From the Publisher

On October 26, 1914, Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance set sail from Buenos Aires in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in exploration: the crossing of the Antarctic continent. The crew stood on deck to watch the city fade away. All but one.

Eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow hid below in a locker. But the thrill of stowing away with the legendary explorer would soon turn to fear. Within months, the Endurance, trapped and crushed by ice, sank. And even Perce, the youngest member of the stranded crew, knew there was no hope of rescue. If the men were to survive in the most hostile place on earth, they would have to do it on their own.

Victoria McKernan deftly weaves the hard-to-fathom facts of this famous voyage into an epic, edge-of-your-seat survival novel.


From the Hardcover edition.

Greg M. Romaneck - Children's Literature

In the fall of 1914 Ernest Shackleton set sail on the good ship Endurance along with a steadfast group of explorers. His goal: to reach and cross Antarctica. In an age of lethal polar expeditions Shackelton's exploration was fraught with risk. Unbeknownst to him and his crew, an eighteen-year-old lad stowed away on the Endurance in order to be part of this voyage of discovery. This lad, Perce Blackborrow, was willing to risk the wrath of Shackleton in order to illicitly join the expedition. While Blackborrow and the other explorers anticipated a rough trip they could never imagine the hardship, pain, and trauma they would encounter. Based upon the true-life story of the Shackleton expedition—and young Perce Blackborrow's role in it—this historical novel takes readers back to one of the most amazing stories of endurance known. Blending a strong narrative style with meticulous research this tale will be a joy to readers interested in survival stories. In the end, Blackborrow persevered despite the terrible suffering he and his mates were forced to endure. In telling this story as fiction Victoria McKernan brings history to life. 2005, Alfred A. Knopf, Ages 12 up.

Paula Rohrlick - KLIATT

Perce Blackborow, age 18, stows away on Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance as it sets out from Buenos Aires in 1914, planning to attempt a first-ever crossing of Antarctica with its adventurous crew. Perce gets more adventure than he bargained for: after just a few months, the ship is first caught and then crushed by ice, and the men set up camp on an ice floe. "Didn't ever think about how there's so many different kinds of bad times," Perce notes glumly in his diary. In the spring, the ice floe breaks up and the men escape by lifeboat to Elephant Island, where Perce suffers from frostbite and must have part of his feet amputated. He learns from Shackleton what true bravery is: "Sometimes it's just keeping quiet when you want to fuss or being optimistic when there's no bloody hope." Shackleton is a kind and indomitable leader: he and a few others head out first by boat and then overland in a desperate and dangerous attempt to seek help, and finally, of course, all the men are safely rescued, Perce among them. As the author explains in a note at the end, Perce and all the other characters were real men, and it's clear that McKernan researched carefully in order to present her fictional tale as accurately as possible. It's a gripping and convincing tale of unimaginable misery and courage, and Perce, the youngest member of the expedition, is a sympathetic protagonist. Readers fascinated by true adventures will appreciate the material at the end, which includes a timeline, a list of the members of the expedition, and an epilogue that explains what happened afterward to each man. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2005, Random House,Knopf, 336p. map. bibliog., and Ages 12 to 18.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-McKernan brings Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the Antarctic alive through the eyes of its youngest crew member. Perce Blackborow, 18, hides in a cramped locker for two days until the Endurance is at sea before revealing his presence as a stowaway. Given a chance to disembark at South Georgia Island, he signs up as a steward and a gruff Shackleton insists that he write to his family: "Tell them what god-awful mischief you've got yourself into." The ill-fated ship is crushed in the ice hundreds of miles from the nearest whaling station, forcing the crew to drag its lifeboats and gear across unstable ice floes. A perilous voyage takes them to Elephant Island, where they are stranded for months while Shackleton and five others go for help. Perce endures the worst of it, having no feeling in his frostbitten feet. Details of the ensuing amputation of toes are realistic, an example of the author's sharp eye for authenticity. Although fictional, Perce's diary entries add dimension to the character and blend imagination with historical accuracy. Several of the crew members are powerfully brought to life, including Perce's fun-loving mate, Billy; the obsessive rationer, Orde Lees; the compassionate Frank Wild; and Shackleton, the leader they all idolize. Add this suspenseful tale to adventure/survival collections.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Wisely using only real people and sticking close to the actual events of Shackleton's ill-fated expedition, McKernan does justice to one of the past century's great true adventure stories. Those events are as dramatic as it comes, as readers of Jennifer Armstrong's Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World (1998) or Elizabeth Cody Kimmel's Ice Story (1999) will attest. Setting out in 1914 to cross Antarctica, Shackleton and 27 men were trapped by ice that eventually destroyed their ship and left them huddled together, barely sheltered from the elements, for 22 months. Teenaged wanderer Perce Blackborow provides the point of view; hoping to measure himself against both nature and his fellow men, he stows away-and finds himself facing harder tests to his courage, spirit, and physical endurance than he'd ever imagined. The author smoothly integrates invented but credible banter and tensions, adds full measures of excitement, terror, boredom, pain, and exhaustion, then closes with sketches of each major participant's later life, plus several resource lists. A compelling alternative to the nonfiction accounts. (Fiction. 11-13)

