110 responses to “Forever Ernest”

1. This sort of writing always makes me cry. Too readily I place myself in the person of the letter writer and wonder if the letter will be received or if I will just vanish from the heart. Too often I place myself in the person of the receiver, holding that last bit of the person close, as if I could embrace them one last time. Lovely work.

   • Thankfully he returned… he died later on a later expedition.

     • Thank you for letting me know

2. I read Shakleton’s caliant voyage as a kid – it still remains a favorite

   • I have only seen the film, but I once met with the widow of Otto Nordensköld who was on an expedition of similar fate.

     • Nice – some men really are heroes

3. These were extraordinary men who took on these challenges. Nice bit of writing, too. >

   • And behind those great men, there were the wives that were so important for why they did it.

4. this is really cool man….love the set up as a letter….as i think letters allow us to convey personal feeling and intimacy in a way that little else allows….

   • Thank you.. and a letter that you hope will never be read has to be the most honest.

5. There’s nothing sadder than a letter written in the possibility that it will only be read when the writer is dead. Nicely done Bjorn.

   • Or nothing happier when it was never read 🙂

6. Great stuff, Bjorn. Invokes the spirit of the age and the personaliy of the man. I don’t know much about this bit of history – your story has sent me into the depths of the internet to discover more.

   • To row a boat over open water to South Georgia after spending a winter in Antarctica has to be bravery bordering on stupidity.

7. Loved this, very unique take on the prompt and what a way to tell a complete story. I always love learning a bit of history during Friday Fictioneers 🙂

   • I love reading the letters and it has been a while since I tried the format of a letter.

8. I too enjoyed the format. It makes it so much more personal and adds to the poignancy of the circumstances.

   • I love stories in the form of letters.. I think it takes us searching for information and connecting the dots.

9. Well done, Bjorn. Showing a letter he was to have sent to his wife was a great way of telling the problems he was having. Creative use of the prompt. 🙂 — Suzanne

   • I think preparing for the worst is one way to really get through…

10. Adze? Had to Google that one 🙂

    • I found it in a text about Shackleton, apparently one of the reason that they managed to row across the wild ocean was that the ship’s carpenter managed to modify the vessel to handle the sea better.

11. Well, I learned a new word, thank you! Interesting and touching epistolary story. (There’s a word for you!) Love the last line — adze and all.

    • Ah epistolary I know.. but that would require an answer.. I think I might try to do one with just SMS …

12. I love the play on words with Endurance. Very clever.

    • 🙂 To use ships names in writing was a little fun.

13. I’ve read a bit about Shackleton and Mawson and just finished a story called The Ice Balloon by Alec Wilkinson: (1897, at the height of the heroic age of Arctic exploration, the visionary Swedish explorer S. A. Andrée made a revolutionary attempt to discover the North Pole by flying over it in a hydrogen balloon. Thirty-three years later, his expedition diaries and papers would be discovered on the ice.) These explorers had more brain than brawn sometimes but with out them??

    Lovely take on the prompt and again – thanks for the edit.

    • I grew up with the tragic story of the André .. my father was a professor of geography and a late successor to Otto Nordensköld…. so stories and speculations where sometimes shared at the dinnertable at home.

14. You paint a vivid picture in this short letter, loved the ‘ship being eaten by ice’.
    Well written.
    KT

    • Which was literary what happened to the Endurance

15. Lovely poetry, as always.

    • Thank you 🙂

16. Such an enduring and powerful story. My eldest son has long had the iconic photo of the Endurance in his room. Nicely told in a letter, Björn.

    • It is a drama of epic proportions.. and I think he must have written such a letter before setting out on the stormy sea.

17. i too, loved the letter format. very sad but lovely story.

    • The end was a good one though.. he made it to South Georgia, and everyone was saved.

18. I too learned a new word and ab out a legendary adventurer! It always rekindles the vander-lust in me !

    • This kind of story actually make me more afraid actually.

19. It must be so hard to write those letters. Well done to your vision of one such case.

    • Thank you. I was actually copying slightly from saved letters from Andree’s expedition.

20. I particularly like this format, few of my past FF were letters. So many things compressed in so little words, nicely done.

    • Little words??? I meant, few words. 😛

      • Ha.. just like little people perhaps .. like the chairman (and a countryman) of BP once said..

21. a bit of premonition that hits the reader, nice post as always

    • And against all odds he made it 🙂

22. Enjoyed the read. One can feel the emotions – the passion- being enclosed as Ernest sealed the envelope knowing the end was near.

    • And how good that it was not lost.

23. The letter chilled me to the bone. I can only imagine what I would write to my beloved under such dire circumstances. Very emotional.

    • I think I would keep it very short, and just hope it would never be read.

24. Dear Bjorn,

    I had but to read the location and date at the beginning of your story/letter to know what was coming. A most excellent tribute to the Mr. Shackleton. James McIlroy, an ancestor of m one, was one of two surgeons on the Endurance’s crew.

    Outstanding tale, sir.

    Aloha,

    Doug

    • Wow.. we all love those connections.. my connection is that I once met with the widow of Otto Nordensköld.. who had a similar adventure (actually Shackleton was part in setting up the Argentinean rescue operation)

25. Dear Björn,

    Your poignant letter and the bit of history you’ve included left me wanting to know more about Shackleton. Nicely handled.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

    • Thank you.. I knew some of it, but had to do some research.. but you know that very well I think. 🙂

26. A very poignant letter – thank goodness he survived that time.

    • It was a wonderful adventure,,

27. Great read! Loved the format. Makes me want to read up on more historical events.

    • Writin fiction in letterformat is a great way to convey a message

28. Dear Bjorne … Love the letter format, as I’ve seen many have. It really pulls one into the story and heats up ones curiosity to know more … so it’s a Googling I will go! Ciao, Georgia!

