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Nimrod: Ernest Shackleton and the Extraordinary

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Nimrod: Ernest Shackleton and the Extraordinary 67 Book Reviews NIMROD: ERNEST SHACKLETON AND THE we learn that Shackleton went rhino hunting in Madras in EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE 1907–09 the 1890s (page 33); that on Discovery he was ‘both fore BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. Beau and aft’ (page 66), popular with officers and men; and that Riffenburgh. 2004. London: Bloomsbury. xxiv + 360 p, his Tory counterpart on the hustings in Dundee in 1906 illustrated, hard cover. ISBN 0-7475-7254-2. £17.99. was a prophetically named Duncan Smith (page 100). DOI: 10.1017/S0032247404214115 Shackleton stretched his considerable powers of persuasion to the limit in scratching together the finance It takes some effort today to remember that, less than a for his expedition, which sailed for the Antarctic in decade ago, the exploits of Ernest Shackleton were largely 1907 on board a battered 40-year-old sealer, Nimrod. forgotten in Britain and America. Roland Huntford’s 1985 Chapters 11 to 22, the heart of the book, chronicle Nim- Shackleton was almost the only new book on the polar rod’s voyage and the experiences of the seamen, scientists, explorer published between the Fishers’ 1957 biography and adventurers, who spent 14 months in the Antarctic and the end of the 1990s. Then, in 1999, an exhibition between January 1908 and March 1909. The party in New York’s Natural History Museum and a book established their base camp at Cape Royds, on the by Caroline Alexander fixed attention on Shackleton’s west coast of Ross Island. Although poorly funded and Endurance expedition and the astonishing story of his hurriedly prepared, the expedition achieved wonderful journey to safety. Books about Shackleton and a host of results, including the first ascent of Mount Erebus and the other explorers from the ‘Heroic Age’ have proliferated location of the South Magnetic Pole. But the expedition’s over the last five years, while Shackleton himself has most memorable achievement was the southern march by inspired an IMAX movie and an award-winning television Shackleton, his second-in-command Jameson Adams, the mini-series. Yet, amidst this torrent of publications, the surgeon Dr Eric Marshall, and his friend from Discovery, Antarctic expedition that propelled Shackleton to fame in Frank Wild. Supported only by a pitiful four ponies, 1909 has been largely neglected. the men succeeded in marching to within 97 geographic Beau Riffenburgh’s readable and superbly researched miles of the South Pole. Explaining his decision to turn Nimrod presents the first detailed history of Ernest back, Shackleton famously indicated to his wife Emily, ‘I Shackleton’s greatest expedition. It has been worth the thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion’ wait. After a brief prologue, chapter one opens with a (page 233). The party pioneered a route from the barrier dramatic account of Shackleton’s participation in Robert up through the great glacier, which they named after Scott’s earlier Discovery expedition, in which Scott, their principal patron, William Beardmore, to the polar Shackleton, and the surgeon and naturalist Edward Wilson plateau, a route that Scott would follow three years later. achieved a new ‘farthest south,’ around 480 miles from the Shackleton noted they had beaten the previous southern Pole. The three men barely survived the return march, with record by 366 miles, and the northern by 77 miles, the Shackleton suffering most of all. The chapter is highly greatest advance towards either Pole that had ever been effective, providing the book with a dramatic opening, made. The final chapter presents a fascinating account and establishing the feelings of failure and personal rivalry of the ‘Heroes Return,’ with Shackleton feted´ throughout that would drive Shackleton back to the Antarctic. Britain and the world, and receiving a Knighthood from Chapters two to ten narrate Shackleton’s early life, King Edward VII. interspersed with discussions of the history of exploration, The book is based on a thorough survey of the the political climate, and the popular culture of imperial- journals and correspondence of the principal actors, ism, which, Riffenburgh argues, dominated British society now held in Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute. before the First World War. These discussions effectively Riffenburgh marshals his impressive array of sources locate the young merchant seaman in a rich historical with considerable skill, keeping the narrative moving context, ‘A Product of Empire’ at the Empire’s zenith. and holding the reader’s attention throughout. He should Scott insisted Shackleton return to England with the relief also be praised for acknowledging rather than obscuring ship Morning after their southern march. The relationship a couple of instances where the archival record is between the two men appears to have remained healthy unclear (e.g. Shackleton’s confrontation with Nimrod’s after the return of the Discovery in 1904. But the stain Captain England, pages 162–163). He