Endurance - Part I, Chapter 3

The beginning of this chapter finds Shackleton feeling a sense of relief.  After all his preparation and dreaming, the Endurance had finally set sail.  The ship sailed for 10 days without any issues.  However, when they reached the whaling station on South Georgia, they were told news that could be detrimental to their mission.  Ice conditions on the Weddell Sea were the worst that they have ever been and would be very difficult to travel upon.  After weeks of cautiously biding their time, they continued their journey.  Despite the time they took waiting for the ice to subside, the Endurance still was beset on an immense ice sheet near the Weddell Sea.  As Orde-Lees, the storekeeper, most eloquently stated with his simile, "'frozen, like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar'" (30).  The excessive amount of anticipation and cash that went into the project seemed to all have gone to waste.  The crew, however, was not going down without a fight.