however, widely off the position he had previously
reckoned. Worsley wrote,

12 Navigation is an art, but words fail to give my efforts a correct

name. Dead reckoning or DR—the seaman’s calculation
of courses and distance—had become a merry jest of
guesswork. . . . The procedure was: I peered out from our
burrow—precious sextant cuddled under my chest to prevent
seas falling on it. Sir Ernest stood by under the canvas with
chronometer pencil and book. I shouted “Stand by,” and knelt
on the thwart—two men holding me up on either side. I brought
the sun down to where the horizon ought to be and as the boat

3. s extant n. instrument used by navigators to measure the position of the stars and the sun
to determine location.

The Voyage of the James Caird 181

 leaped frantically upward on the crest of a wave, snapped a
NOTES good guess at the altitude and yelled, “Stop,” Sir Ernest took the
time, and I worked out the result. . . . My navigation books had
to be half opened page by page till the right one was reached,
then opened carefully to prevent utter destruction.

13 Steering at night was especially difficult. Under dense skies that

allowed no light from moon or stars, the boat charged headlong
into the darkness, the men steering by the “feel” of the wind, or the
direction of a small pennant attached to the mast. Once or twice
each night, the wind direction was verified by compass, lit by a
single precious match. And yet navigation was every bit as critical as
keeping the boat upright; the men knew that even a mile off course
could result in a missed landfall, and the Caird would be swept into
3,ooo miles of ocean.
14 In the afternoon of the third day, the gale backed to the north, and
then blew continuously the next twenty-four hours. The heaving
waves were gray, the sky and lowering clouds were gray, and all was
obscured with mist. Heavy seas poured over the Caird’s port quarter.
The canvas decking, sagging under the weight of so much water,
threatened to pull loose the short nails McNish had extracted from
packing cases. As if to underscore their own vulnerability, a flotsam
of ship wreckage drove past them.
15 “We were getting soaked on an average every three or four
minutes,” wrote Worsley. “This went on day and night. The cold
was intense.” Particularly hateful was the task of working the pump,
which one man had to hold hard against the bottom of the boat with
bare hands—a position that could not be endured beyond five or six
minutes at a time.
16 In the afternoon of April 28, the fifth day, the wind died and the
seas settled into the towering swells characteristic of the latitude;
“The highest, broadest and longest swells in the world,” as Worsley
wrote. So high were the waves that the Caird’s sails slackened in the
Mark context clues or indicate
artificial calm between wave crests; then the little craft was lifted onto
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
another strategy you used that
helped you determine meaning. the next hill of water, and hurled down an ever-steepening slope. On
pitched (PIHCHT) v. the following day, a west-southwest gale pitched and rolled the Caird
MEANING: in a high lumpy sea, but gave an excellent run of ninety-two miles
on the desired northeast course. They had now come 238 miles from
Elephant Island, “but not in a straight line,” as Worsley observed
ruefully.
17 On April 30, the gale strengthened and shifted from the south,
blowing off the ice fields behind them, as they knew by the increasing
cold. Shackleton wanted to run before the wind, but realizing that the
Caird was in danger of being swung broadside to the surging waves,
or driven headlong into the sea, he reluctantly gave the order to head
into the wind and stand by.
18 “We put out a sea anchor to keep the James Caird’s head up into the
sea,” Shackleton wrote. “This anchor consisted of a triangular canvas

182 UNIT 2 • SURVIVAL

 NOTES

bag fastened to the end of the painter4 and allowed to stream out
from the bows.” The drag of the sea anchor counteracted the boat’s
drift to the lee, and held her head into the wind so that she met the
sea head-on. Up until now, however much the Caird was battered,
however much icy water she shipped, she had moved forward,
slowly, perceptibly closing the distance that lay between them
and South Georgia. Now, soaked by bitter spray, the men waited
anxiously in the pitching darkness and knew their suffering brought
little progress.
Mark context clues or indicate
19 “Looking out abeam,” wrote Shackleton, “we would see a hollow another strategy you used that
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

like a tunnel formed as the crest of a big wave toppled over on to the helped you determine meaning.
swelling body of water.” The spray that broke upon the reeling boat reeling (REEL ihng) adj.
froze almost on impact, and towards the end of the eighth day, the MEANING:

Caird’s motion had changed alarmingly. No longer rising with the

swell of the sea, she hung leaden in the water. Every soaking inch of
wood, canvas, and line had frozen solid. Encased in icy armor fifteen
inches thick, she was sinking like a dead weight.
20 Immediate action had to be taken. While the wind howled and
the sea shattered over them, the men took turns crawling across
the precariously glassy deck to chip away the ice. Worsley tried to
evoke the unimaginable “difficulty and the peril of that climb in
the darkness up that fragile slippery bit of decking. . . . Once, as the
boat gave a tremendous lurch, I saw Vincent slide right across the

4. painter n. rope used for towing or tying a boat.