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Shackleton's Stowaway

Random House

Chapter One

Just then the door swung open and a frowning man peered into the dark interior. He looked sea-roughened, but not like a common sailor. Someone with rank. A bosun at least, maybe an officer. When he saw the two drunkards, he strode up to their table.
"You buggers! I've better things to do than search all over the docks for you."
"Ah, Mr. Greenstreet!" The talkative one smiled stupidly. "Come and join us for a pint!"
"You were gone all night. You missed your watch."
The sleeping man picked up his head and squinted at the daylight.
"You're both sacked," Greenstreet went on. "You can come pick up your kit until three. After that I'll have it put out on the dock."
"Oh, come on, sir, you wouldn't short a man his wee bit of fun." The talkative man was almost whining. "We've been two months at sea!" The other man just glared silently.
"See Mr. Cheetham to get paid off."
"Paid off, eh?" The second man pulled himself slowly up from the table. He was over six feet tall and looked like he could pull up whole trees with one thick arm. He let out a string of curses. Perce hoped the woman sweeping the floor didn't understand English. The big man threw a punch. It was fast but sloppy. Greenstreet ducked most of it. Chairs scraped and glasses clinked all over the cantina as men cleared back out of the way.
"Should we help him out?" Perce asked tentatively. Perce didn't want his friend to think he was shy of fighting.
"Well, let's give the man his chance."
"But it's two on one, and they're twice his size."
"Watch. He might know what he's doing."
Billy was right. This man Greenstreet knew how to let a man blow off a bit and not get crazy and not get anyone hurt. It turned out to be hardly a fight at all. A little shoving, a lot of swearing. Then two Spanish men came out from behind the bar. One had a stick, the other a sock with lead pellets in the toe. The two drunk sailors backed off. Everything went back to normal.
"Don't bother the others when you come for your things." Greenstreet gave them a disgusted look and left.
"Come on." Perce grabbed his duffel bag.
"Where you going? I haven't finished my beer."
"Didn't you hear the man? There's two places just opened on a ship!"
"Well, for a raw pup you've got some wits after all," Billy said as he gulped the last swallow. Perce and Billy grabbed their kit and hurried outside. The man walked fast and was half a block away before they caught up to him.
"Sir-Mr., uh, Greenstreet-sir," Billy called out. The man turned.
"I'm William Bakewell. This is Perce Blackborow. We lost our ship in Montevideo. She ran aground," he added in case the man might think they had been fired themselves. "You'll be needing some new hands."
Greenstreet gave them a quick look-over. "Experience?" Bakewell explained that he had experience with both sail and steam. No navigation to speak of, but he could keep a course. He mentioned his two last ships, craftily avoiding the fact that they were his only two ships.
"And you?" Greenstreet turned to Perce. Next to Billy, he had little to offer. There were a hundred men within shouting distance with more skill and experience.
"Ordinary seaman, sir," he said quietly. "Very willing."


chapter two


"Ernest Shackleton!" Perce said excitedly. "What I'd give just to meet him!" When Greenstreet had told them exactly what they were applying for, Perce could hardly believe it. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, under the command of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Billy hadn't heard much about Shackleton, although he was a legend in England.
"So he's the guy that didn't make it to the South Pole?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"And the Brit that did make it-what's his name?"
"Robert Scott," Perce reminded him.
"Yeah, Scott, he died on the way back, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"And that Norwegian guy-Amundsen. He actually got there and came back alive. So he won the race."
"There's more to it than that," Perce said with exasperation. Americans were so bloody stuck on winning and losing. "Do you know how far it is to the South Pole and back?"
"Farther than anybody in their right mind would ever want to go!" Billy laughed.
"It's almost two thousand miles!" Perce said. "And when Shackleton went, back in 1909, he didn't even knew what to expect. No one had seen much beyond the coastline. That'd be like you setting off to walk across the United States, only you didn't even know if there were mountains or deserts or what to cross. Shackleton pioneered the way!"
Perce was surprised at how little Billy knew. In England, polar explorers were regarded as heroes. Magazines printed long stories about them, and people packed lecture halls to listen to them speak. Perce remembered his father reading the newspaper stories aloud to the family. How Shackleton led his men across endless miles of the Ross Ice Shelf, hauling heavy sleds with all their equipment. Sometimes the ice would crack beneath them, opening a huge crevasse hundreds of feet deep. They found an enormous glacier, a mountain of ice blocking the way. Shackleton and his men clawed their way up. For weeks they trudged across a high plateau where the air was so thin, they could barely breathe. It was freezing cold. Blizzard winds knocked them down. They walked for 660 miles. They were almost there, only ninety-seven miles from the South Pole, when Shackleton turned around.
He knew they didn't have enough food. They were already desperately hungry and exhausted. They suffered from frostbite. They were only covering six or eight miles a day. He knew they could reach the South Pole, but he didn't think he could get them all back alive. He could be the most famous explorer in the world, but instead he turned around.
Perce was eleven years old then, far too old to cry, but as he heard about the desperate struggle at the bottom of the world, he couldn't help it. "Two years after that, Scott made another try for the pole," Perce explained. "He followed Shackleton's route. It still wasn't easy, of course, but at least he knew what to expect. Scott did reach the South Pole but found out Amundsen had already been there by a different route. Then Scott and his men all died on the way back."


From the Hardcover edition.

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