The Caird had left Elephant Island just six days before, and yet they were one-third of the way there already. There had been no let up of the struggles of the waves and the weather. Everything made the men uncomfortable and now even sleeping was no longer looked forward to. Ice had begun to cling to everything, weighing the boat down tremendously and in turn carried away their anchor with it. This meant that they just had to keep going and luckily, they were headed in the northeast direction that they were searching for. They were moving forward slowly but surely and in just a few days would reach their destination if all stayed the same. The waves kept wearing them away by constantly filling the boat with constant supplies of water. With this brought pollution to their water supply which was now dangerously going to affect how long they could keep living. Through the hurricane-like winds and storms, the men finally did it though. They saw land and came to realize that it was South Georgia, their goal. The only problem was that the course the wind was taking was blowing them the wrong way and if they missed landing in South Georgia, they were doomed to the open sea with nowhere to stop. Shackelton called for their final option which was to sail right into the wind with all their might. Through excrutiating hours of rough, rigid battles between the boat and the water, they did it; they crawled onto the land. The quote in this section that seemed to emphasize their situation the best was, "For thirteen days they had suffered through almost ceaseless gales, then finally a huge rogue sea. They had been the underdog, fit only to endure the punishment inflicted on them.
But sufficiently provoked, there is hardly a creature on god's earth that ultimately won't turn and attempt a fight, regardless of the odds. In an unspoken sense, that was much the way they felt now. They were possessed by an angry determination to see the journey through-no matter what. They felt that they had earned it. For thirteen days they had absorbed everthing that the Drake Passage could through at them-and now, by God, they deserved to make it."
There are many tales of how the underdog is always favored to win. In this case it was the miniature Caird versus the wide open sea. This story can be paralleled to David and Goliath. No one expected David to come out victorious in that fight with his lack of protection and size. Through the power of faith and determination, he came out a champion. We can all win our battles if we have pure faith and fortitude through and through.
My literary term is mood. (the emotional atmosphere of a work)
The mood of this part of the book is a relentless effort to not give up and an attitude to do whatever it took to stay alive and save their fellow crew members back on Elephant Island.
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