In 1916, pilot Luis Pardo Villalón rescued Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in Antarctica, a mission that went around the world. Last August 30th, 2020, marked 104 years since the heroic deed of the 2nd pilot of the Chilean Navy, Luis Pardo Villalón. It’s an event that marked the first action of the Chilean State in Antarctica and is recognized as a fundamental landmark in the history of maritime rescue in Austral seas.
Frank Hurley took photographs in the expedition of Shackleton / © Frank Hurley, 1916.
Ernest Henry Shackleton was an explorer born in Ireland, who decided to carry out an expedition that consisted of unship in the Wedell Sea, crossing the Antarctic continent and South Pole to reload in the Ross Sea. Having this in mind Shackleton managed to gather funding from Great Britain to carry out this journey. In the winter of 1915, the Irish polar adventurer, Ernest Shackleton, made an expedition aboard the Endurance with a crew of 28 people, where he intended to reach the coast of the Antarctic continent and cross the South Pole. However, the ship got trapped in the ice on its way to its destination in Vahsel Bay. Nine months later, on October 24th of the same year, the ship began to suffer increasing damage due to the pressure of the ice and slowly flooded as the ice floes were already breaking apart the hull.
Endurance stuck in the Weddell Sea, Shackleton’s Expedition / © Frank Hurley, 1916.
They were trapped for 10 months at the mercy of the South Pole’s inclement winds and ocean currents. “It was a terrifying experience; they had to move their tents up to twice in one night. They could hear the ice breaking up. And they listened to the suffering of the ship, which seemed to be crying, like a wounded animal,” said Meredith Hooper, an Antarctic historian to BBC Mundo in 2018. Finally, on November 21, 1915, the ship sank.
Shackleton’s Expedition and the sled dogs / © Frank Hurley, 1916
The crew aboard the Endurance managed to abandon ship aboard the three lifeboats they had. They sailed for seven days in temperatures that averaged 30° below zero. They managed to reach Elephant Island, the northern of the islands of the South Shetland Archipelago, where they took refuge in the upside-down boats.
Already installed on Elephant Island, without provisions and almost without hope, Shackleton decided to take one of the boats, five of his men, and sail more than 1,300 kilometers of southern sea to get help and rescue the rest of his crew, 22 sailors who were left waiting for help with resources for only six weeks. After several rescue attempts by Great Britain and other European countries, the British Empire requested help from the Chilean Navy, who sent the scampavia Yelcho, under the command of pilot Luis Pardo, to carry out the rescue.
Endurance trapped in the Weddell Sea, Shackleton’s Expedition / Frank Hurley, 1916.
Although Pardo was the son of a man who fought in the War of the Pacific, he wrote a letter to his father shortly before leaving for the mission, in which he confessed that he was not sure about the future of his expedition. “The task is great, but nothing frightens me: I am Chilean. Two considerations make me face these dangers: save the explorers and give glory to Chile. I shall be happy if I can accomplish what others cannot. If I fail and die, you will have to take care of my Laura and my children, who will be left without any support except yours. If I succeed, I will have done my humanitarian duty as a sailor and as a Chilean. By the time you read this letter, either your son will be dead or he will have reached Punta Arenas with the castaways. I will not return alone.”
2nd Pilot Luis Pardo Villalón, in command of the scampavía Yelcho / Antarctic Press, August 30th, 2011.
On August 30, 1916, pilot Pardo and explorer Shackleton reached Elephant Island. According to different media, the rescue was carried out quickly and in a little more than an hour all the castaways were on board and setting sail. “The feat that he led by leading the rescue on behalf of Chile was an unprecedented feat for the times. The boat had minimal conditions sailing in a very adverse environment,” Rolando Drago, Chile’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, told BBC Mundo in 2016.
The rescue of the British crew / © Ruben Brito Araya, 1916.
According to the accounts of the time, when the ship arrived in Punta Arenas on September 3, the entire city welcomed them, and they were later honored in Valparaíso. According to information from the British Embassy in Chile, Pardo and Shackleton’s feat appeared in a total of 95 press articles in the United Kingdom.
The Yelcho entering Punta Arenas, after the rescue / © Ruben Brito Araya, 1916.
Sources:
- Urrutia, M. S. EL RESCATE DE LA EXPEDICIÓN DE SHACKLETON POR EL PILOTO PARDO: VISIÓN DEL PERIÓDICO LA CROIX, 1916. El Piloto Luis Pardo Villalón: Visiones desde la prensa, 103. Link [THE RESCUE OF SHACKLETON’S EXPEDITION BY THE PILOT PARDO: A VIEW FROM THE NEWSPAPER LA CROIX, 1916. Pilot Luis Pardo Villalón: Views of the press, 103.]
- La hazaña del piloto Pardo en la filatelia de Chile, Revista Marina, 2010. Link [Feat of the pilot Pardo in Chilean philately, Revista marina, 2010.]
- El piloto Luis Pardo Villalón y el rescate de la Expedición Shackleton, Revista Marina, 2016. Link [Pilot Luis Pardo Villalón and the rescue of the Shackleton Expedition, Revista Marina, 2016.]
- La desconocida historia del «piloto Pardo», el chileno que lideró el primer gran rescate en la Antártica. BBC Mundo, 2016. Link [The unknown story of the “Pardo pilot”, the Chilean who led the first major rescue in Antarctica. BBC Mundo, 2016.]
- A 103 años de la gran hazaña del piloto Pardo a bordo de Yelcho, La Prensa Austral, 2019. Link [103 years after the great feat of pilot Pardo aboard Yelcho, La Prensa Austral, 2019.]
highlighted photo:
- Antártica, región de Magallanes y la Antártica chilena / © Andel Paulmnn. Link ubicación
