Launching the Boats: Part 3, Chapters 4-6

part 3, chapter 6, page 137-138


The journey had just become incredibly rough. Their food supply was starting to twindle and tensions began to flair. The sight of land did raise their spirits a bit, and they all realized they needed to stick together even more now. Between the sadness of having to kill some of their dogs, famish, extreme cold, and loss of excitement of the journey, the men needed something to busy themselves and occupy their minds. The inevitable happened though. The ice beneath them that had served them as a home at "Patience Camp" had begun to crack underneath them. My quote for this section is, "Then they waited... torn between the overpowering desire to launch the boats reguardless of the risk, and the certain knowledge that once they did so, there could be no turning back. Small as it was, theirs was the only decent floe in sight. If they abandoned it, and the pack closed up before they reached another campsite, there would be no escape." This quote shows how the men's lives were on the line minute by minute. If they stayed on the ice, there might not be another opening and the ice they were on could crack at any moment; consequently, if they left this floe, the ice around them could close in at any moment.


It seemed to be a lose-lose situation; there wasn't a clear cut answer just staring them in the face. Just like on Shackleton's voyage, choices in life are never easy. God doesn't just hand people books with all the right answers in them. In the movie "Titanic", Rose decides to take a chance and trust Jack with all her heart. Although she could have just gotten in a boat with her mother and would have easily survived, she took the chance in love with Jack knowing in her heart, her life would ultimately be happier. It was a hard choice between life and love, but Rose's decision, although made hastily and ending in the death of Jack, made her life more fulfilling. It was a change worth taking.


My literary term is onomatopoeia. (a word formed from the imidation of natural sounds)


part 3, chapter 6, page 137
"Crack!
Again the floe has split in two..."