Ernest Shackleton's Endurance became trapped in the Weddell Sea ice during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Pressure crushed the wooden ship, which sank in November 1915, leaving the crew camped on drifting ice. Shackleton eventually reached South Georgia and organised the rescue of every expedition member.

Crew members including Leonard Hussey wrote and performed verse during the ordeal, while Shackleton's survival story inspired generations of poets. Endurance became a potent literary symbol of a community preserving language, humour and discipline after its physical world collapses.