Adelie penguin on ice floe, Cape Royds.
Borchgrevink’s hut and storeroom (without roof), Cape Adare. The remains of the Northern Party’s hut are just visible to the left of Borchgrevink’s. Both photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Sketch by Victor Campbell of courting Adelie penguins engaged in a mutual display. Image reproduced with the permission of the Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, Canada.
Carsten Borchgrevink, 1897, the first person to stand on Antarctica and the first to winter over on the Antarctic continent. Photo from The Fram Museum, Oslo, Norway.
Inside the Cape Adare hut. Left to right: Abbott, Campbell, Browning, Levick, Priestley (Dickason obscured). Photo from Victor Campbell’s album, reproduced with the permission of the Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, Canada.
Inside Shackleton’s hut, Cape Royds.
Provisions left behind, Shackleton’s hut.
Wall of Shackleton’s hut with photos of Queen Alexandra and King Edward VII. All photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Scott’s Hut Point hut, McMurdo Sound.
Boxes from the Terra Nova expedition left in the Hut Point hut.
Cooking area, Hut Point hut. All photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Mount Melbourne, Terra Nova Bay.
Shackleton’s hut, Cape Royds, and Mount Erebus.
Scott’s hut, Cape Evans. All photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Scott’s bed, Cape Evans hut.
Lloyd Spencer Davis sitting in Levick’s chair in his house in Budleigh Salterton, surrounded by his photographs from Cape Adare and his skis.
Adelie penguins mating. All photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Adelie penguins on base of iceberg near the Drygalski Ice Tongue.
Adelie penguins resting on iceberg, Cape Adare. Both photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
The beach at Budleigh Salterton.
Douglas Russell with the unpublished 1915 manuscript by Murray Levick that he discovered. Both photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
An Adelie penguin after escaping the jaws of a leopard seal.
An Adelie penguin with a stone.
A male Adelie penguin performing an ecstatic display, Cape Bird.
An emperor penguin walking in front of ice cliffs, Terra Nova Bay. All photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
A feeding chase: an Adelie penguin is pursued by its two chicks.
Joseph Hatch’s discarded digesters amidst a colony of King penguins, Macquarie Island.
A Weddell seal, Terra Nova Bay. All photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Adelie penguins and chicks, Cape Crozier colony. The icebergs B-15A and C-16 stretch across the horizon and beyond.
Leopard seal sleeping on an ice floe with the Shokalskiy behind. Both photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Leopard seal attacking fledgling Adelie penguin chicks, Cape Adare.
An adult Adelie penguin lunges at a skua attacking a crèche of chicks.
South Polar skua in attack mode. All photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Remains of an Adelie penguin chick after being eaten by skuas.
A skua dragging an Adelie penguin chick away from the safety of the crèche. Both photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
An Adelie penguin porpoising.
Two of the “winter eggs” of Emperor penguins deposited at the British Museum of Natural History by Apsley Cherry-Garrard after “The Worst Journey in the World.”
The Ross Ice Shelf with Cape Crozier and Mount Terror visible behind.
An Adelie penguin, caught and preserved by Murray Levick and deposited at the British Museum of Natural History. All photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
Statue of Roald Amundsen on the banks of Bunnefjorden, Norway.
Memorial cross for Scott’s Polar Party atop Observation Hill overlooking the American base of McMurdo. Both photos from Lloyd Spencer Davis.
FURTHER READING: KEY REFERENCES
Amundsen, Roald. The North West Passage: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the ship “Gjoa” 1903–1907. London: Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd, 1908.
Amundsen, Roald. The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the “Fram,” 1910–1912. Translated from the Norwegian by A. G. Chater. London: John Murray, 1912.
Beattie, Owen and John Geiger. Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1987.
Bernacchi, Louis. To the South Polar Regions: Expedition of 1898–1900. London: Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., 1901.
Bomann-Larsen, Tor. Roald Amundsen. Stroud, UK: The History Press, 2011.
