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Scott of the Antarctic: a Life of Courage And 269 Book Reviews SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC: A LIFE OF COUR- Edward Wilson, to praise the western sledging parties AGE AND TRAGEDY IN THE EXTREME SOUTH. of 1903, which showed Scott the explorer at his very David Crane. 2005. London: HarperCollins. ix + 637 p, best: a skilful ice navigator and audacious leader, driven illustrated, hard cover. ISBN 0-00-715068-7. £25.00. by an insatiable scientific curiosity. Crane does not, doi:10.1017/S0032247406215456 however, engage with Don Aldridge’s recent argument that Harry McKay, captain of the relief-ship Terra Nova, Since the publication of his Scott and Amundsen in 1979, was primarily responsible for releasing Discovery from Roland Huntford’s critical assessment of Captain Scott the ice in 1904. has steadily gained ground as the accepted interpretation The 100 pages of chapters 18 to 22 present the most de- of Britain’s most famous polar explorer. No less a tailed and perceptive examination of Scott’s life between literary luminary than Paul Theroux endorsed Huntford’s his two Antarctic expeditions yet published. Crane makes last paperback edition, while visitors to the National very effective use of Scott’s correspondence in this period, Maritime Museum’s successful South: the race to the Pole which has not been analysed in such detail before. Scott’s exhibition in 2000–01 complained that displays were too letters to Kathleen Bruce, whom he courted after they met sympathetic to Scott. in 1907, prove particularly revealing. Kathleen offered the During the last five years, however, the revisionist ‘joyous, affirmative obverse of Scott’s own puritanical cycle has begun to turn again. Books by Susan Solomon, and duty-filled dedication’ (page 350). Crane reveals David Yelverton, and Max Jones have offered more a tormented Scott, torn between his duty to his strict, sympathetic accounts of Scott’s achievements and their evangelical mother and his bohemian wife, between his reception. Ranulph Fiennes’ recent biography confronted passion for Kathleen and his fears of inadequacy, between Huntford head on, drawing on the insights of a veteran his dreams of achievement and the frustrations of naval polar traveller to challenge many of his accusations. life. ‘But sweetheart what I know and you do not,’ Scott David Crane’s outstanding new biography offers a wrote, ‘is our service, with its machine like accuracy and timely and valuable contribution to this reappraisal. The limitations — it offers place and power, but never a money book’s sub-title is misleading. Scott spent only 4 of his prize — so that it must be poverty always’ (page 361). 43 years living in the ‘extreme south,’ first on Discovery The image of the ‘naval machine’ that ‘grinds on (1901–04) and later during the Terra Nova (1910–12) with wonderful efficiency’ (page 361) recurs in Scott’s expedition. While Fiennes’ biography focused largely on correspondence. Scott’s association with the cadre of old Scott’s exploits in Antarctica, the great strength of Crane’s polar enthusiasts such as George Egerton would leave the book lies in its presentation of a balanced overview of ‘instinctive “modernist” and technocrat’ (page 328) out- the explorer’s whole life. Crane has unearthed a wealth side the circle of officers favoured by the naval reformer of sources that have not been drawn on before, working John Fisher. The Antarctic offered not only a means of through, among other collections, the Admiralty papers promotion, but also an arena for the exercise of those in the National Archives. Most significantly, Crane makes artistic and intellectual faculties unsatisfied by service life. extensive use of correspondence added to the archives of Scott’s personal failings began to manifest themselves the Scott Polar Research Institute since the publication of more prominently in this period, particularly in his dispute Clive Holland’s catalogue in 1982. with Shackleton over McMurdo Sound. Crane suggests Crane skilfully marshals his sources into a lively that Scott’s demand for Shackleton to leave the area narrative, which offers a penetrating analysis of Scott’s free for his own future expedition was, according to the complex character. The 13-year old was sent to serve on conventions of the day, a legitimate call for loyalty from the training ship Britannia in 1881, and spent the rest of his a former sub-ordinate. However, Crane criticises Scott’s life navigating his career through the Royal Navy. Scott’s embittered treatment of Shackleton and the innocent command of the Discovery expedition was, Crane argues, RGS Secretary, John Scott Keltie. The row inspired ‘the his greatest achievement. The expedition allowed ‘the first real sense of disappointment at anything of human practical and scientific bent that was at the heart of Scott’s importance Scott did’ (page 341). Crane detects a new ‘air genius’ (page 83) to flourish, by offering ‘a physical and of egotism and self-importance’ (page 342), which would intellectual release from the straitjacket of