Shackleton's ship, Endurance, departed from Buenos Aires for Antarctica on Dec. 5, 1914.
It battled through a thousand miles of pack ice over the next six weeks.
On Jan. 15, Endurance came to a glacier that formed a bay which appeared to be a good landing place.
Shackleton considered it too far north for a landing, "except under pressure of necessity."
Two days later they would have to take shelter from the wind and weather near an iceberg.
Endurance continued toward their destination (Vahsel Bay), but was forced westward 14 miles before stopping altogether.
The crew made strenuous efforts to release the ship but could not clear enough ice.
On Feb. 24, 1915, Shackleton realized the ship would be stuck all winter and had to change the crew's plans.
The ship's interior was converted into a winter abode for the officers, scientists, engineers, and seamen on board.
The dogs were taken off board and housed in ice-kennels or "dogloos."
As winter set in, the ship drifted north because of the shifts in the massive packs of ice.
In the dark winter months of May, June, and July, Shackleton maintained his crew's morale by putting on plays aboard the ship and encouraging moonlight walks.
Once they were able to sail on, chunks of ice broke off under the ship; one crew member described the effect as being "thrown to and fro like a shuttlecock a dozen times."
On Oct. 24, ice squeezed the ship such that water rushed in and the timbers eventually broke, causing sounds which crew members later described as similar to "heavy fireworks and the blasting of guns."
Three days later, in temperatures below -15°F (-25°C), Shackleton was forced to give the order to abandon ship.
The crew salvaged supplies, including Hurley's photographic plates of which Hurley had to choose the best 150 and smash the other 400.
The men had to make new shoes out of wood from the scavenged pieces of the ship as they began an ill-fated march west with two of the ship's lifeboats carried on sledges.
Over the next few months they ran low on supplies and were eventually forced to shoot the last of the dogs on April 2, 1916, to add to their rations.
Eventually, Shackleton took four men and a lifeboat to nearby Georgia Island to arrange the rescue of the rest of his crew.
The rescued crew members last had contact with civilization in 1914, and when they returned to England in mid-1916, many of them entered the war through military or naval service.
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