Borchgrevink, C.E. First on the Antarctic Continent: Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition 1898–1900. London: George Newnes Ltd, 1901.
Bown, Stephen. The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen, Conqueror of the South Pole. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2012.
Byrd, Richard Evelyn. Discovery: The Story of the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1935.
Campbell, Victor. The Wicked Mate: The Antarctic Diary of Victor Campbell, an Account of the Northern Party on Captain Scott’s Last Expedition from the Original Manuscript in the Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Alburgh, UK: Bluntisham Books/Erskine Press, 1988.
Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910–1913. London: Chatto & Windus, 1922.
Cook, James. A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World: Performed in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the Years 1772, 3, 4 and 5. London: W. Stahan and T. Caldwell, 1777.
Davis, John King. High Latitude. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1962.
Davis, Lloyd Spencer. Professor Penguin: Discovery and Adventure with Penguins. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House, 2014.
Day, David. Antarctica: a biography. North Sydney: Knopf, 2012.
Day, David. Flaws in the Ice: In search of Douglas Mawson. Melbourne: Scribe, 2013.
Dickason, Harry. Penguins and Primus: An Account of the Northern Expedition June 1910 – February 1913. Perth: Australian Capital Equity/Freemantle Press, 2013.
Fitzsimons, Peter. Mawson and the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen. Australia: William Heinemann, 2011.
Gran, Tryggve. The Norwegian with Scott: Tryggve Gran’s Antarctic Diary 1910–1913, edited by Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith, translated by Ellen Johanne McGhie. London: HMSO Books, 1984.
Guly, Henry R. “George Murray Levick (1876–1956), Antarctic explorer,” Journal of Medical Biography 24, no. 1 (2014): 4–10. doi.org/10.1177/0967772014533051
Herbert, Kari. Heart of the Hero: The Remarkable Women who Inspired the Great Polar Explorers. Glasgow: Saraband, 2013.
Hooper, Meredith. The Longest Winter: Scott’s Other Heroes. London: John Murray, 2010.
Huntford, Roland. Scott and Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth. London: Little, Brown Book Group, 1979.
Huntford, Roland. Shackleton. London: Little, Brown Book Group, 1985.
Hurley, Captain Frank. Argonauts of the South: Being a Narrative of Voyagings and Polar Seas and Adventures in the Antarctic with Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1925.
Huxley, Leonard, ed. Scott’s Last Expedition: Volume II, Being the Reports of the Journeys and the Scientific Work Undertaken by Dr. E. A. Wilson and the surviving members of the Expedition. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd, 1913.
Kennet, Lady Kathleen. Self-Portrait of an Artist: From the Diaries and Memoirs of Lady Kennet, Kathleen, Lady Scott. London: John Murray, 1949.
Kløver, Geir O. Lessons from the Arctic: how Roald Amundsen won the race to the South Pole. Oslo: The Fram Museum, 2017.
Lambert, Katherine. ‘Hell with a Capital H’: An Epic Story of Antarctic Survival. London: Pimlico, 2002.
Levick, G. Murray. Antarctic Penguins: a stu
dy of their social habits. London: William Heinemann, 1914.
Levick, George Murray. A Gun for a Fountain Pen: Antarctic Journal November 1910 – January 1912. Perth: Freemantle Press, 2013.
Mawson, Sir Douglas. The Home of the Blizzard: being the story of the Australasian Antarctic expedition, 1911–1914. London: Ballantyne Press, 1915.
Murray, James and George Marston. Antarctic Days: Sketches of the homely side of Polar life by two of Shackleton’s men. London: Andrew Melrose, 1913.
Nansen, Fridtjof. Farthest North: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship “Fram” 1893-96 and of a Fifteen Months’ Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen. London: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1897.
Ponting, Herbert. The Great White South, or, With Scott in the Antarctic : being an account of experiences with Captain Scott’s South Pole expedition and of the nature life of the Antarctic. London: Duckworth & Co., 1923.