The Voyage of the James Caird 183

 icy sheathing of the canvas. . . . Fortunately he managed to grasp the
NOTES mast just as he was going overboard.”
21 Three times the boat had to be chipped clear. Whether using an axe
or a knife, the task required strength, but also delicacy as the canvas
decking had to be protected from damage at all cost. Flimsy though it
was, it was their only shelter, and without it they could not survive.
Two of the hated sleeping bags were now discarded; they had frozen
solid in the night and had previously begun to putrefy—Shackleton
estimated that they weighed as much as forty pounds apiece. By
these painstaking efforts, the Caird rose incrementally in the water
and began to rise and fall again with the movement of the swell.
22 The next morning, the Caird gave a sudden, sickening roll leeward;
the painter carrying the sea anchor had been severed by a block
of ice that had formed on it, out of reach. Beating the ice off the
canvas, the men scrambled to unfurl the frozen sails, and once they
succeeded in raising them, headed the Caird into the wind. It was
on this day, May 2, that McNish abruptly gave up any attempt to
keep a diary.
23 “We held the boat up to the gale during that day, enduring as best
we could discomforts that amounted to pain,” wrote Shackleton, in
an uncharacteristically direct reference to their physical suffering.
The men were soaked to the bone and frostbitten. They were badly
chafed by wet clothes that had not been removed for seven months,
and afflicted with saltwater boils. Their wet feet and legs were a
sickly white color and swollen. Their hands were black—with grime,
blubber, burns from the Primus and frostbite. The least movement
was excruciating.
24 “We sat as still as possible,” wrote Worsley. “[I]f we moved a
quarter of an inch one way or the other we felt cold, wet garments
on our flanks and sides. Sitting very still for a while, life was worth
living.” Hot meals afforded the only relief. Shackleton ensured that
the men had hot food every four hours during the day and scalding
powdered milk every four hours of the long night watches.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

25 “Two of the party at least were very close to death,” Worsley
wrote. “Indeed, it might be said that [Shackleton] kept a finger on
each man’s pulse. Whenever he noticed that a man seemed extra cold
and shivered, he would immediately order another hot drink of milk
to be prepared and served to all. He never let the man know that it
was on his account, lest he became nervous about himself.” To stave
off cold, they also drank the blubber oil that had been intended to
calm the troubled seas. As Worsley noted, the oil would have sufficed
for only one gale; there were ten days of gales on the journey.
26 Their ordeal had already taken a heavy toll on Vincent, who from
late April, to use Shackleton’s enigmatic words, had “ceased to be
an active member of the crew.” Worsley attributed the trouble to
rheumatism,5 but the collapse appears to have been mental as much

5. rheumatism (ROO muh tihz uhm) n. disease characterized by pain in the joints.

184 UNIT 2 • SURVIVAL

 as physical, for later in the journey he does not appear to have been
entirely incapacitated. Physically, he had been the strongest member NOTES

of the entire Endurance company.

27 McCarthy shamed them all.
28 “[He] is the most irrepressable optimist I’ve ever met,” Worsley
wrote in his navigating book. “When I relieve him at the helm, boat
iced & seas pourg: down yr neck, he informs me with a happy grin
‘It’s a grand day, sir.”’
29 Between Shackleton and Crean was a special rapport. As Worsley
wrote,

30 Tom Crean had been so long and done so much with Sir E that
he had become a priviledged retainer. As they turned in, a kind
of wordless rumbling, muttering, growling noise could be heard
issuing from the dark & gloomy lair in the bows sometimes
directed at one another, sometimes at things in general, &
sometimes at nothing at all. At times they were so full of quaint
conceits & Crean’s remarks were so Irish that I ran risk of
explosion by suppressed laughter. “Go to sleep Crean & don’t be
clucking like an old hen.” “Boss I can’t eat those reindeer hairs.
I’ll have an inside on me like a billygoats neck. Let’s give ’em to
the Skipper & McCarthy. They never know what they’re eating”
& so on.

