In 1915 the ice of the Weddell Sea crushed Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance. He left 22 men on Elephant Island, sailed a small boat to South Georgia, and spent the winter of 1916 trying to get back to them. Punta Arenas became his base.
He arrived on 4 July 1916 on the steamer Orita, with Frank Worsley and Tom Crean, and stayed at the house of the British vice-consul, Charles Milward, on Avenida España. The British Club, upstairs in today's Banco de Chile building on calle Roca, became his operations room. In three days the British community raised £1,500, and the oak schooner Emma, with a crew of ten from eight nations, sailed on 12 July. The ice turned her back.
The fourth try worked. On 25 August he sailed on the Chilean Navy tug Yelcho under Luis Pardo, and on 3 September he came back with every man alive. The fire alarm was rung and, in his words, "the whole populace appeared to be in the streets." Lunches, dances and concerts followed, at the governor's palace, the fire stations and the Club Croata.
Shackleton died on South Georgia in 1922. His story is told at the Naval Museum, and the Nao Victoria Museum has a replica of the James Caird, the boat of his South Georgia crossing.
