Can you imagine being trapped on a ship for nine months? That's what happened to an expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton and his crew were trying to reach Antarctica when their ship, the Endurance, became trapped in polar ice on January 18, 1915. For nine months they waited for the ice to break up. Finally, in October, the crew abandoned the ship and set sail in three rickety lifeboats. Hundreds of miles later, the men reached barren Elephant Island. Shackleton realized that they could not survive there. So, he and five other men set out in one of the lifeboats for an 800-mile journey to South Georgia Island. They knew that there were people there who could help them. Seventeen days later, the man arrived. Shackleton took a ship back to Elephant Island and rescued the rest of his crew. Amazingly, everyone was still alive. After over a year of cold, frostbite, and starvation, the men from the Endurance were safe at last.