Longest journey in a lifeboat
- Who
- Harry McNish, Timothy McCarthy, John Vincent, Frank Worsley, Tom Crean, Ernest Shackleton
- What
- 1,300 kilometre(s)
- Where
- Antarctica
- When
- 19 May 1916
After his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in Antarctic sea ice, Sir Ernest Shackleton (UK) was forced to abandon the ship with his crew of 28. With their three lifeboats they set course for Elephant Island, around 160 km (100 miles) to the north. Once there, and knowing that rescue was highly unlikely, Shackleton selected five of his best men (Tom Crean, Frank Worsley, John Vincent, Timothy McCarthy and the ship's carpenter Harry "Chippy" McNish) to take the largest lifeboat, the 6.85-m-long (22-ft 6-in) James Caird, which had been adapted and strengthened by McNish, towards a whaling station in South Georgia, 1,300 km (800 miles) away. In a journey that is still regarded as one of the greatest in history, Shackleton and his men reached the island after 17 days, on 19 May 1916.
After landing, it took them 10 more days to reach the whaling station on foot. All men left behind in Elephant Island were later rescued.
In 1997, Frank Nugent and the crew of the South Aris-Irish Antarctic Adventure tried to repeat Shackleton's journey but were forced to abandon their replica boat after capsizing three times in 30 hours.