South Pole explorer Ernest Shackleton never reached his goal of crossing Antarctica, but the circumstances that prevented him from reaching that goal pushed him to achieve an even more amazing feat. In January 1915 Shackleton“s ship Endurance became trapped in the ice of Antarctica. He and his crew of twenty-seven lived on the ship trapped in the ice floes for nine months, until they had to abandon the ship when the ice crushed it. The day the ship sank, Shackleton wrote his new goal: “The task is to reach land with all members of the expedition.” The group camped on the ice floes for six months, until the ice broke up and they took small lifeboats to nearby uninhabited Elephant Island. During their time on the ship, ice, and island, Shackleton“s group endured temperatures as low as twenty degrees below zero and had no daylight from May to July. They had to hunt scarce seals and penguins for food, and were hunted themselves by killer whales and sea leopards, which would rise through the ice in search of prey. Throughout this time, Shackleton demonstrated his leadership by rationing food, rotating use of warmer sleeping bags, and keeping a calm, positive attitude that helped morale. He also showed great courage as he and five of his men crossed eight hundred miles of dangerous ocean to the nearest inhabited island to seek help. Despite no maps and terrible weather, Shackleleton“s small boat reached the island where Shackleton and an even smaller group crossed unexplored, jagged mountains to reach a whaling station. He organized a rescue party to retrieve the rest of his crew, and despite the perils of living in south polar waters for almost two years, all twenty-seven men came back from the expedition. Shackleton never crossed the South Pole, but he completed the task of bringing back all of his crew alive.