Would you like to know one of the milestones in the exploration of Antarctica in a simple and entertaining way? Nick Bertozzi has made it possible with his graphic novel.

British Ernest Shackleton was the leader, among others, of one of the most epic expeditions in what is known as the heroic age of polar exploration. Neither more nor less that he wanted to cross the Antarctic continent from end to end, something that nobody carried out not so far back in the early twentieth century.

Shackleton and his team, although they did not get the main goal of crossing the frozen continent, were able to return each and every one of them alive, in a memorable fight for survival.

The journey began in the ship Endurance, with which, through the Weddell Sea, they reached Vahsel Bay, but got caught in the ice and, after being adrift finally sank.

That disaster forced seamen camping on floating ice waiting to reach an island. But after two months on the ice drifting at the mercy of the currents they decided put to sea with small lifeboats they had managed to save the ship.

After 5 days of laborious navigation arrived at Elephant Island. They were more than 500 kilometers from where the ice had swallowed the Endurance and spent nearly 500 days without touching land.

Although they were on land, that does not mean they were close to be saved. The nearest inhabited place was more than 1,300 km. And nobody knew where they were so it was virtually impossible for a rescue expedition come to the expedition party.

So Shackleton decided to put sail with five of his men in one of the three small boats they had with the purpose of seeking help to rescue the rest of the crew. The plan was to sail more than 700 nautical miles (1,300 km) with that little boat of six meters in length called James Caird to reach South Georgia where was located a whaling station.

After two weeks of dangerous navigation miraculously came to this remote archipelago, but not before having to walk across the main island by a route never attempted before.

Once in the Norwegian whaling station, Shackleton organized the rescue of other men who had remained on Elephant Island. And so on August 30, 1916, a British whaling ship and a ship of the Chilean Navy rescued the 22 men of Shackleton who had remained in that tiny island in the Southern Ocean.

The leadership qualities of Shackleton made an expedition that was doomed to death of all its members, an example of survival that ended the romantic era of polar exploration.

Now, this great feat, can be known in a simple and visual way, at the same time entertaining, through the graphic novel "Shackleton, Antarctic Odyssey" written by Nick Bertozzi (Macmillan Publishers).

You can purchase a copy of this novel in the publishing website at the following link: Macmillan Publishers.

Credits: (c) Nick Bertozzi; used with permission of First Second Books.