31 Worsley, despite the rank discomfort, was in his element. He was

conscious of being in the midst of a great adventure—which had
been his life’s ambition. The fact that he was able to continue taking
bemused stock of his shipmates is proof that he retained his sense
of humor. Of McNish, there is little record. Shackleton stated only,
“The carpenter was suffering particularly, but he showed grit and
spirit.” McNish appears to have endured each day’s developments
with his customary dour, matter-of-fact forbearance; he had not been
born to a life that had promised things to be easy. Shackleton himself
was in extreme discomfort; on top of everything else, his sciatica6
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

had returned.
32 At midnight on May 2, Shackleton relieved Worsley at the helm
just as he was being struck full in the face by a torrent of water. The
gale had been gaining strength for eight hours, and a heavy cross
sea was running under snow squalls. Alone at the helm, Shackleton
noticed a line of clear sky behind them, and called out to the men
below that it was at last clearing.
33 “Then a moment later I realized that what I had seen was not a Mark context clues or indicate
another strategy you used that
rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave,” wrote helped you determine meaning.
Shackleton. “During twenty-six years’ experience of the ocean in all upheaval (uhp HEE vuhl) n.
its moods I had not encountered a wave so gigantic. It was a mighty MEANING:
upheaval of the ocean, a thing quite apart from the big white-capped

6. sciatica (sy AT uh kuh) n. pain in the lower back, hip, or leg caused by damage to the
sciatic nerve.

The Voyage of the James Caird 185

 seas that had been our tireless enemies for so many days. I shouted,
NOTES ‘For God’s sake, hold on! It’s got us!’”
34 After an unnatural lull, a torrent of thundering foam broke
over them. Staggering under the flood, the boat nonetheless rose,
emerging, to use Shackleton’s words, “half-full of water, sagging to
the dead weight and shuddering under the blow.” The men bailed
with all their energy until they felt the Caird float true beneath them.
Then it took a full hour of bailing to clear her.
35 On the morning of May 3, after blowing for forty-eight hours
at its height, this fierce, bitter gale at last subsided, and the sun
appeared amid great, clean cumulus clouds. The sails were
unreefed, and the wet sleeping bags and clothing were hung from
the mast and the deck, as they set course for South Georgia Island.
It was still clear and bright at noon, enabling Worsley to take a
sighting for their latitude; they had been six days without taking an
observation. His calculations revealed that despite the monstrous
difficulties, they had covered 444 miles since leaving Elephant
Island—more than half the required distance. Suddenly, success
seemed possible.
36 The good weather held, affording them “a day’s grace,” as
Worsley said. On May 5, the twelfth day at sea, the Caird made an
excellent run of ninety-six miles—the best of the journey—in lumpy
swell that raked the boat. Willis Island, off the western tip of South
Georgia, was 155 miles away. On May 6, a return of heavy seas and a
northwest gale caused them to lay to again, with a reefed jib sail. The
next day, the gale moderated, and they set course once more.
37 Worsley was now increasingly worried about getting his
observational sights for their position. Since leaving Elephant
Island fourteen days earlier, he had been able to sight the sun only
four times. “Two of these,” he noted, were “mere snaps or guesses
through slight rifts in the clouds.” He continued:

38 It was misty, the boat was jumping like a flea, shipping seas fore
and aft and there was no “limb” to the sun so I had to observe
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
the center by guesswork. Astronomically, the limb is the edge of
sun or moon. If blurred by cloud or fog it cannot be accurately
“brought down” to the horizon. The center is the spot required,
so when the limb is too blurred you bring the center of the
bright spot behind the clouds down to the horizon. By practice
and taking a series of “sights” you can obtain an average that
has no bigger error than one minute of arc.