is sympathetic to on his reputation festered, and, after drifting through a Shackleton, but works hard to offer a balanced inter- number of positions, Shackleton resolved to return to the pretation of a complex man, and the book includes the south at the head of his own expedition, a resolution that inevitable critical comments generated under the strain of would fracture his friendship with both Scott and Wilson. polar hardship. Although I think he underestimates the de- Throughout, Riffenburgh enlivens the narrative with mands of loyalty in the Edwardian mindset, Riffenburgh’s illuminating facts, anecdotes and well-chosen quotations: clear and thoroughly referenced analysis of the wrangling 68 BOOK REVIEWS between Shackleton and the Scott faction before Nimrod’s References departure (Chapter 9), and Shackleton’s fateful decision to Alexander, C. 1998. The Endurance . London: Bloomsbury. make camp in McMurdo Sound (Chapter 12), will become Fisher, M., and J. Fisher. 1957. Shackleton. London: essential reading on a dispute that has been raked over by Barrie Books. so many authors. Riffenburgh also rescues the Nimrod’s Huntford, R. 1985. Shackleton. London: Hodder and scientific achievements from neglect. He persuasively Stoughton. argues that Shackleton’s own lack of enthusiasm for the research programme has overshadowed the very real achievements of David, Mawson, Murray, and Priestley. CONTACT, CONTINUITY, AND COLLAPSE: (Mawson’s account of rescuing David from a crevasse THE NORSE COLONIZATION OF THE NORTH (page 241), retrieved by Riffenburgh from the Sydney ATLANTIC. James H. Barrett (Editor). 2003. Turnhout, Morning Herald, also provides a comic highlight.) Belgium: Brepols Publishers. xvi + 254 p, illustrated, hard The book includes five excellent new maps of the cover. ISBN 2-503-51291-7. expedition’s sphere of operations, and 35 well-chosen DOI: 10.1017/S0032247404224111 photographs. Although illuminating, the compositions lack the dramatic impact of the work of Herbert Ponting James H. Barrett is the editor of a new book on, as and Frank Hurley; a visual record much less striking than the subtitle says, ‘the Norse Colonization of the North that produced on Terra Nova and Endurance may partly Atlantic.’ In the introduction he states the intention of explain why the exploits of Nimrod’s crew have been the collected papers is to: ‘attempt to construct models relatively neglected. of culture contact informed by the instrumentalist school Riffenburgh makes much of Shackleton’s courageous of Frederik Barth, which views ethnicity “as a dynamic decision to turn back, rather than press on to the Pole and situational form of group identity”.’ (pages 232, 311–312). Although he is not explicitly This is an interesting approach, and the Norse history mentioned here, the contrast with Scott is clearly implied. of colonization and contacts across the northern seas Scott’s party, however, was in much better shape than would certainly lend itself to such analyses. There are Shackleton’s at the same stage of the journey. On the Norse contacts with Lapps in northern Scandinavia 7 January 1911, two days before passing Shackleton’s and with the Inuit in Greenland and North America. 1909 record, Scott wrote ‘Our food continues to amply Furthermore the questions on ‘ethnicity’ and ‘identity’ satisfy.’ Had Shackleton come so close to his dream in seem applicable in analysing contacts between Norse such condition would he still have turned back? I do not settlers and the Scots, Picts, and Irish peoples. think so. The final chapter on the response to Shackleton’s The papers, organized into chapters, try to address achievement works well, drawing on Riffenburgh’s ex- these questions, although with varying degrees of success. pertise on the press coverage of exploration. But this The first chapter by Bjørnar Olsen (entitled ‘Belligerent reviewer was eager to read more than 18 pages on the chieftains and oppressed hunters? Changing conceptions aftermath of the expedition. Why did a leader who showed of interethnic relationships in northern Norway during such compassion for the well-being of his men in the the Iron Age and early medieval period’) is highly Antarctic appear so indifferent to their financial health interesting, and also sticks to the aims specified by the on his return? One of the most memorable images of the editor. The paper discusses the concepts, and tests them period (not reproduced here), shows three men in furs against archaeological assemblages, as well as present- holding a sandwich-board advertising ‘Cinematograph ing and using explanatory models, such as Schanche’s Pictures of Lieut. Shackleton’s Wonderful Journey.’ model of spatial relationships, between Saami and We learn that Shackleton’s pioneers shot 4000-feet of Norse. film in the Antarctic (page 184), but the exhibition of This first excellent chapter is followed by a rather less these films is not discussed. The chapter includes some interesting one, ‘The early settlement of the Faroe Islands: tantalising glimpses of Shackleton’s global impact, but the creation of cultural identity’ by Steffen Stumann the international response to his achievements is not Hansen.
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