    • Googling from north Georgia to south Georgia 🙂

      • LOL … Here in Italy I’m pulled between the Eastern Georgia to the Western Georgia! 😉

      • Probably somewhat better than South Georgia at least. I actually thought it funny to be able to hide your name in my story.

      • I think it’s absolutely cool actually that you hid my name in your story! I was referring the the Russian State of Georgia and the U.S. State of Georgia in my quip …

29. I’m learning a lot from the story and comments. Thanks.

    • It is really one of the really fantastic adventures.

30. it didn’t have a happy ending. but praise to him for living his dream.

    • The interesting thing is that this letter would never have been opened. He did make it against all odds.

31. To perish at sea and to lose someone that way, well that’s just about as sad as it gets. You are at the mercy of nature and the mighty sea. Nicely told, Bjorn. I like the tie in to the trip and name. That was most clever of you!

    • 🙂 It’s a fantastic adventure really — so good that the letter never had to be read by Emma.

32. Very touching, and I like that you’ve written this week’s prompt as a letter.
    I liked the line “at the mercy of wind, sea and a carpenter’s adze” – two forces of nature versus the skill of the man who built the boat.

    • Yes the carpenter’s improvement to the vessel was crucial to manage across the sea.

33. “If you ever read this letter, you probably know that I have perished at sea.” So sad–the beginning and the end of the story in the first sentence.

    • And so good it was never read.. He did actually survive ..

34. Love the historical fiction. The letter is a great way of getting everything across in 100 words.

    • Thank you Irene… yes letters is one that I use to seldom..

35. I loved your format for this, great little piece 🙂

    • A letter seems right to capture the pivot point of the story..

36. Lovely imagery and powerful emotions. I like the idea of a letter and the sad scenario it represents.

    • Sad.. but against all hopes they succeeded.

37. Oh there are some painful thoughts being stirred by this little broken boat. Great story Bjorn!

    • A boat that also saved them..

38. A letter so full of feeling and trepidation – well imagined.

    • Thank you.. yes it had to be that way.

39. Great response to the prompt. I don’t know anything about the history behind it but it’s fascinating all the same. Your choice to tell it through the letter was a really good one – it really pulls at the heartstrings. It’s so easy to imagine receiving such a thing. 🙂

    • Ah .. and yet the real story had a happy end, Shackleton made it in his tiny boat and all were saved… so this letter was never read… it’s more a what if scenario

      • That makes it even better! 🙂

40. I thought that was a familiar story. At first I read it as Earnest from The Importance of Being Earnest and Emily Dickens.

    • You’re welcome to laugh at me. I did.

      • Actually the importance of being Ernest was in the back of my head.

41. Love your historical take on this! Always a pleasure to read and learn.

    • Thank you 🙂

42. Good story. Its hard to believe they all made it.

    • I have to say I agree.. it’s kind of against all odds.

43. Dear Bjorn, Wonderful story and so sad. I don’t know what I’d say to Mike if I was in a predicament so harrowing. I had never heard the word “adze” but I’ve seen one before. Glad they had one with them on their trip, otherwise, they probably wouldn’t have made it! Excellent and entertaining story! Nan 🙂

    • Thank you Nan.. I think brief would have been the only way to write such a letter.

44. I love the way you have presented this as a letter. It makes the information so much more poignant that way. A lovely, but sad, story.

    • Letters are excellent in doing narrative. I wonder why it isn’t used more.

      • I agree with you. Letters add that lovely personal touch, bringing the characters so much closer to the reader. I certainly enjoyed reading yours.

45. I am an admirer of Shackleton. Your letter makes me love him more!

    Lily

    • He seem to be a man as close to a hero as you can be.

46. This tugged at my heartstrings.

    • The more you read about those people the more your hear beats.

47. I enjoy using a letter as a means of telling a story, you did this perfectly here. Well done Bjorn.

    • I think letters are great to use for short stories.

48. That is a great imagining of Shackleton’s many adventures. Very creative idea.

    • For some reason it was the first that popped into my mind.

49. Dear Bjorn,
    Shackleton is an interesting character from the halls of history. Nice way to go with this prompt.

    All my best,
    Marie Gail

    • He seemed to have lived a story..

50. dear Björn
    I had to google Shakleton, when I stiumbled over “Endurance” – that was tricky, to use the ships name this way. It´s not easy to get a whole story into 100 words, but you maneged it. And the most important thing for all of us writers, suspense. At the end of the letter I wanted to know what happened to him, to Emily…sure I would read the book if this was the first page 🙂
    Liebe Grüße
    Carmen

    • Thank you Carmen,
      The Shackleton story is amazing, I have seen it on film, I have heard it told, and of course this was the crucial point in his life (afterwards) setting out on a hopeless mission only to succeed. I have no idea if he ever wrote a letter, but reading I understand the Emily was very important in his life.
      Björn

51. I like this imagined letter and how it shows the importance of love in a life.
    I saw a Shackleton exhibit at a museum a few years ago. Quite an amazing fellow.
    Ellespeth

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