On the morning of 27 August 1916, a small steam tug took coal on board at Picton Island. Three hundred sacks came aboard. The next afternoon the ship left for Elephant Island. South of Cape Horn, the men saw the first icebergs.
The ship was the Yelcho. She was built in Scotland in 1906. The Chilean Navy bought her in 1908. She had no radio, no heating and no electric light. She was not made for Antarctic seas, but the Chilean government offered her. Her captain was Luis Alberto Pardo Villalón.
Twenty-two men were waiting on Elephant Island. They came from Ernest Shackleton’s expedition. Their ship, the Endurance, was caught in the ice and broken. In April 1916 Shackleton left the island in a small open boat with five men. He went to look for help. Frank Wild stayed with the other men.
Elephant Island is full of ice and mountains. The weather is usually foggy, with a lot of snow. The wind can reach 100 miles an hour.
Shackleton tried three times to come back. Each time the ice stopped his ship. Frank Worsley saw the long wait change him. When they started, Shackleton had no grey hair. After the third failure, his dark hair was turning silver.
On the island the men made a shelter from two boats. They ate one hot meal a day. They ate penguins, fish and limpets because the ice kept the seals away. One man lost his toes.
The fourth try left Punta Arenas on 25 August. This time the weather was fine and the sea was almost smooth. Near the island the ice opened and the Yelcho went through. The fog was thick. Then, before noon on 30 August, the fog lifted and the men saw the camp. Shackleton saw black figures running to the beach. Worsley heard him shout, “Are you all well?”
In one hour all the men were on the ship. Two days earlier, the ship could not have come in.
The Yelcho arrived at Punta Arenas on 3 September. The people rang the fire alarm and welcomed the men.
The British government offered Pardo a lot of money, but he said no. He said he only did his job for the Chilean Navy. He died in 1935. Today a bust of him stands where the men waited.