39 When Worsley informed Shackleton that he “could not be sure of

our position to ten miles,” it was decided that they would aim for the
west coast of South Georgia, which was uninhabited, rather than the
east coast where the whaling stations—and rescue—lay. This ensured
that if they missed their landfall, the prevailing westerlies would
carry them towards the other side of the island. Were they to fail to
make an eastern landfall directly, the westerlies would carry them out

186 UNIT 2 • SURVIVAL

 NOTES

to sea. If Worsley’s calculations were correct, the James Caird was now
a little more than eighty miles from South Georgia Island.
40 Before darkness fell on May 7, a piece of kelp floated by. With
mounting excitement the crew sailed east-northeast through the
night, and at dawn on the fifteenth day, they spotted seaweed. The
thrill of anticipation made them momentarily forget the most recent
setback: One of the kegs of water was discovered to have become
brackish from seawater that evidently had got in when the Caird had
almost capsized shortly before leaving Elephant Island. They were
now plagued with mounting thirst.
41 Cape pigeons such as they had admired so many months before
at Grytviken made frequent appearances, along with mollyhawks
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

and other birds whose presence hinted at land. Worsley continued

anxiously to monitor the sky, but heavy fog obscured the sun, and
all else that might lie ahead. Two cormorants were spotted, birds
known not to venture much beyond fifteen miles from land. There
were heavy, lumpy cross swells, and when the fog cleared around
noon low, hard-driving clouds bore in from the west-northwest,
with misty squalls. Then at half past noon, McCarthy cried out that
he saw land.
42 “There, right ahead through a rift in the flying scud our glad
but salt-rimmed eyes saw a towering black crag with a lacework of
snow around its flank,” wrote Worsley. “One glimpse, and it was
hidden again. We looked at each other with cheerful foolish grins.
The thoughts uppermost were ‘We’ve done it.”’ The land, Cape
Demidov, was only ten miles distant, and it was on course with
Worsley’s calculations.

The Voyage of the James Caird 187

 43 By three in the afternoon, the men were staring at patches
NOTES of green tussock grass that showed through the snow on the
land ahead—the first living vegetation they had beheld since
December 5, 1914, seventeen months before. It was impossible to
make for the whaling stations: The nearest lay 150 miles away—a
formidable distance given the conditions and changing winds.
Also, they had been without fresh water for forty-eight hours. Two
alternative landing sites were considered: Wilson Harbor, which
lay north, but to windward, and was thus impossible to reach;
and King Haakon Sound, which opened to the West, and where a
westerly swell shattered on jagged reefs, spouting surf up to forty
feet in the air.
44 “Our need of water and rest was wellnigh desperate,” wrote
Shackleton, “but to have attempted a landing at that time would
have been suicidal. There was nothing for it but to haul off till the
following morning.” As he well knew, making landfall could be the
most dangerous part of sailing.
45 A stormy sunset closed the day, and the men prepared to wait out
the hours of darkness. Although they were weak in the extreme, their
swollen mouths and burning thirst made eating almost impossible.
The small crew tacked through the darkness until midnight, when
they stood to, eighteen miles offshore. Then, in the bleak, early hours
of the morning, the wind strengthened and, as the Caird rose and
fell, increased to a gale that showered sleet and hail upon the men.
Although they hove to with only a reefed jib, they were shipping
water and forced to bail continuously. By break of day, the Caird was
trapped in a perilously heavy cross sea and enormous swell that was
driving them towards the coast.
46 Rain, hail, sleet, and snow hammered down, and by noon the gale
had become a full-fledged hurricane whipping a mountainous sea
into foam and obscuring every trace of land.
47 “None of us had ever seen anything like it before,” wrote Worsley.
The storm, he continued, “Was driving us, harder than ever, straight

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

for that ironbound coast. We thought but did not say those words, so
fateful to the seaman, ‘a lee shore.’”
48 At one in the afternoon, the clouds rent, suddenly exposing a
precipitous front to their lee. The roar of breakers told them they were
heading dead for unseen cliffs. In desperation, Shackleton ordered
the double-reefed sails set for an attempt to beat into wind and pull
away from the deadly course.
49 “The mainsail, reefed to a rag, was already set,” wrote Worsley,
“and in spite of the smallness of the reefed jib and mizzen it was the
devil’s own job to set them. Usually such work is completed inside of
ten minutes. It took us an hour.”
50 As the James Caird clawed her way against the wind, she struck
each heaving swell with a brutal thud. With each blow, her bow
planks opened, and water squirted in; caulked with oil paints and
seal blood, the Caird was straining every joint. Five men pumped and

188 UNIT 2 • SURVIVAL

 bailed, while the sixth held her on her fearful course. She was not so
much inching forward as being squeezed sideways. NOTES

