A First Rate Tragedy
A Brief History of Captain Scott's Antarctic Expeditions
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
On November 12, 1912, a rescue team trekking across Antarctica's Great Ice Barrier finally found what they sought - the snow-covered tent of the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Inside, they made a grim discovery: Scott's frozen body lay between the bodies of two fellow explorers. They had died just eleven miles from the depot of supplies which might have saved them.
Why did Scott's meticulously laid plans finally end in disaster, while his rival, Norwegian Roald Amundsen, returned safely home with his crew after attaining the Pole only days before the British team?
In a newly revised and updated version of her original book, Diana Preston, returns to Antarctica and explores why Scott's carefully planned expedition failed, ending in tragedy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman." So reads Captain Robert Falcon Scott's message from the grave, found in a tent with his frozen corpse and the bodies of two fellow explorers, after his expedition had lost the race to the South Pole. Disheartened by their defeat at the hands of the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the British team struggled on their return trip, succumbing to the Antarctic elements only 11 miles from the fuel and food that might have saved them. Scott was the most revered of the major Antarctic explorers of his day: Amundsen may have personified professionalism, and Shackleton, endurance; but Scott--perhaps only by dying--represented the courage and heroism that an insecure, prewar Britain craved. Drawing on the poetic writings of the explorers themselves, Preston (The Road to Culloden Moor) illuminates Scott's occasional bad luck, inexperience and even ineptitude without diminishing his unquestionable courage, honor and humanity. Indeed, it is Preston's balanced look at Scott's life and its context that sets this book apart from the many other works on the subject. Three maps, two 8-page b&w inserts.
