James Caird (ship)
 The James Caird is launched
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The James Caird was one of the three dinghies of the Endurance , the expedition ship owned by Ernest Shackleton during his Endurance expedition (1914-1917). Originally built as a whaling boat, it was renamed in the name of one of the expedition's main sponsors, Scottish entrepreneur James Key Caird (1837-1916). With the James Caird , Shackleton, Frank Worsley and four other expedition members undertook the daring rescue voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia .
The James Caird was a sturdy, two-masted boat with a length of 7.5 meters and a width of two meters. When fully loaded, this boat only had a freeboard of 60 cm. Four belts and sails made of mizzen , mainsail and foresail served as drive .
When the Endurance was crushed by the ice masses of the Weddell Sea in autumn 1915 , the crew rescued themselves with three dinghies on the pack ice , with which they drifted northwest for many months. On April 15, 1916, after a five-day journey through the floating pack ice floes, they landed with these three boats on Elephant Island . Since the chances of an accidental rescue were very slim, Shackleton decided to sail with the captain of the Endurance , Frank Worsley , and four other people in the strongest of their dinghies, the James Caird , to South Georgia, 800 nautical miles away . This voyage and especially the successful navigation through Worsley despite the unfavorable conditions is considered to be one of the greatest nautical achievements of the 20th century.
The James Caird has been preserved to this day. It is owned by Dulwich College , London, where young Ernest Shackleton was tutored. The boat is open to the public and can be viewed in college when not at other exhibits.
Replica - James Caird II
In 2000 Arved Fuchs undertook his expedition "Shackleton 2000" with a detailed replica of Shackleton's lifeboat, the James Caird II , during which he retraced Shackleton's voyage. The ship is now in the International Maritime Museum Hamburg and can be viewed there.