Ponting, Herbert. With Scott to the Pole: The Terra Nova Expedition 1910 – 1913, The Photographs of Herbert Ponting. Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2004.
Preston, Diana. A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998.
Priestley, Raymond E. Antarctic Adventure: Scott’s Northern Party. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1914.
Riffenburgh, Beau. Shackleton’s Forgotten Expedition: The Voyage of the Nimrod. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005.
Riffenburgh, Beau and Geir Kløver. Carsten Borchgrevink and the Southern Cross Expedition, 1898–1900. Oslo: The Fram Museum, 2017.
Riffenburgh, Beau and Geir O. Kløver. Eivind Astrup: The Norwegian Ski and Sledge Expert with Peary. Oslo: The Fram Museum, 2000.
Russell, Douglas G.D., William J.L. Sladen, and David G. Ainley. “Dr. George Murray Levick (1876–1956): unpublished notes on the sexual habits of the Adélie penguin.” Polar Record 48, no. 247 (2012): 387–393. doi:10.1017/S0032247412000216.
Ruzesky, Jay. In Antarctica: An Amundsen Pilgrimage. Gibsons, Canada: Nightwood Editions, 2013.
Scott, Captain Robert F. The Voyage of the ‘Discovery’. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1905.
Scott, Captain R. F. Scott’s Last Expedition: Volume I, Being the Journals of Captain R.F. Scott, R.N., C.V.O. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd, 1913.
Seaver, George. Edward Wilson of the Antarctic: Naturalist and Friend. London: John Murray, 1933.
Shackleton, E. H. The Heart of the Antarctic: being the story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907–1909. London: William Heinemann, 1909.
Shackleton, Sir Ernest. South: The Story of Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Expedition. London: William Heinemann, 1919
Smith, Michael. I Am Just Going Outside: Captain Oates – Antarctic Tragedy. Staplehurst, UK: Spellmount Ltd., 2008.
Smith, Michael. Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer. Cork, Ireland: The Collins Press, 2014.
Utne, Eric, ed. Brenda My Darling: The Love Letters of Fridtjof Nansen to Brenda Ueland. Minneapolis: Utne Institute, 2011.
Watson, Paul. Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Ltd, 2017.
Wheeler, Sara. Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard. London: Jonathan Cape, 2001.
Wilson, Edward. Diary of the Terra Nova Expedition to the Antarctic 1910–1912. London: Blandford Press, 1972.
Young, Louisa. A Great Task of Happiness: The Life of Kathleen Scott. London: Macmillan, 1995.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted to Douglas Russell for his generosity and kindness in sharing his discovery of Murray Levick’s unpublished paper with me and for providing me with the key ingredient needed for any story: access. Douglas is also an expert on Apsley Cherry-Garrard and his insights have been a considerable help.
I am equally indebted to Richard Kossow for his trust and support of me: without it, this book simply would not exist. His deep love and respect for the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration has ensured that many treasures, including those of Murray Levick, have been preserved for the benefit of all of us.
I thank the librarians at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, the Queen Elizabeth II Library at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, The Keep of the East Sussex Records Office, the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington and the Port Chalmers Library for helping me with access to archived materials. Justin Warwick at the British Exploring Society kindly offered me unfettered access to their archives. The Antarctic Heritage Trust in Christchurch provided me with details concerning the discovery of Levick’s photography notebook under the hut at Cape Evans. Dr Geir Kløver of the Fram Museum in Oslo was exceptionally generous both in terms of his time and in sharing his extensive knowledge of polar exploration. Meredith Hooper, an expert on the Northern Party, helped me figure out some crucial details.
Roger and Judith Kingwill, Mike and Margaret Wilson, and Michael Downes were instrumental in making my stay in Budleigh Salterton a pleasant and productive one, as well as providing key details about Murray Levick and his family. My good friends, Andy and Sarah Wroot, kindly put up with me imposing upon them while I was in the UK conducting research.
