Iron men in a wooden boat

SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON's legendary rescue of the entire crew of the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1916 is one of the great tales from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. He may well have lost his ship - the Endurance - but he didn't lose a man, largely due to an extraordinary sea voyage he accomplished through 800 miles of the roughest sea in the world in a modified whaler little more than 20ft long.