After the Endurance was crushed by ice, Shackleton wrote in his memoir that while crossing the mountains of South Georgia, "it seemed to me often that we were four, not three." During the drift on the ice floe, the crew repeatedly heard rhythmic knocking from beneath the ice. His diary also records auroras of an "unnatural blood-red" accompanied by intense static and wildly spinning compasses.
Account
After the Endurance was crushed by ice, Shackleton wrote in his memoir that while crossing the mountains of South Georgia, "it seemed to me often that we were four, not three." During the drift on the ice floe, the crew repeatedly heard rhythmic knocking from beneath the ice. His diary also records auroras of an "unnatural blood-red" accompanied by intense static and wildly spinning compasses.
Debunked
Mainstream history attributes these to psychological suggestion under extreme stress and polar geomagnetic storms. The "fourth man" sensation (third-man factor) is documented in other survival cases. The blood-red aurora was a real geomagnetic event, not supernatural.
Sources
- Shackleton, South, and expedition diaries