Rodney Russ of Heritage Expeditions generously took me to the Ross Sea area on the Shokalskiy in order that I might follow in the “footsteps” of Murray Levick. I am especially thankful to the Stuart Residence Halls Council at the University of Otago for giving me the means and support necessary for researching this book. I am also indebted to my many students and postdoctoral fellows who have contributed to my research over four decades: thank you all!
Russell Galen, my literary agent and best critic, has been relentless in pushing me in ways that have improved my writing and, in particular, this story, and for that I am forever grateful. Jessica Case, my editor at Pegasus Books, has been a wonderful champion for this book and much of its “feel” owes a lot to her touch. Drew Wheeler provided expert input as a copy editor.
My partner, Wiebke Finkler, has provided me with the most essential and most appreciated ingredient for this book: her love and support, which has allowed me to take the endless hours from the family that it has, inevitably, exacted. Finally, I thank my children—Daniel, Kelsey, and Eligh—for their love and support: the best legacy a guy could ever have.
ENDNOTES
PROLOGUE
p. ix“‘1st Penguin arrives Oct. 13th,’ which he underlines with a sweep of the blue-black ink.”; George Murray Levick, Zoological Notes Cape Adare Vol. 1. (Unpublished).
p. x“We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far”; Captain R. F. Scott, Scott’s Last Expedition: Volume I, Being the Journals of Captain R. F. Scott, R.N., C.V.O. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1913).
p. xi“He picks up his own pencil and writes, ‘Blowing hard all day.’”; George Murray Levick, diaries. (Scott Polar Research Institute, Unpublished).
PART ONE: THE LURE OF ANTARCTICA
ONE: VICTORIAN VALUES
p. 8“Here on one occasion I saw what I took to be a cock copulating with a hen.”; Douglas G. D. Russell, William J. L. Sladen, and David G. Ainley. “Dr. George Murray Levick (1876–1956): unpublished notes on the sexual habits of the Adélie penguin,” Polar Record 48, no. 247 (2012): 387–393. doi:10.1017/S0032247412000216.
TWO: TERRA AUSTRALIS
p. 24“Harmer writes to Ogilvie-Grant and says we’ll have it cut out, we’re not going to include it in the published version.”; Douglas Russell, recorded interview with author, Natural History Museum, Tring, July 22, 2013.
THREE: THE THREE NORWEGIANS
p. 32“Roald Amundsen is eight or nine when the story of Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition ‘captivated his imagination.’”; Roald Amundsen, The North West Passage: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the ship “Gjoa” 1903–1907 (London: Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1908).
p. 33“That day I wandered with throbbing pulses amid the bunting and the cheers, and all my boyhood’s dream
s reawoke to tempestuous life.”; Ibid.
p. 36“here the unbound forces of the Antarctic Circle do not display the whole severity of their powers.”; C. E. Borchgrevink, First on the Antarctic Continent: Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition 1898–1900 (London: George Newnes Ltd., 1901).
p. 39“In it, he ascribes to Amundsen the comment, ‘Yes, sir, I love it’ when referring to the absence of women.”; Roland Huntford, Scott and Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth (London: Little, Brown Book Group, 1979).
p. 40“I stood in Nansen’s villa at Liysaker and knocked on the door of his study.”; Amundsen, The North West Passage.
PART TWO: ALL ROADS LEAD TO CAPE ADARE
FOUR: FIRST OBSERVATIONS
p. 47“It seemed, at a distance, so small and inhospitable that some of my staff felt constrained to remark at first sight of the place”; Borchgrevink, First on the Antarctic Continent.
p. 49“they have, as Bernacchi puts it, ‘only succeeded in excavating to a depth of about 4 inches.’”; Louis Bernacchi, To the South Polar Regions: Expedition of 1898–1900 (London: Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., 1901).
p. 49“It was one of the most bleak and ungenial days imaginable . . . We were not sorry to leave that gelid desolate spot”; Ibid.
p. 50“a large iceberg calves off from the nearby glacier and ‘some thousands of tons of ice fell into the sea with a terrific and reverberating roar,’”; Ibid.
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