the tiller and going without sleep for 90 hours straight. His experience with open boats came to the fore in his sound handling of the Dudley Docker, while his navigation was exemplary, guiding the fleet of lifeboats unerringly to Elephant Island once they found favourable wind conditions. On the final night at sea, with Elephant Island having been sighted earlier in the day, heavy seas separated his boat from the other two lifeboats. His boat taking on water and caught in a rip, Worsley steered the Dudley Docker all through the night. Relieved early in the morning, he promptly fell asleep and could only be awoken by kicks to the head; it was only three years later that he found out the method used to wake him up. The Dudley Docker made shore on 15 April, landing on the same shingle beach of Elephant Island as the other lifeboats. It was the expedition's first landfall in almost 18 months. Voyage of the James Caird It quickly became apparent that Elephant Island, 32 km (20 miles) of rock and ice with little shelter, was not a welcoming environment with winter approaching and most of the expedition members weakened by their ordeal. Furthermore, the expedition could not be expected to be spotted by search parties or passing whalers. Within days of landing on Elephant Island, Shackleton decided to take a small party and sail the largest lifeboat, the James Caird, named for one of the expedition's sponsors, to South Georgia, 1300 km (800 miles) away. From there he would obtain a ship and return for the remainder of his men. Worsley, whose navigational skills had impressed Shackleton, volunteered to accompany him. The James Caird, originally built to Worsley's specifications, was about 6.7m (22 feet) long and the expedition's carpenter, Harry McNish, immediately set about improving its seaworthiness. On 24 April, the weather dawned clear and after being provisioned with 30 days of supplies, the boat left Elephant Island. Worsley was faced with the task of navigating the Southern Ocean to South Georgia. There was no margin for error as the James Caird would sail into the South Atlantic if he missed the island; this would mean almost certain death for those in the lifeboat, as well as for those remaining on Elephant Island. Fortuitously, the weather was fine on the day of departure from the island and this allowed Worsley to obtain