George Marston, the expedition’s official artist, made drawings throughout the ordeal. His paintings of the boats on the ice and the men around the camp fires at Ocean Camp are complementary to Hurley’s photographs, showing in line and color what the camera showed in silver and shadow.
Together, Hurley and Marston made the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition one of the most visually documented survival stories in history — which is itself extraordinary, given that the expedition’s main purpose was never accomplished, that the ship sank, and that the men barely got out alive.
Marston gave up his oil paints when weight restrictions meant something had to go. He used what was left to help caulk the James Caird before it sailed.
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## What Leadership Looked Like on the Ice
The question of what made it possible for all 28 of Shackleton’s men to survive is one that has been revisited many times, from many angles. It would be easy to reduce it to a formula or a set of principles, and many popular accounts have done exactly that — distilling the survival into a leadership manual, as if what happened on the Weddell Sea pack ice could be bottled and sold.
The reality is more complicated and, in some ways, more interesting.
Shackleton made decisions that were sometimes wrong. His route into the Weddell Sea encountered heavier ice than expected, in part because earlier accounts of the route had overestimated how passable it would be. He pressed on when some of his officers thought he should have turned back sooner. His management of the crisis after the ship became beset was disciplined, but the crisis itself was one he had contributed to by underestimating the ice conditions.