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Scott's Last Expedition: The Journals

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You have to give credit when credit is due. Even if Robert Falcon Scott made tons of errors while leading the Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica, even if those errors resulted in human loss, boy, what an extraordinary, marvelous writer he was.

After reading tons of adventure and exploration book, you tend to appreciate real talent when you encounter it.
Robert Falcon Scott was a GREAT writer. This book is about the brutal expedition Scott lead to be the first human being at the South Pole. By now, I guess you all know he came in second to Roal Amundsen by mere weeks, and gave up his life (along with those of his 4 comrades) while trying to get back to Cape Evans.

What those poor, frozen, starving and sick human being went through is simply horrific. And Scott's writing more than draw a clear picture of what they experienced.

I suggest you read Scott's journals first. Then, if you really want to know WHY they died, you can pick up "The last place on earth" by Roland Huntford, which is another maspiece in it's own right.

Scott's book is one of the most poignant work of litterature you can pick up.

About halfway through this diary account of the Terra Nova expedition, it becomes clear why Amundsen made it first to the pole ... and why Scott's was the greater achievement. The Norwegians focused completely on getting to the pole and back: no fuss, no elaboration, no scientific spin-offs. Amundsen cared not a whit about paleobotany, the discovery of a new parasite in fish livers or pony psychology. (More to the point, Amundsen kept to dogs.) Scott took an interest in everything, and he was willing to experiment. The diaries brim with accounts of sledging diets, weather balloons, penguin dissections, ice crystal formation, geologic strata and killer whales. He writes of what it is like to be without the sun for four months, of feelings stirred by the aurora australis, and of the colors of ice and sea and sky. He describes camp life and daily routines and the antics of ponies and dogs. And, knowing he has failed in his goal, he speaks movingly of his obligations to his country ... and to science. Among the items dragged to their final camp by three exhausted, half-frozen dying men were 35 pounds of fossils - fossils which would help rewrite geologic history.

It's really too bad that "Scotts Last Expedition" was heavily edited by Sir J.M. Barrie, the talented author of Peter Pan. We'll never get to read Scott's real diary, which, I suspect, is a good deal more forthcoming on his feelings about Lt. Teddy Evans (his No. 2), Cecil Mears (his dog driver), and perhaps his own flawed self.

Still, "Scott's Last Expedition" belongs in every collection on Antarctic exploration, regardless of whether you feel Scott is a hero or a buffoon. An original copy from the 1920s will set you back $300 or more, so this paperback reprint for $10 or so from Amazon isn't a bad deal at all. True, it doesn't look or smell the same, but it still has all of that great source material on diet, clothing, equipment and the officers and crew.

While the story is known to most armchair explorers, nothing beats the saga right from the horse's mouth. Yes, the journal does drag in places, but so do long days of waiting in the Antarctic. It makes us impatient and edgy, wondering if the storms will ever end or what equipment will break next. Knowing the climax detracts nothing from how they got there--or didn't. This and Shackleton's own story really have to be read if one enjoys this kind of tale.

I wanted to point out that there are supposed to be five reviews accessible and I can only view the one from Austin, Texas. Where are the others?

The authoritive reference for what happened on Scott's polar journey - since it was written by the man himself. Don't be put off by the appalling introduction by Bainbridge (which ruins the story if you don't know all the details since it is just a brief summary of the rest of the book - just skip it!). I wouldn't recommend reading this first (try Scott by Elspeth Huxley as an intro) but for historical interest if you get into the history of the antarctic this is a must. The actual description of the southern journey only makes up the final section of the book, most of it is concerned with the depot laying and over wintering parts of the expedition. As such most of the book is mostly concerned with the details of preparing for the journey and hence probably won't appeal as a general introduction to Scott's last expedition.

Whether these journals were edited or not is of small importance in the face of the challenge that these men attempted. Scarce few in this day could brave the monotony, much less the lack of conveniences and having to survive by their wits in an unforgiving environment. By the end, I felt as if I knew these men and I felt the loss as they weakened and succumbed to the ravages that nature wrought.

Although these journals can be criticized as being edited, boring, irritating, whatever...I found them an incredible primary record of a time, place and expedition that could as well be about a trip to a far planet. These men were not perfect, don't pretend to be, but they had incredible courage, loyalty, patience and strength. I can't imagine what most people's journals would have looked like under the same circumstances...if indeed they were able or willing to write journals. I am forever grateful for reading this and other books about Robert Scott and his men and their experiences.

Having read Beryl Bainbridge's "The Birthday Boys" first, I was curious to read the actual journals by the leader of this ill-fated expedtion to the South Pole. Yes, the diary format can be monotonous, but in a certain way it also serves to drive home the daily -- sometimes hourly -- struggles against every possible obstacle, from weather to poor planning to inappropriate equipment and animals to short rations to frozen oil. Scott strikes me as one of that vanished breed of Englishmen whose likenesses hang in the National Portrait Gallery who undertook all sorts of adventures in the name of science and exploration at the turn of the century and attempted to claim various "firsts" for the crown and greater glory of God and country. Wrongheaded though he may have been, this book really gripped me. When Scott and his disappointed, starving and sick companions freeze to death only miles from their last camp, it is truly tragic. Perhaps the factual nature of his journals makes the fate of this expedition even more poignant. The image of these men in their tent has been with me for several days now so the writing and the story clearly get to one. Amundsen wrote somewhere that Scott would be more remembered for what befell him that he himself would be for getting to the South Pole first. in fact, he was right.

I first read "The Worst Journey in the World", by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a member of the 1910-1913 expedition, the most eloquent, lyrical, account of the various excursions of the Scott 1910 Expedition. Then, I read "Scott of the Antarctic" by Elspeth Huxley, who deified Scott and trashed Shackleton. I read Charles "Silas" Wright's Memoir and Diary, superbly edited and illustrated by his daughter, and I read "The Norwegian with Scott--Tryggve Gran's Antarctic Diary 1910-1913," translated by his daughter. All were excellent. Then, I started "Scott's Last Expedition--The Journals". The supreme disappointment: if you don't lose interest in the latitude/longitude references, you will go nearly mad at the ridiculously fraternizing descriptions of life in the Cape Evans Hut: no one just does anything; they do it "amazingly fine", "wonderfully fine", "with indefatigable strength and fortitude." Nobody is but the nth wonderful, extraordinary character, and we are told so until we are sick in the head way before abour page 250. Then, things get thick out on the glacier, and we go from the "Hail, fellow, well met", to a continuous whining, and I paraphrase the crying for weeks: it's too cold, it's too wet, it's too windy, it's too dry, --my god, it's too hot, not enough wind, until you wonder what could satisfy this fellow other than tropical air in Antarctica. I paraphrase an insightful comment by, I think, a screenwriter of the BBC series, when the Norwegian (I think), comments that anyone who comes to Antarctica and whines about the weather is unfit to lead. You have to agree. Still, one has to recognize and acknowledge Scott's strength of character in other ways, and when "we", who have read the diary, lose him at the end of the book, it truly is like losing a friend.