Shackleton's Stowaway

Shackleton’s Stowaway is a children’s historical novel by Victoria McKernan. Published in 2008, it uses the 1914 Shackleton expedition of the Antarctic as its inspiration. The story is told from the point of view of a young fictional character, a stowaway who boards Shackleton’s ship.

An eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborrow, a sailor from Wales, is shipwrecked and finds himself stranded in Buenos Ares with the rest of his crew. Unable to pay for passage home, he sets about trying to find another ship that will allow him to sign on. While out one night with his friend Billy, Perce learns that his hero, the explorer Ernest Shackleton, is also anchored in Buenos Ares. Perce demands that they go meet Shackleton to attempt to secure a place in his crew.

Shackleton and his first mate, Frank Wild, are at the beginning of a second attempt to explore the Antarctic, after an early expedition he was in charge of was forced to turn back. When Frank accepts Billy as part of the crew but turns down Perce due to his age and lack of experience, Perce decides to stowaway. He enlists Billy’s help to board the ship in secret, assuming that by the time he is discovered, the journey will already be far enough underway that the ship will not turn back.



Before the Endurance launches, Perce gets a job cleaning out the dog kennels on board. Though the large dogs are restless from the journey, Perce bonds with them. He also gets to know some of the other sailors, including Frank Wild who has many wild stories of his time as an explorer. Perce barely gets a chance to speak with Shackleton, who is busy making last-minute arrangements and securing financing for the trip.

When the ship finally launches, Perce is discovered much more quickly than he had anticipated. However, Frank and Shackleton react with good humor, allowing Perce to join the crew. Perce is eager to test himself and have an adventure. As the ship travels south, the crew soon begins to see icebergs. Perce is assigned to mostly unpleasant and dangerous jobs, like clearing ice off the ship’s rudder.

The Endurance becomes trapped in the ice and cannot make any progress. Shackleton announces that the crew will camp for the winter and try to free the ship in the spring. Perce helps the others catalog supplies and move the cabins to a warmer area of the ship. They hunt meat to last through the winter. Soon, the sun sets for several months of darkness. The ice breaks cause the Endurance to sink, and the crew abandons ship with their supplies packed on dog sleds. They decide to hike 350 miles to the nearest station, but they don’t make it far and are forced to abandon the plan and set up camp for the winter instead.



After several months, the ice begins to break up again and the men look for opportunities to go for help. When the crew remains stuck, they are forced to shoot and eat the dogs. Perce and many of the others have become attached to the sled dogs after all this time, so it is particularly hard for them.

The crew is stranded for almost an entire year. Though they are able to hunt penguins and seals for food, they are facing starvation. In addition, the ice floe the crew is camping on begins to melt and shrink. Finally, enough ice around the camp melts that the crew can escape on the lifeboats.

That night, the ice floe the crew camps on is swamped by water. All the men escape in the lifeboats, but many of them are soaked through with freezing water. Perce’s feet become frostbitten though he does not notice for some time. The doctor declares that several of his toes will have to be amputated when the crew finally makes landfall several days later.



Perce is delirious, but Shackleton makes sure that he has the best care possible. Since they cannot be certain that they will be rescued if they remain at their camp, Shackleton takes several men and sails for a nearby island that he knows is inhabited. Perce and the rest of the crew remain behind. After several weeks, Shackleton and his crew find an island with an inhabited station on it.

He tries several times to rescue his crew, but is turned back by ice and bad weather every time. The marooned crew begins to discuss cannibalism. Finally, Shackleton makes it back to the rest of the crew. All of the sailors are rescued and the expedition returns to Buenos Ares without having lost a single man. After a lengthy stay in the hospital, Perce is able to return home to his family in Wales.