Let's start with Shackleton. His plan was to be the first man (with team) to cross the Antarctic continent on foot. To that end he got sponsorship, found a ship and got a crew together: some of whom would take part in the track accross the continent.
They didn't even make it to their start-off place. Due to freaky icy conditions, even for the antartic, in October 1915 his ship, the Endurance, was trapped in the ice and it soon became apparent that it would be wrecked and sink. The crew, and their dog teams, made camp on an ice floe and gathered together the stores, and boats, they thought they would need to get accross the ice to Paulet island where a second part of the original team had dropped stores and would be able to rescue them.
What came next is an epic journey that lasted over a year in just about the most inhospitable conditions our planet has to offer. It culminted in a sea voyage by six of the men, including Shackleton, a crossing on foot of South Georgia - which has only ever been done twice, and the second team, in 1955, were very well equipped for such a journey and even then it was the toughest thing they had ever done and the eventual rescue of the rest of the team. 27 men left England with Shackleton and 28 came back (they took a stowaway onto the crew as an official member after they had started the final leg of their journey to the Antarctic).
Now to the book. It was written in 1959 by Alfred Lansing. Unfortunately (or maybe not) the copy I ended up with (which isn't that pictured) is published by the Tyndale press which meant nothing to me until I read in the flyleaf "This work has been edited for a Christian audience".
I was tempted to just put it on the shelf and write it off, but I've long wanted to read about this journey so I gave it a go. But it does leave me wondering, what was edited out or in that wasn't in the original which I am now going to have to hunt down to make a comparison. Maybe.
This book is written in a completely factual way but so wonderfully done that it really is a page turner. It really brings over the stoicism of the men, without making them seem pathetic or overly-heroic. They did what they had to to survive, but at the same time presereved their sense of dignity and humanity. Good use has been made of archive material, partially quoting from the mens' journals and as much as possible evokes the tortures they went through. But sitting in 21st century comfort and used to modern lightweight, strong materials and comforts it is nearly impossible to put yourself in their shoes. I've been out (on military exercise) in temperatures of -15°C when I was cold and miserable, but I was never more than 30 minutes away from a meal or a cup of tea, or just to warm myself in our truck.
I certainly didn't have to thrust my freezing hands into the warm entrails of a recently killed seal to prevent frostbite. And as for the Antarctic winter: having read an account of overwintering at the Antarctic station, set in the 1990s, I still can't imagine how it would be to exist with no natural light for days and days on end.
But this book brought me as close as possible. Quite brilliant.
6 comments:
Hi Sho it's Jane here
Thanks for inviting me to your book blog. By a strange coincidence, I deleted both my blogs, (one of them a book-blog) on New Year's Day as a sort of clearing out system. I actually miss them but haven't got around to starting a new one yet.
I liked this, because I am at present ploughing through three Scott biographies, it being the centenary of Scott's doomed expedition. Was the Antarctic book you read by Sara Wheeler?
*waves to Jane*
I've been keeping an online book diary at h2g2 for the last few years, but I thought I'd give each book a bit more of a chance like this.
When you've finished the Scott biographies, I'd love a recommendation. I really can't get enough of this type of writing.
The Antarctic book I read was: Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole - Dr. Jerri Nielsen with Maryanne Vollers.
I read about Jerri Nielson at the time she was at the Antarctic station, she was the overwintering station doctor - shortly after the last flight left before the winter she diagnosed herself as having breast cancer. She died in 2009 and reading her obit I discovered this book. Absolutely incredible - my lasting impression is that the people who go there are all a few cards short of a full deck!
Yes, I remember that doctor and her story.
I read Sara Wheeler's "Travels in Antarctica" and have passed it on to daughter2. I told her it would be a good place to go on a gap year! She actually took the idea up, but then seemed to drop it.
I'm reading Apsley Cherry Garrard, "The Worst Journey in the World". APG survived and Sara Wheeler wrote a biography of him which is worth reading too.
I also have Herbert Ponting's "Great White South" which is mainly photographs, he was the expedition photographer. The best of all, though, is Scott's original journals, which are so moving as you travel with him from New Zealand all through 1911 to the last camping place.
I think I'll try the journals. I've always had a nosey streak. And I'll be trying the Sara Wheeler book too.
I think Antarctica would be a great place for a gap year, there is a lot of serious scientific work that you can do there, and it has got to be a real test of surviving a little bit outside the modern world.
Although, of course, you could get that up north too and it's not so far away from home!
I've started up a blog again. Now I can post comments without having to use anonymous!
I agree about the scientific work, in fact that was why I suggested it to her. She won the A-level Physics prize at school, and I thought it would combine adventure and some worthwhile activity!
oh wow! Well done to her, Physics is one of those subjects that I have just never managed to get my head round.
So did she decide what do do on her gap year? Or are they things of the past these days?
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