service life’ shroud Scott’s later years. Personal and professional (page 84). The inexperienced young officer threw himself pressures took their toll, and ‘a part of the man inside into the myriad organisational challenges posed by the was shrivelling’ (pages 404–405). Throughout, Crane is expedition. Crane directs attention away from the famous sensitive to the limitations of the surviving sources. The farthest south march by Scott, Ernest Shackleton, and contrast between scarcity before 1900, and abundance 270 BOOK REVIEWS after, is stark. Striking gaps remain even in the most well- suffocating embrace and a narrow focus on whether Scott documented years: few details survive of Scott’s ward- was a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ explorer. Instead, through the careful room life, and the nature of his friendship with fellow analysis of an impressive range of sources, Crane reveals officer Henry Campbell, whom he chose ahead of Wilson a complex man, the distinctive product of the passions as his best man, remains obscure. and prejudices of his age. The book ends with an elegant The familiar story of the Terra Nova expedition forms discussion of the enduring appeal of Scott’s story. Others the conclusion of Crane’s biography. Although the crucial would have gone to Antarctica, if Scott had not. But it role played by the citizens of Cardiff in supporting the was his ‘profound ability to make real the experience expedition deserves greater emphasis, a vivid sketch of of human nature at the limits of its endurance that is Henry Bowers is particularly worthy of note, again draw- Scott’s greatest gift to posterity’ (page 579). His final ing on neglected correspondence to offer new insights testimonies ‘extend our sense of what it is to be human’ into Bowers’ peculiar combination of imperialism and (page 579). Crane’s rich and compelling biography has religiosity. Discounting the ‘immense achievements of refreshed this legacy over a century after Scott first sailed his scientists,’ the Scott of Terra Nova, Crane argues, south. (Max Jones, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, is ‘an expedition leader who in intellectual, geograph- University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester ical and imaginative terms cannot begin to compare M13 9PL.) with the man who commanded Discovery’ (page 457). Echoing the contemporary opinion of H.R. Mill, Crane declares it ‘astonishing’ that a man of Scott’s ‘originality’ (page 458) confined himself to following Shackleton’s PRACTICAL DICTIONARY OF SIBERIA AND route to the South Pole, focusing his energies on a journey THE NORTH. V.D. Golubchikova and Z.I. Khvtisi- that would add less than 100 miles to the map of the world. ashvili (Project heads). Compiled by Ye.R. Akbalyan. Yet, while the scientific results of the race to the 2005. Moscow: European Publications and Severnye Pole would not be great, the human legacy would prove Prostory. 1101 p, illustrated, hard cover, accompanying immense, as Scott himself transformed disaster into heroic CD. ISBN 5-98797-002-4. EUR92.59. sacrifice. There are tensions in Crane’s interpretation of doi:10.1017/S0032247406225452 Scott’s crucial last journal entries, which would provide the foundation for his legend. On the one hand, Crane This highly impressive work comprises more than argues Scott ‘was slowly falsifying what he was, metamor- 1100 pages of text containing approximately 4500 entries, phosing himself into an incarnation of a service, an which appear alphabetically and vary in length from about ideal, a mythology, a faith and an age, to which he had 25 words (for entries such as those on small geographical never been entirely able to reconcile himself’ (page 539). features) to 10 full pages (lengthy entries including Yet, later the reader is told how, freed ‘from the shackles ‘Pomors,’ ‘Chukchi,’ and ‘New Economic Policy’). of life, he could be at last the person he had always wanted Most of the entries are between 100 and 1000 words. and so often failed to be, the accidents of personality shed The effort was assisted by a distinguished, 17-member to reveal the nature of the man. The peevishness, the irrita– scientific board, and the experts involved in writing the tion, the ambition, even the reserve were gone’ (page 566). entries represented virtually all of the leading scientific Although Crane clearly acknowledges these unsa- and educational establishments throughout Russia with voury aspects of Scott’s personality, he is sympathetic specialist focus on the far north. to his subject. One footnote claims Scott ‘never allowed The stated objective of the Practical dictionary is personal feelings to cloud his judgement of Shackleton’s to cover the breadth of knowledge about the Russian achievements or his generosity in acknowledging them’ north and Siberia, although it includes a great deal of (page 458), a claim that neglects Scott’s critical asides information about the wildlife, history, and geography of about Shackleton’s ‘exaggerated’ and ‘overdrawn’ ac- the rest of the Arctic as well.
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