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Elephant Island Antarctica Cruise Port Guide
Location:
As cruise ships are not able to dock here you will be just cruising and view the environment while on board.
A cruise lecturer will explain the points of interest.
The island is uninhabited and is part of South Shetland Islands. The islands have been claimed by three countries, beginning with the United Kingdom, the islands are also claimed by the governments of Chile (since 1940, as part of the Antártica Chilena province), and by Argentina (since 1943, as part of Argentine Antarctica, Tierra del Fuego Province).
Cruise calendar for this port.
In 1914, Ernest Shackleton led an expedition of 28 men to Antarctica on the ship Endurance. Their story is an amazing one. The Endurance became entrapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea in January 1915, and drifted with the ice until it was crushed and sank in November 1915. At that point, the 28 men used three small boats rescued from the Endurance to sail the perilous sea to Elephant Island, arriving on April 17, 1916. Shackleton and 5 of his crew then took one of the small boats and sailed the 800 miles to South Georgia Island. In spite of the fact that they had to make this winter crossing without modern instruments, they arrived on South Georgia 16 days after leaving their 22 comrades camped at Point Wild on Elephant Island. Unfortunately, they had landed on the wrong side of South Georgia, and had to traverse the mountainous, glacier-filled island in order to reach the whaling station on the other side. Miraculously, when Shackleton and the 6 men returned to Elephant Island on August 30 after several unsuccessful tries, all 22 men were still alive. Shackleton never lost a man in all of his years as an explorer.
The wet, rocky, cold spit of land is very small and surrounded by glaciers, high rocky cliffs, and the sea.
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