Shackleton's Epic 1914 Antartic 'Adventure' - Which sharpie?

joe90

joe90

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I'm currently in the process (1/3 way through) of reading "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing. Great book. Anyways, as I was walking around at lunchtime I was contemplating Shackletons orders to abandon everything but the most essential things to take with them onto the ice once the ship was 'lost'. Namely, if it wasn't absolutely essential, then it had to be ditched. End of story.

So I was thinking... I have more than a dozen sharpies, some folders, some fixed, some expensive, some cheap, etc etc.

So.... if.... and I mean IF I had to be constrained to only take one of them with me on that 'adventure', which one would it be?

I narrowed it down to three firstly:
- BM710: Fairly light, portable, good size, easily stowable.
- Puma Hunters Pal: Again, light, portable good size, but unlike the BM, fixed but of a similar size when layed open next to one another
- Tora Kukri: Relatively heavy, good chopper and general camp workhorse.

Trying to put myself in "their shoes", I figured that my best bet would probably be the Puma - No moving parts, easy to use with gloved half frozen hands, useful for both eating, skinning and general chores. Only difficulty I could see would be how to club a seal with it though. ;)

So, given all the knives you actually own, and the environment and situation that you think you can imagine you'd be faced with in such a situation AND you could only have one of your sharpies, WHICH one would you take?

PS. Now I know that some of the people who read this will probably say all of their 'equipment' is vital, but try and put yourself back in their boots when you answer this. Although the writer simply states the views of the crew from their own writings, I don't think eating seal blubber etc and lying in sodden clothes for months on end trying to haul 2 lifeboats across sludgy slow and ice for hours on end can be very 'uplifting'.

Lets see what people come up with.... Some reasoning would be nice also.:thumbup:

Joe
 
oops ... popped this into the wrong area :eek: - could some moderator shift it to the general knife discussion. :o

My apologies.

Joe
 
Let’s see if we can find the right forum …
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I don't own many fixed blades, but I agree with you that they would be a good choice and would probably take one myself. In a life-or-death arctic situation I'd probably take my ww1 u.s. smatchet knife. It's on the heavy side, but it's compact (read: easy to carry) has a big grip (good for gloves) with a guard so I wouldn't slip and cut myself with numb hands, and a thick blade that was intended to work well for digging, splitting, and prying. In a modern fixed blade, probably my CS SRK. Not the world's best but it'd get me through I suppose.
 
Oddly enough I would want my Woodman's Pal in the snow and ice. While large it can serve as a general cutting tool, the broad end would work well as a small shovel, the blade is large enough to cut snow blocks for shelter building, the hook side would easily dispatch a small seal for food, the hook would also do well as an emergency ice ax for climbing, and the guard is large enough to allow use with gloves.
 
Very interesting post, can you mention the publisher of the book please?

I seem to remember reading that they shot nearly all the dogs and the ship's cat(bit too harsh that one for me)

Polar explorers fascinate me as they all have a touch of Captain Ahab mania about them(at least Scott,Shackleton and Amundsen seemed to have!).

But ONLY one knife?? Or sharpie as you say, surely we are allowed a hatchet,ice axe and tin openers as well?That's another one that's too harsh for me. I'd take one of my Bark River fixed-easy to hold,strong and stays keen,has lanyard holes so you can reduce the risk of dropping them and losing them forever! Best take Rescue Yellow or Orange handles for visibility then. You might be able to strop them on a belt too. No need for a really big knife as there is no firewood or bush up there. WHAT did they do for fire? Just ate raw stuff? Would be nice to have one back-up knife and a SAK could come in handy-hard to open though with mitts- for fishing preparation and tinned provisions.

How did they get enough calories to drag the equipment for all those weeks?
 
They shot all the dogs; I would bet they ate them to. There is also a DVD out about that adventure. The camera man was only allowed to keep one spool of film. If I remember right they didn’t loose a single man over the course of the whole ordeal.
 
Fascinating epic adventure. I saw the PBS documentary and the Imax film. I recall from the pictures that Shackleton wore a small, narrow fixed blade, hardly larger than a paring knife, conspicuously on a belt. I think he even wore it on the outside of his parka. No doubt it was carbon steel. If it was good enough to pull him through that, it was good enough.
 
The book "Endurance" was a very interesting account of the ordeal. Overall, they were not really in any discomfort untill the ice pack they had been camped out on started to break up, and they had to take to the boats for the short trip to Elephant island. Due to the quality of the wool clothing they wore, nobody froze on the way to Elephant Island in spite of being soaked in open boats for the length of the trip. Once on Elephant Island, things got a bit worse.

