Starpath School of Navigation Title Page. Sextant. Uncanny navigation across the Scotia sea - Ocean Navigator - July/August 2007. Of all the impossible small-boat journeys detailed in true-life stories, the passage that Sir Ernest Shackleton made with five companions aboard the 22-foot James Caird is still the one that boggles the mind.
Most by now are familiar with the Endurance expedition to Antarctica that Sir Ernest led in 1916. His ship, Endurance, was stove in by the ice, and Sir Ernest got his men safely to Elephant Island - about 800 miles from the nearest possible rescue. So with five members of his crew, including F.A.