2009

S1.E1 ∙ Return to the Ice

Sun, Aug 02, 2009

We begin with HMS Endurance breaking through ice off the Antarctic Peninsula. She's the Royal Navy's sole ice patrol ship tasked with keeping an eye on the British Antarctic Territory and carrying out ground breaking scientific work. She can reach parts of Antarctica no other ship can and her two helicopters can penetrate deep into the frozen interior. Every Antarctic summer from November through to March she plies these dangerous waters. As the crew enjoy the view of the ice from the ship's focsule little do they realise that this year will be very different - in just a few weeks time a sudden and unexpected accident will bring Endurance to the brink of disaster. Many of them will be lucky to survive.

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S1.E2 ∙ Frozen World

Sun, Aug 09, 2009

Endurance has arrived at Yankee Harbour on Greenwich Island in Antarctica. Cruise ships occasionally stop here to visit the Gentoo penguin colony on the beach but the bay has not been properly surveyed and there is a risk that a ship may run aground. Endurance is setting up a boat camp, a small team of surveyors will be left alone on the island for 10 days to chart the harbour. They will to be totally self-supporting so if something goes wrong Endurance may be many hundreds of miles away.

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S1.E3 ∙ Shackleton's Island

Sun, Aug 16, 2009

Endurance is now back in the Falklands taking on supplies ready for its mission in South Georgia. This time around the resupply is a massive operation. Joining the ship's crew will be over 30 civilians including scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and a group of young men and women from the British Schools Expeditionary Society who are being ferried to South Georgia and back. Both groups have brought an impressive pile of equipment with them and finding storage on the ship is a major problem. Endurance doesn't have enough bunks to accommodate all its guests and so some will have to sleep on the floor. Later the Endurance suffers a major problem - a flood in the engine room. Water is pouring in from somewhere and if it isn't stopped it will soon reach the generators knocking out all electrical power on the ship.

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S1.E4 ∙ Disaster at Cape Horn

Sun, Aug 23, 2009

The morning of the 15th Dec sees the departure of many of the civilians - including the BAS scientists and the Ice Patrol film crew. They are all due to be flown by helicopter to the Patagonian town of Punta Arenas but the seas are too rough for the helicopter to take off safely. The decision is made for Endurance to tuck into the relative shelter of the Magellan Straits. Later that day engineer Jack Russell is doing some routine maintenance in the engine room when one of the sea valves suddenly fails. The plate covering the hatch he is working on is thrown up by the pressure of water and hits him on the head knocking him unconscious. With seawater rushing into the engine room the engineers frantically try to turn off the valve but to no avail. Within 30 minutes the engine room is lost; hold on tightly as it's all hands on deck to save the Endurance.

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