But as far as knives, the only thing the knives were used for was the butchering of the seals that they shot, while marooned on the ice flow in the aftermath of the ship sinking. They had unloaded many supplies while the ship was hung up in the ice, so when it finally broke up and went down, they had alot of stuff. They had several rifles to shoot seals and walrus, barrels of flour, tea, and powdered milk which lasted them even on Elephant Island.

The knives they had were described as common butcher knives worn by many of the men in sheaths on belts. For where they were and what they were doing with them they worked fine. Keep in mind they did not have to make shelter as they had tents, did not have to make bough beds as they had slepping bags made out of reindeer hide and wool blankets, and barrels of provisions. On an icepack there ar no trees or brush to chop so a hatchet or heavy chopper would just have been an insane waste of weight. When they had to move, each man was restricted to only a couple pounds of personal gear. Weight was extremly critical as they had to carry the supplies. They had no need of anything more than a common butcher knife to butcher a seal here and there.
 
Quoted from "South: the story of Shackleton’s last"


"...each man has a sheath–knife and a spoon, the latter in many cases having been fashioned from a piece of box lid. The knife serves many purposes. With it we kill, skin, and cut up seals and penguins, cut blubber into strips for the fire, very carefully scrape the snow off our hut walls, and then after a perfunctory rub with an oily penguin–skin, use it at meals."


I have a 6" fixed blade Case hunting knife. I think I would want that over any of my folders for the killing and skinning chores.
 
I'd probably be packing my Bark River Fox River and not worrying much about rust, I'd want the fixed blade, but nothing too heavy. The Fox fits the bill. I've read everything I could ever get my hands on regarding Shackleton, he was quite a leader and never asked of his men what he would not do himself. He was the first to toss away non essentials on that ice flow. Crean shot most of the dogs, they were his dogs, must have been one heck of a painful thing to do. One of the boys got a bad case of frostbite while they rowed to Elephant Island and his toes were eventually amputated, there were two surgeons on the expedition. All in all, they were all rescued in relatively good shape. Another great read is The Worst Journey in the World by Ansley Cherry-Garrard, the story of Scott's antarctic journey of 1910-1913, powerful story. That's when men were men.
 
Willgoy - Will have to get back to you on Monday re: publisher of the one I''m reading - its at work (doh!) .. but if you do a quick google search you'll locate a suitable copy easily enough :thumbup:

Iuke12 - Thanks for the book recommendation... I'll see if the local library has a copy. :thumbup:

Joe
 
The book The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition has some really amazing photographs in it. There are a couple of pics of guys skinning penguins with what appear to be pretty typical butcher knives.

In this cropped photo from the above mentioned book, you can see the almost dainty knife that Shackleton (at left) carried.

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It looks like the sheath is set up in a cross-draw position, so he may have been left-handed? Or, the knife could have slid forward on his belt. (Or the image could be reversed).

I can't imagine trying to survive in those kinds of conditions, but a smallish, light, fixed-blade sounds pretty good. I'd probably give the nod to some kind of puukko.

 

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From the Pic , I would say the knife looks similar to the Green River types beloved by mountain men , and trappers . Good choice IMHO !

Chris
 
The Lansing book Endurance was a great read. I think I've done it twice in the last 10 years, and it is probably due for another time. Highly recommended.
 
Really atmospheric and interesting photograph:thumbup:

That slim knife looks like my Bark River Classic Lite Hunter, that would've come in handy in those conditions.

Just imagine going without a wash for months on end...:eek: Real 'endurance'
 
I got that book for christmas, can't wait to read it now.
I'd take my cold steel bushman I think, I could use it to spear a walrus!
 
I just bought 3 6" Zytel Ti-Lites and 2 Cold Steel Scimitars. I would love to have both but if I could have only one Id take the Scimitar. This is a FANTASTIC knife in my opinion and Im suprised I haven't heard more about it...

The very best ergo's of any knife I have ever seen (for MY hands anyway).

Sharpest blade I have ever seen. Sharper Id say than my Spydercos, Kershaws and even the knifes I make myself!

VG-1 blade (what is this anyway? It works very well).

Titanium lock.

Extreamly lightweight yet large enough to do most jobs easily.

This knife rocks.
 
I'm sure the Scimitar is a good knife, but I'd definately want a fixed blade. If your lock breaks, you're screwed. Of the fixed blades I own- hmm. My KaBar Short Heavy Bowie would be a good chopper, but I don't see what I'd need to chop besides ice, and someone would probably have an axe to do that with. My Swedish Army Mora is good. My CRKT M60 is an excellent knife, but is heavy and doesn't fit me that well. My GLOCK knife, has a bit of a long blade, but a very positive sheath system and can also open bottles- if that matter to you.
I'd probably stick with the Mora.
 
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