How did Shackleton's 28 men survive after the ice crushed Endurance?

In October 1915 the ice crushed Shackleton's ship Endurance, and 28 men were left on the ice of the Weddell Sea. Every one of them came home. That is why an expedition that failed in its purpose is remembered as an epic feat of endurance.

Shackleton had wanted to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. Endurance became trapped in the ice before she could land the party, and drifted north through the winter of 1915 until the ice crushed and sank her. On 27 October, below -26 °C, Shackleton ordered the ship abandoned. The photographer Frank Hurley chose the best 120 of about 550 plates, the most that could be carried, and smashed the rest.

The men took to the lifeboats and reached Elephant Island, which was remote and rarely visited. To get help, Shackleton adapted the 22.5-foot lifeboat James Caird for an 800-mile voyage to South Georgia. It reached South Georgia on 8 May after 14 days, and success depended on Frank Worsley's navigation in the most unfavourable conditions. Shackleton, Worsley and Crean then crossed the island's mountains without a map. Rescuing the men left on Elephant Island took until the end of August, when the Chilean Navy tug Yelcho found open seas and took them all aboard. Shackleton brought them home without loss of life.

The ship itself stayed lost for 107 years. On 5 March 2022 the Endurance22 team found the wreck 3,008 metres down in a brilliant state of preservation. It lay about 5.4 nautical miles from the position in Worsley's log, and the sea ice around Antarctica was at its lowest since satellite records began.