Book Review: The Worst Journey in the World

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyon the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Tennyson,
Ulysses


I recently finished reading "The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. ACG tell an heroic tale of loss and courage in Antarctica.

In March of 1912, Robert Scott, Titus Oates, Bill Wilson, Seaman Evans and Birdie Bowers perished of cold and starvation on their return journey from the South Pole. It had been a race to the Pole between the British and Amundsen and the Norwegians which had ended triumphant for Amundsen and his crew, and fatal for the British party.

On June 15, 1910, the Terra Nova set sail from Cardiff bound for Antarctica. The Terra Nova would return to Cardiff on June 14, 1913 with news of the defeat at the hands of the Norwegians and without their Captain Robert Scott and 4 of his best men.

The story is told by Apsley Cherry-Garrard; a 24 year old man at the time the Terra Nova set sail. ACG draws from his experiences and from others' journals to explain the facts, thoughts, emotions and the science behind 3 years in Antarctica. ACG lived to tell the tale of The Worst Journey in the World, which was not the race to the Pole, but the journey a year prior where ACG and Wilson traveled in the dead of winter, through 4 months of darkness and -78 degree cold, over crevasses, at times cheating death, for the sole purpose of recovering for scientific purposes the very first Emperor Penguin egg. ACG describes how at times during the Winter Journey he wished for nothing more than death.

All was not grief in Antarctica. ACG writes, "Those Hut Point [one of the permanent huts constructed in Antarctica] days would prove some of the happiest of my life. Just enough to eat and keep us warm, no more - no frills nor trimmings: there is many a worse and more elaborate life. The necessaries of civilization were luxuries to us...the luxuries of civilization satisfy only those wants which they themselves create."

ACG writes a gripping tale of life, loss, friendship, determination, adventure and science in Antarctica.

If you are a brave man, you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but cowards have need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say 'What is the use?' For we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year. And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: that is worth a good deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg. - ACG