51 “At intervals we lied, saying ‘I think she’ll clear it,’” Worsley

wrote. After three hours of this battle, the land had safely receded,
when suddenly the snow-covered mountains of Annenkov Island
loomed out of the dusk to their lee. They had fought their way past
one danger only to be blown into the path of another.
52 “I remember my thoughts clearly,” wrote Worsley. “Regret for
having brought my diary and annoyance that no one would ever
know we had got so far.”
53 “I think most of us had a feeling that the end was very near,”
wrote Shackleton. It was growing dark as the Caird floundered into
the backwash of waves breaking against the island’s precipitous
coastline. Suddenly the wind veered round to the southwest. Coming
about in the foaming, confused current, the Caird sheered away from
the cliffs, and from destruction. Darkness fell, and the hurricane they
had fought for nine hours abated.
54 “We stood offshore again, tired almost to the point of apathy,”
wrote Shackleton. “The night wore on. We were very tired. We longed
for day.”
55 When the morning of May 10 dawned, there was virtually no
wind at all, but a heavy cross sea. After breakfast, chewed with
great difficulty through parched lips, the men steered the Caird
towards King Haakon Bay. The few charts at their disposal had been
discovered to be incomplete or faulty, and they were guided in part
by Worsley’s instinct for the lay of the land.
56 Setting course for the bay, they approached a jagged reef line,
which, in Shackleton’s words, seemed “like blackened teeth” to bar
entrance to the inlet. As they steered towards what appeared to be a
propitious gap, the wind shifted once again, blowing right out of the
bay, against them. Unable to approach directly, they backed off and
tried to tack in, angling for entry. Five times they bore up and tacked,
and on the last attempt the Caird sailed through the gap and into the
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

mouth of the bay.

57 It was nearly dusk. A small cove guarded by a reef appeared to the
south. Standing in the bows, Shackleton directed the boat through a
narrow entrance in the reef.
58 “In a minute or two we were inside,” wrote Shackleton, “and in
the gathering darkness the James Caird ran in on a swell and touched
the beach.”
59 Jumping out, he held the frayed painter and pulled against the
backward surge; and when the boat rolled in again with the surf, the
other men stumbled ashore and loosely secured her. The sound of
running water drew them to a small stream nearly at their feet. They
fell upon their knees and drank their fill.
60 “It was,” wrote Shackleton, “a splendid moment.”
61 McNish’s handiwork had stood up to all that the elements had
flung at it. Throughout their seventeen-day ordeal, Worsley had

The Voyage of the James Caird 189

 never allowed his mind to relax and cease its calculations. Together,
NOTES the six men had maintained a ship routine, a structure of command,
a schedule of watches. They had been mindful of their seamanship
under the most severe circumstances a sailor would ever face. They
had not merely endured; they had exhibited the grace of expertise
under ungodly pressure.
62 Undoubtedly they were conscious of having achieved a great
journey. They would later learn that a 500-ton steamer had foundered
with all hands in the same hurricane they had just weathered. But at
the moment they could hardly have known—or cared—that in the
carefully weighed judgment of authorities yet to come, the voyage of
the James Caird would be ranked as one of the greatest boat journeys
ever accomplished. ❧

Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read. Review and
clarify details with your group.

1. Whose points of view are represented in this piece?

2. What is the purpose of the voyage of the James Caird?

3. How does the author know what happened during the voyage of the

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

James Caird?

4. Notebook Confirm your understanding of the text by listing the

obstacles the crew of the James Caird faced during their voyage and
explaining how they overcame those obstacles.

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly
research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on
an aspect of the story?

190 UNIT 2 • SURVIVAL

 making meaning

Close Read the Text

With your group, revisit sections of the text you marked
during your first read. Annotate details that you notice.
What questions do you have? What can you conclude?
The Voyage of the James Caird

Cite textual evidence

Analyze the Text to support your answers.

Notebook Complete the activities.

1. Review and Clarify With your group, reread paragraph 29 of the
selection. Why do you think the author describes Worsley’s character at
this point in the selection? What is the author trying to say about Worsley?

2. Present and Discuss Now work with your group to share passages from
the selection that you found especially important. Take turns presenting
your passages. Discuss what you notice in the selection, the questions you
asked, and the conclusions you reached.

3. Essential Question: What does it take to survive? What has this

narrative taught you about survival? Discuss with your group.

language development

Concept Vocabulary
pitched    reeling    upheaval
 WORD NETWORK

Why These Words? The three concept vocabulary words from the text are Add interesting words
related. With your group, determine what the words have in common. How related to survival from the
do these word choices enhance the impact of the text? text to your Word Network.

