Death on the Ice (63 page)

HARRY PENNELL, inevitably known as Penelope, was the navigator who took charge of
Terra Nova
, moving her back and forth to New Zealand. A man of incredible energy, he was very well liked by all, but especially by Bowers and Cherry. He served in the RN and was killed at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May, 1916.

HERBERT PONTING. The photographer’s story is a sad one. Ponco never felt he received the monies he deserved from the expedition and a series of failed investments and silly schemes (he created a line of soft-toy Adelie penguins called Poncos) left him very bitter. He died in 1935, at the age of 65, in relative poverty, but his Antarctic photographs remain a rich, astonishing achievement.

RAYMOND PRIESTLEY had served as a geologist on
The Nimrod
with Shackleton. In the First World War he served with the Royal Engineers on wireless communications, gaining a Military Cross. He became vice-chancellor of Melbourne and Birmingham universities and co-founded the Scott Polar Research Institute with Frank Debenham. He died in 1972.

KATHLEEN SCOTT created several memorials to her husband after his death. One is in Waterloo Place, London, and a second in Christchurch, New Zealand. The other is called Youth and stands outside the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. The model for this naked figure was A. W. Lawrence, brother of T. E., aka Lawrence of Arabia. She did have a one-sided infatuation with TEL, but, of course, it came to nothing. She married Edward Hilton Young, a politician, in 1922 and became Baroness Kennet when he was ennobled in 1935. She died in 1947. Her son Peter Scott served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War, winning the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross) for bravery. He became a distinguished naturalist and ornithologist, creating the Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. He died in 1989.

GEORGE ‘SUNNY JIM’ SIMPSON became director of the UK Meteorological Office (1920-38) and was president of the Royal Meteorological Society (1940-42). Scott described him as ‘Admirable as a worker, admirable as a scientist and admirable as a lecturer’. He also laid the groundwork that, decades later, Susan Solomon would build upon to prove that Scott’s really was ‘The Coldest March’. Simpson said of Scott: ‘He was the truest of scientists, a seeker of understanding and not of status.’

THOMAS GRIFFITH TAYLOR was London born but Australia raised. He became a distinguished (and often controversial, thanks to his views on population) professor of geography at the universities of Chicago and Toronto. He died in 1963, aged 73.

CHARLES ‘SILAS’ WRIGHT worked on wireless technology during the First World War and was awarded the OBE. We should be grateful that he wasn’t chosen for the polar party, as he so badly wished, because he carried out important work on the development of radar prior to and during the Second World War. Sir Charles, as he became, returned to Canada after the war, then moved to California and served as a physicist in the US Antarctic Research Programme in 1960 and 1965. He died in 1975.

Conversion of Celsius and Fahrenheit

Celsius Fahrenheit

Or to convert F to C, subtract thirty-two and multiply by five-ninths (i.e. multiply by five then divide by nine).

D
EATH ON THE ICE
is a novel, fiction based on fact. In order to keep the shape of the story, I have sometimes omitted or sidelined various incidents. One I regret is the story of the Northern Party under Victor Campbell. It was dropped off by
Terra Nova
, which later found it impossible to pick them up. The men’s survival and gruelling march to safety is another example of incredible polar endurance by half-starved men. It’s a story that deserves to be more widely known. Cherry, Wilson and Birdie, of course, had many more escapades on their Cape Crozier winter expedition than related here. See
The Worst Journey In the World
by Cherry, or Sara Wheeler’s biography of the man for full details.

I have also moved a few dates (Ponting was attacked by the killer whales much later) but the majority of the episodes here are true. The entries in Scott’s journals are more or less verbatim, but some of the letters from Oates to his mother and from Kathleen to Scott have been highly fictionalised. None can be relied upon as an exact replica of the original. This is a novel, after all. The letter from Amundsen to Nansen is based on a translation by Roland Huntford, although it is not an exact duplicate. The notice of the wedding for Captain Scott is extracted from an article in the
Daily Mirror
.

Many others have trodden these icy wastes before me and polar exploration has its own vast literature. I found the following books particularly useful and inspiring, however:

Cherry
and
Terra Incognita
, both by Sara Wheeler. One is a biography of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the other an account of her time in Antarctica, both first rate and highly recommended.

I Am Just Going Outside
by Michael Smith. A very well-written, thoroughly researched biography of Captain Oates, with speculation about the child he may have fathered. Again, absolutely recommended. Michael Smith is also the author of
Tom Crean—Antarctic Survivor
, which tells far more about this remarkable man than is revealed here.

Captain Oates—Soldier and Explorer
by Sue Limb and Patrick Cordingley. The first, excellent, biography of Oates, now re-issued. Details of the homecoming party were based on material here.

