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SHACKLETON'S FORGOTTEN MEN The Untold Tale of an Antarctic Tragedy LENNARD BICKEL THUNDER'S MOUTH PRESS, NEW YORK 2000 23 x 15 cm. xi + 241 pp. HB/DJ When Ernest Shackleton resolved to cross Antarctica in 1915, he knew the task would require two parties of men. The first crew, led by Shackleton himself, aimed to cross the continent—but met with disaster when their ship, the Endurance, was frozen into the ice of the Weddell Sea. Meanwhile, a second group—the Ross Sea party, led by the impetuous one-eyed captain Aenaes Mackintosh and the hard-headed Ernest Joyce—landed on the opposite side of the continent. Their mission: Haul sledges almost 2000 miles across the harsh interior to leave food for the coming Shackleton party Like the men of the Endurance, the second group also lost their ship, the Aurora—along with their supplies—when a fierce polar gale ripped the ship from its moorings. But Mackintosh and his men, who believed that their failure would doom Shackleton's party to starvation, refused to give up. They scavenged supplies from a previous expedition led by Robert Scott and set out upon one of the greatest journeys in polar history. Battling deadly weather, with scant food and makeshift clothes, the small band hauled tons of supplies across the bitter polar wastes. Scurvy and madness overtook several men and in the end, three of the party died—but not before they had accomplished their task. While their achievement was futile— Shackleton never came—'the story of Mackintosh and his men stands to rival those of explorers such as Robert Scott, Apsley Cherry-Garrard or Shackleton himself. Sir Ernest paid tribute to Mackintosh and his men when he said that "No more remarkable story of human endeavour has been revealed than the tale of that long march." Author of the polar survival classic Mawson's Will, Lennard Bickel bases this account on expedition diaries as well as original interviews with the last survivor of the Ross Sea party. The result is another classic in the annals of polar exploration.