Practice
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Notebook Confirm your understanding of these words from the text

by using them in a paragraph. Be sure to use context clues that hint at each
word’s meaning.

Word Study
Notebook Multiple-Meaning Words Many words in English have
multiple meanings, or more than one distinct definition. For example, the
word pitched, which appears in “The Voyage of the James Caird,” has several
different meanings. Write the meaning of pitched as Caroline Alexander  Standards
uses it. Then, write two more definitions of the word. Finally, find two Language
Determine or clarify the meaning
other multiple-meaning words in the text. Record the words, and list two of unknown and multiple-meaning
definitions for each. words and phrases based on grades
9–10 reading and content, choosing
flexibly from a range of strategies.

The Voyage of the James Caird 191

 MAKING MEANING

Analyze Craft and Structure

Series of Events Writing that tells a real-life story is called narrative
nonfiction. Even though the events of a nonfiction narrative are true, the
story is still shaped by the author’s perspective—his or her interpretations
of the events and the people involved. To be believable, that interpretation
THE VOYAGE OF THE JAMES CAIRD
needs to be supported with evidence. In this account, the author uses
primary sources in the form of sailors’ journals as evidence that supports
her interpretation. Her use of the journals also allows her to incorporate the
sailors’ voices to make their personalities and experiences more vivid.

Cite textual evidence

to support your answers.
Practice
In your own words, describe the people who appear in this narrative.
GROUP DISCUSSION
Cite details from the text that support your descriptions. Work on your
Keep in mind that members
own to gather your ideas in the chart. Then, share with your group.
of your group might have
different impressions of
PERSON DESCRIPTION TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
Shackleton and the other
sailors than you do. There’s Shackleton
no right impression or
conclusion, but talking out
differing opinions and the
reasons for them will help McNish
you clarify your thoughts and
learn from one another.

Worsley

McCarthy

Crean
 Standards
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Informational Text
• Analyze how the author unfolds
an analysis or series of ideas or
events, including the order in which Vincent
the points are made, how they are
introduced and developed, and
the connections that are drawn
between them.
• Determine the meaning of words
and phrases as they are used Notebook Respond to these questions.
in a text, including figurative,
connotative, and technical 1. Which member of the expedition do you think Alexander admires most?
meanings; analyze the cumulative Why?
impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone. 2. The story of the Endurance was famous even before Alexander wrote
Language her book. Why do you think she felt the story was worth retelling?
Use various types of phrases and Explain, citing evidence from this excerpt.
clauses to convey specific meanings
and add variety and interest to
writing or presentations.

192 UNIT 2 • survival

 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Author’s Style
Word Choice A description is a portrait in words of a person, place, or
thing. Descriptions include details that appeal to the senses: sight, hearing,
taste, smell, and touch. The effectiveness of a description depends upon
vivid word choice, or the language a writer uses to create a specific
impression.
In “The Voyage of the James Caird,” the author makes extensive use of
participles and participial phrases. A participle is a verb form that acts as
an adjective. A participial phrase consists of a participle and its objects,
complements, or modifiers, all acting together as an adjective. Because they
are formed from verbs, participles and participial phrases often add energy to
sentences by conveying to the reader a vivid sense of motion or action.

Example / Participle: On the third day, despite snowy, stormy weather,

Worsley snatched the journey’s first observation of the sun between
patches of racing cloud.
Example / Participial Phrase: The canvas decking, sagging under the
weight of so much water, threatened to pull loose the short nails
McNish had extracted from packing cases.

Read It
Working individually, use this chart to identify each participle in these
sentences from “The Voyage of the James Caird.” Then, discuss with
your group how each participial affects what you picture as you read the
sentence.

PASSAGE PARTICIPLE(S) EFFECT

“The tale of the next sixteen days is one of supreme

strife amid heaving waters,” wrote Shackleton.
(paragraph 1)

. . . in the foaming, confused current, the Caird

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

sheered away from the cliffs, and from destruction.

(paragraph 53)

After the meal, McNish, Crean, McCarthy, and

Vincent crawled into their wet bags and lay down on
the hard, shifting ballast of stones. . . . (paragraph 4)

Write It
Notebook Write a paragraph in which you explain what you learned
about navigating uncharted waters from “The Voyage of the James Caird.”
Use participles and participial phrases to make your language more vivid and
precise or to create a sense of motion.

The Voyage of the James Caird 193