Led by British Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition departed England in 1914 with plans to cross the entire Antarctic continent via its South Pole. In January 1915, after being trapped in pack ice and being adrift for ten months, their ship, the Endurance, was crushed and sank and the members of the crew were forced onto the icebergs. On April 8 1916 the men abandoned the ice and sailed in 7-meter lifeboats towards Elephant Island off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and then finally to South Georgia Island, a whaling station 800 miles away where they all ultimately survived despite numerous ordeals and close calls as well as severe frostbite to many of the men.