The Worst Journey in the World

"The Worst Journey in the World" is a memoir of the 1910-1913 British Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. It was written and published in 1922 by a survivor of the expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and has earned wide praise for its frank treatment of the difficulties of the expedition, the causes of its disastrous outcome, and the meaning (if any) of human suffering under extreme conditions.

Preparations and the "Worst Journey"

In 1910, Cherry-Garrard and his fellow explorers traveled by sailing vessel, the "Terra Nova", from Cardiff to McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. 'Cherry' was teased at first by some of the other members of this expedition because of his lack of Antarctic experience, his lack of specialized credentials for the position of 'assistant zoologist' to which he had been named, and persistent suspicions among some of his comrades that he had in fact bought his way on board by contributing £1,000 to the expedition's troubled funds. [cite book |title=Cherry |last=Wheeler |first=Sara |year=2002 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=0-09943-753-8 |pages=59 ] Cherry-Garrard responded to these taunts with modesty, a self-sacrificial ability to work hard, and acute observational skills. He was also, according to novelist, biographer and socialite Nancy Mitford, the only intellectual amongst the crew. [cite book |title=Cherry |last=Wheeler |first=Sara |year=2002 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=0-09943-753-8 |pages=269 ] These traits were to serve him well when it came time for him to write down his memories of the expedition. They also caught the eye of the expedition's second-in-command, Dr Edward 'Bill' Wilson, who adopted Cherry-Garrard as a protégé. [cite book |title=Cherry |last=Wheeler |first=Sara |year=2002 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=0-09943-753-8 |pages=68, 145 ] Dr Wilson's personal goal in Antarctica was to recover eggs of the Emperor penguin for scientific study.cite book |title=The Worst Journey In the World|last=Cherry-Garrard |first=Apsley |year=1989 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York City |isbn=0-88184-478-0 |pages=281 ] It was thought at the time that the flightless (and "primitive") penguin might shed light on an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds through its embryo. [cite book |title=The Worst Journey In the World|last=Cherry-Garrard |first=Apsley |year=1989 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York City |isbn=0-88184-478-0 | pages=282] As the bird nests during the Antarctic winter, it was necessary to mount a special expedition in July 1911 from the expedition's base at Cape Evans to the penguins' rookery at Cape Crozier. Wilson chose Cherry-Garrard to accompany him and 'Birdie' Bowers across the Ross Ice Shelf under conditions of complete darkness and temperatures of -40 and below. It was this "Winter Journey", not the later expedition to the South Pole, that Cherry-Garrard later described as "The Worst Journey in the World". [cite book |title=The Worst Journey In the World|last=Cherry-Garrard |first=Apsley |year=1989 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York City |isbn=0-88184-478-0 | pages=277-356]

Later: the tragedy and the book

All three men, barely alive, returned from Cape Crozier with their egg specimens, which were stored as the expedition swung into preparations for a march from Cape Evans to the as-yet-undiscovered South Pole. This second and much longer march, in contrast with the "Worst Journey", was to be done during the Antarctic summer in 1911-1912.

Scott's game plan called for a large body of men to start out southward from their base, man-hauling food and fuel on sledges. It was mathematically impossible for all of them to reach the South Pole, and as the party progressed southward, the leader was forced to issue repeated orders to subgroups within the expedition to take their empty sledges and head back northward.

Cherry-Garrard accompanied this southward party across the Ross Ice Shelf and up the Beardmore Glacier, an ice tongue that discharges ice from the Antarctic Plateau down onto the shelf. At the edge of the polar plateau he was told by Scott that he would have to return northward. [cite book |title=Cherry |last=Wheeler |first=Sara |year=2002 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=0-09943-753-8 |pages=127-129 ]

The men not chosen to go on to the Pole reassembled at the base camp at Cape Evans and waited there through 1912 for Scott and four companions to rejoin them, but the expedition's leader never returned. In 1912-1913 Cherry-Garrard and other survivors once again marched southward, this time to try to find traces of their lost comrades. Cherry-Garrard's description of the frozen tent that contained three of them is one of the most dramatic sections of the book. Inside the tent were the remains of Scott and Cherry-Garrard's two companions on the "Worst Journey", Bowers and Wilson. [cite book |title=Cherry |last=Wheeler |first=Sara |year=2002 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=0-09943-753-8 |pages=142-146 ]

Cherry-Garrard's description of the closing scenes of the expedition, based on lengthy excerpts from his own journal, transitions first into a gentle and empathetic description of Scott's mistakes, and then into a written meditation on the themes of self-sacrifice and heroism.

Although "The Worst Journey in the World" was published only nine years after the end of the Scott expedition, that short length of time had made clear that new technology, particularly caterpillar-tread vehicles and airplanes, would revolutionize future work in the Antarctic and make much of the suffering endured by Scott and his men unnecessary.

"The Worst Journey in the World" asks, but does not answer, the question of whether this suffering was futile, or whether it would inspire future human beings facing very different challenges. [cite book |title=The Worst Journey In the World|last=Cherry-Garrard |first=Apsley |year=1989 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York City |isbn=0-88184-478-0 | pages=606-643]

An epilogue

The "Winter Journey" eventually became a case study on how a paradigm shift in scientific methodology can devalue data that had begun to be gathered before the shift. At the time the "Terra Nova" expedition sailed, many biologists believed in recapitulation theory. They believed that examining the embroyos of key species, such as the Emperor penguin, would show how the species - and, by extension, how the family of birds as a whole - had evolved. The expedition's scientists determined to try to collect specimens based upon this theory. [cite book |title=The Worst Journey In the World|last=Cherry-Garrard |first=Apsley |year=1989 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York City |isbn=0-88184-478-0 | pages=282]

As the suvivors of the "Terra Nova" returned to England several years later, recapitulation theory had begun to be discredited. The egg specimens were turned over to embryologists at London's Natural History Museum, who were largely uninterested in the donation. [cite book |title=The Worst Journey In the World|last=Cherry-Garrard |first=Apsley |year=1989 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York City |isbn=0-88184-478-0 | pages=351-352] Cherry-Garrard describes how he was told that the retrieved eggs had added little to their knowledge of penguin embryology, nor to scientific knowledge as a whole. [cite book |title=Cherry |last=Wheeler |first=Sara |year=2002 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=0-09943-753-8 |pages=161 ]

Honours

In 2001, "National Geographic Adventure" magazine named "The Worst Journey in the World" the "number one adventure book of all time." [ [http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/product/203/1766/114.html National Geographic webpage] ]

Adaptations

A drama documentary, also entitled "The Worst Journey In The World", written by and starring Mark Gatiss, was broadcast on BBC Four in April 2007.

The book was also adapted by Stef Penney for the BBC as a two-part radio drama in the Classic Serial strand - it was first broadcast on 21 and 28 September 2008 and directed by Kate McAll. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/classic_serial.shtml Classic Serial] ] It featured specially-composed music written by Will Gregory, orchestrated by Ian Gardiner and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Grant Llewellyn. Cherry-Garrard was played by Matt Green and Scott by John McAndrew, with Carl Prekopp playing Dr Atkinson, Mark Meadows as Captain Oates and Peter Callaghan as Lieutenant Bowers. Other cast included Simon Lee Phillips (Charles Wright), Richard Mitchley (Dr Edward Wilson), Jack Reynolds (PO Tom Crean) and Huw Davies (Taff Evans).

References