A rather saccharine account of Endurance and Shackleton, with very little critical self-assessment. Nonetheless, it mainly conforms to most stories of the expedition.
p. 78: Our fight was against monotony which we came to dread more than physical danger. The value of my banjo in enlivening the weary evenings was apparent. We also passed the time reading the few books that we had manage to save from the ship. These included a portion of the “Encyclopaedia Britannica”, and this was being continually used to settle the inevitable arguments that often arose.
Owing to shortage of matches we were unfortunately driven to use the Encyclopaedia for purposes other than purely literary one, though; one man discovered that the paper used for its pages had been impregnated with saltpeter, thus making it a highly efficient pipe-lighter.
We also possessed a few books on Antarctic exploration, a copy of Browning and one of “The Ancient Mariner.” On reading the latter, we sympathized with him and wondered what he had done with the albatross; it would have made a very welcome addition to our larder.