“We are homeless & adrift...,” Hurley writes as the Endurance sinks. Anticipating the end, Hurley “had the cinema [camera] trained on the ship the whole time.” Shackleton’s caption for this photo was “The End.”
 

urley has been developing and printing photos and putting them in an album, which he wraps in waterproof cloth. Now he returns to the hulk of the Endurance to save his glass-plate negatives, which are sealed in tin containers: “I hacked through the thick walls of the refrigerator to retrieve the negatives stored therein. They were located beneath four feet of mushy ice & by stripping to the waist & diving under I hauled them out.”

Shackleton, tossing his gold watch and other possessions on the ice, orders each man to save only two pounds of belongings. For Hurley, Shackleton relents. Together they sort through his negatives. When a plate is rejected, Hurley smashes it so there will be no second thoughts. He destroys about 400 and keeps 120, along with his album and movie film, storing all in a can that he solders shut. He throws away his movie camera.

c o n t i n u e . . .

Picture Courtesy of Royal Geographical Society.