In this episode, we continued with the normal practice of marking some pages as puzzle pages (with altered content that relates to gameplay) and standard, factual story pages (based largely off Lansing’s account in “Endurance”).  The only narrative puzzle page is the first one (43) with a minor deviation from the facts. Here, Shackleton is specific about which order the crew sits in. While this arrangement is fictional, what is historically accurate and very true to who Shackleton was known to be, is the care and consideration with which he selected his crew. The other puzzle pages uncharacteristically include Worsley writing in Shackleton’s journal (Worsley would have had his own journal and would have had no need to write in Shackleton’s).

In the interior of the envelope, something you may not appreciate is just how cramped this space would have been with canvas decking on top. And while everything in your envelope appears clean and neat and tidy, in actual fact it would have been icy, water logged, and incredibly dirty from Primus smoke and reindeer fur, which began to rot.

As for accuracy, we needed to label the crates very specifically for the purpose of the meta puzzle, while also seeking to stick close to the facts, even to the extent of trying to match the size of the package to the actual amount of space it may have taken up. Here is a table, derived from Shackleton’s “South” which lists the full account of stores taken (left) as compared to our labeled containers (right):

Worsley was not only an excellent navigator but also a keen map maker. His maps often allude to the “story” or process of the voyage as well. In the example shown, he has indicated a route and checkpoints. In our version, we chose to remove those, as well as some of the texture lines to keep the intention of the map more straightforward. We also expanded the map to include more terrain to allow for more colour usage. But we tried in every other way to stay as true to the original as possible, including the title (in reproduced “Worsley” font), compass rose, and various labels. What stands out to us about Worsley’s map is the abundance of Glacier markings which must have been an incredibly imposing and daunting obstacle toward what they knew to be the final leg of the rescue mission - an overland hike.

You may recall from episodes 2 and 3 that the crew began to exhaust whatever literature they had with them. One of their most loved and quoted works was “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This was a deeply symbolic and emotional work that meant a great deal to the crew. It gave them a lens through which to understand their own plight. Shackleton references it plainly twice in “South” so we wanted to ensure you got to enjoy a portion of it.