THE ENDURANCE recounts one of history's greatest tales of survival, Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1916 expedition to Antarctica. The expedition, Shackleton's third, followed the tragic death of the famous English polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Shackleton was determined to be the first to cross the Antarctic on foot and claim this last great terrestrial prize for Britain. In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set sail from Plymouth, England on board the Endurance. A three-masted wooden sailing ship ­ a barkentine ­ she was designed to withstand ice. Shackleton had named her Endurance after his family motto, "By endurance we conquer." The crew of 28 men would not be heard from again for nearly two years.