The men had endured a torrid eight months as she drifted northward in the ice until, on 27 October, she was crushed by the colossal pack’s pressure, finally sinking on 21 November. As his 27-man crew set up camp on the slowly moving ice, Shackleton’s focus shifted to how best to save his party. His first plan was to march across the ice to the nearest land, and try to reach a point that ships were known to visit. The march began, but progress was hampered by the nature of the ice’s surface, later described by Shackleton as “soft, much broken up, open leads intersecting the floes at all angles”
