[Book 2007] The Lost Men
Apr. 15th, 2007 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro24. The Lost Men: The Harrowing Story of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party by Kelly Tyler-Lewis
As I mentioned in relation to the BBC programme Blizzard: Race to the Pole, I'm fascinated by polar exploration[1].
The story of Shackleton's unsuccessful attempt to cross Antarctica is one of the best known episodes of polar exploration in the 20th century. What is less well known is the story of the Ross Sea party, though it is no less exciting. A boat and men were sent to the other side of Antarctica to lay supply depots for Shackleton's team to pick up as they neared the end of their trek. This part of the Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition was less well organised than Shackleton's own trip, and then just about everything that could go wrong did, culminating in the ship, the Aurora, being cast adrift in the pack ice leaving 10 men on shore. Despite most of their equipment being on the ship, they managed to complete their mission. Which was of course completely futile, given that Shackleton never made land in Antarctica.
This is a really well written book, successfully treading the fine line between telling an exciting adventure story and providing analysis of what went wrong, and right. By 1914 there was quite a wealth of experience in traveling in Antarctica already, and a great deal of it was ignored. Surprisingly, this included not only the strengths that the Norwegians had brought to polar exploration (which we've already established the British were too stubborn to take on board), but hard-won lessons of Scott and previous Shackleton expeditions were also ignored. On the other hand, the men could be astonishingly innovative with what few materials they had. The human body can withstand some quite unbelievable stresses and weather.
This book is extremely well researched and a complete joy to read. I got it from the library at the same time as The Long Exile, expecting that to be a gripping good story and this to be a bit of a hard slog, but in fact I got frustrated with that and thoroughly enjoyed this. Not one for the serious nerds only - I recommend it even if polar exploration isn't really your thing.
Interestingly, it's International Polar Year (which I find majorly exciting). Canadian Geographic has been focusing on this, and included a map of the polar regions with its Jan/Feb issue. I thought this was really neat anyway, and I was able to make use of it while reading this book (though one of the book's strengths is good maps throughout).
[1] I may be a fat lazy slob who couldn't be less active unless I was in a coma, but I have serious respect for people who go out and test the limits of human endurance and scientific knowledge.
As I mentioned in relation to the BBC programme Blizzard: Race to the Pole, I'm fascinated by polar exploration[1].
The story of Shackleton's unsuccessful attempt to cross Antarctica is one of the best known episodes of polar exploration in the 20th century. What is less well known is the story of the Ross Sea party, though it is no less exciting. A boat and men were sent to the other side of Antarctica to lay supply depots for Shackleton's team to pick up as they neared the end of their trek. This part of the Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition was less well organised than Shackleton's own trip, and then just about everything that could go wrong did, culminating in the ship, the Aurora, being cast adrift in the pack ice leaving 10 men on shore. Despite most of their equipment being on the ship, they managed to complete their mission. Which was of course completely futile, given that Shackleton never made land in Antarctica.
This is a really well written book, successfully treading the fine line between telling an exciting adventure story and providing analysis of what went wrong, and right. By 1914 there was quite a wealth of experience in traveling in Antarctica already, and a great deal of it was ignored. Surprisingly, this included not only the strengths that the Norwegians had brought to polar exploration (which we've already established the British were too stubborn to take on board), but hard-won lessons of Scott and previous Shackleton expeditions were also ignored. On the other hand, the men could be astonishingly innovative with what few materials they had. The human body can withstand some quite unbelievable stresses and weather.
This book is extremely well researched and a complete joy to read. I got it from the library at the same time as The Long Exile, expecting that to be a gripping good story and this to be a bit of a hard slog, but in fact I got frustrated with that and thoroughly enjoyed this. Not one for the serious nerds only - I recommend it even if polar exploration isn't really your thing.
Interestingly, it's International Polar Year (which I find majorly exciting). Canadian Geographic has been focusing on this, and included a map of the polar regions with its Jan/Feb issue. I thought this was really neat anyway, and I was able to make use of it while reading this book (though one of the book's strengths is good maps throughout).
[1] I may be a fat lazy slob who couldn't be less active unless I was in a coma, but I have serious respect for people who go out and test the limits of human endurance and scientific knowledge.
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Date: 2007-04-16 07:38 am (UTC)My library has it, so I might look it up if I ever get time, but I suspect that "The Lost Men" is more authoritative version.