The Norwegian with Scott
by Tryggve Gran. Gran’s diaries, in which he talks about his dreams, especially the one of Amundsen reaching the Pole on the exact day he did so.

Scott and Amundsen
by Roland Huntford. The controversial book that comprehensively debunked Scott, painting him as foolish and incompetent. It also suggests that Nansen and Kathleen had a full-blown affair and that Bowers may have died last. It contains brilliant original research on Amundsen, much of it translated from original Norwegian sources.

Captain Scott
by Ranulf Fiennes. The case for the defence by one who has stood in his (snow) shoes.

Scott of the Antarctic
by David Crane. A thorough, balanced overview of the life of Scott and the last expedition. The book faces up to Scott’s mistakes, but also suggests why men were willing to follow him on to the ice.

Scott’s Last Expedition
, his journals edited by Max Jones. The complete version (they were edited for publication) with incisive comments by the editor.

The Last Great Quest: Captain Scotts Antarctic Sacrifice
by Max Jones. The polar quest skilfully put into a larger context. Includes much fascinating detail on the aftermath and impact of the deaths.

The Coldest March
by Susan Solomon. Painstaking research shows that Scott really did have bad luck with the weather.

The Worst Journey in the World
by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. One of the Best Travel Books on the Planet.

A Great Task of Happiness
by Louisa Young. Fascinating biography of Kathleen Scott by her granddaughter.

I May Be Some Time
by Francis Spufford. Subtitled
Ice and the English Imagination
. Attempts to answer the question: why do they do it?

Hell with a Capital H
by Katherine Lambert. Engrossing look at the Northern party, led by Campbell, who had their own epic struggle, which they survived.

The Voyage of the
Discovery
Vols 1&2
by Captain Scott. The journal that upset Shackleton.

The Ice
by Stephen J. Pyne. The science and history of Antarctica.

Nimrod
by Beau Riffenburgh. Excellent and entertaining account of Shackleton’s attempt on the Pole. Also the author of a very good book on Mawson (
Racing With Death
).

I would also like to thank the staff of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, especially Heather Lane, Librarian and Keeper of Collections, and archivist Naomi Boneham. The SPRI holds a remarkable archive plus a museum with equipment from the expeditions and a collection of Scott’s final letters on display. Well worth a visit (see
www.spri.cam.ac.uk
). Also worth seeing is Scott’s
Discovery
which is now a museum, dry docked in Dundee (see
www.rrdiscovery.com
). There are excellent guided tours which, combined with the diminutive size of the ship, will only increase your admiration for the pluck and resilience of the polar explorers.

Oates’s affair with Edie is fiction, although Michael White (see above), Oates’s biographer, is convinced he did have a child in 1900. After his mother died, Oates’s Antarctic diary was burned by his sister Violet on the instructions of Caroline. Violet disobeyed, at least partially, copying down key passages before destroying the bulk of it. We can only guess what else was in it.

There is a museum dedicated to Oates at Gilbert White’s House in Seiborne, Hampshire, that has many of his and the family’s letters and artifacts. See
www.gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk
. I would like to thank Oates’s biographer Sue Limb (see bibliography above) for agreeing to read an early draft of the novel and for her suggestions. All the liberties taken with the story are mine, and mine alone.

I am particularly indebted to Louisa Young (Kathleen’s granddaughter) for also agreeing to meet with me and to read the book. She accepted that I was playing fast and loose with her family history with grace and understanding. I am also grateful to Rowland Hunter for his help and advice. Equally, as always, the novel owes much to Martin Fletcher and to Jo Stansall at Headline and to David Miller and Susan d’Arcy. Thanks to them all.

The controversy about Scott and his methods continue. There are those who champion Shackleton or Amundsen at the expense of Scott, others who believe he has been maligned over recent years.

There is no doubt he made mistakes and then failed to learn from them (they knew about fuel-creep on the
Discovery
expedition, for example). The story is full of ifs: if he had had healthier horses, more secure cans for the fuel, more dogs, better weather. If Taff Evans hadn’t kept his wound from the others, if Oates hadn’t been chosen for the polar party or had declined. If Crean or Lashly had been the fifth man. If a sick Teddy Evans had remembered to relay the order that the dogs needed to go further south to Mt Hooper. If Cherry had pushed on; he was only two or three days’ dog driving from the tent. This haunted him for the rest of his life. The list goes on and, I suspect, so will the arguments and discussions.

Robert Ryan

London, 2009

Robert Ryan was born in Liverpool and has worked as a race car mechanic, journalist, jazz composer, university lecturer, and more. He has written many novels, including
Early One Morning
, a
Sunday Times
(UK) bestseller. He lives in North London with his wife, three children, a dog, and a deaf cat.

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Copyright © 2009 by Robert Ryan

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