John Granahan                                                                       February 26, 2002

Topic:   Why the Antarctic Has Given Rise to So Much Compelling Literature

The literature of exploration is often very interesting, if only because the nature of exploration is inherently dangerous.  Accounts of explorers’ struggles to find their way through previously unknown terrain and to survive, often in the face of hunger, privation, disease, hostile elements and sometimes hostile inhabitants of the lands they are exploring, makes for good reading.  The exploration of Antarctica, however, has generated a greater abundance and higher quality literature, than the explorations of other areas, such as the Arctic and even space.  Antarctic exploration literature continues to be produced and read, even today, almost a century after the first successful expedition to the South Pole.  Why this is so is an interesting study in itself.  There are many factors at work, which have influenced the literature of exploration, but the comparative success of Antarctic exploration literature seems to be predominantly the result of a confluence of historical, environmental and cultural factors.

Antarctic exploration captured the attention and imagination of people around the world for generations before it became a reality.  As the New World became settled in the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries, the attention of Europe and America began to shift from exploration of the tropical and temperate continents, most of which were now known, at least in broad outline, to the virtually unknown terrain and extreme environments of the polar regions.  Science was beginning to develop and to study the natural world in a new and systematic way.  Nations, always vying for some competitive advantage, sought new trade routes, new supplies of natural resources, possible economic and military advantages, and the prestige that being first to explore these regions would bring.  The early efforts of British and Russian explorers in the Arctic and Antarctic served to whet this appetite for further exploration.  They also illustrated the difficulty of the task.

The early explorers’ knowledge of the extremes of Antarctic cold and wind and of the barrenness of the landscape, and their understanding of how to cope with these challenges, as well as how to navigate the iceberg-ridden seas, was simply not adequate for the task.  The account of the intrepid British navigator, Captain James Cook, who explored both the Arctic and Antarctic Regions, illustrates this.  He writes, of his search for the Antarctic Continent in December of 1773, “On the morning of the 26^th the whole sea was, in a manner, covered with ice, 200 large islands and upwards, being seen within the compass of four or five miles….. besides smaller pieces, innumerable.”  Undaunted, he was able to steer out of this frozen morass, and sail farther south for a few days, before again encountering a massive field of ice and having to abandon his goal of finding the Antarctic Continent, which he still believed existed.  He concludes, “I will not say it was impossible any where to get farther to the South; but the attempting it would have been a dangerous and rash enterprise and what, I believe, no man in my situation would have thought of.”  Nonetheless, Cook had sailed farther south than any previous explorer.  Furthermore, his persistence in the belief that an Antarctic Continent existed, his description of the exotic and forbidding ice fields, and his claim of having heard, although not seen, penguins as he neared the ice at the southernmost point in his journey, served as a tantalizing inducement to future explorers. 

The literature of Antarctic exploration has benefited from its earliest days from having had explorers, who in addition to their essential skills were excellent writers.  Captain James Cook had a lively writing style, himself.  Another crewmember of the Cook Antarctic expedition, a young scientist, George Forster also left an account of this same voyage, which provides very interesting reading.  Forster, who emigrated to England from Germany at age twelve, was eighteen at the time of his selection as a crewmember.  His account of the voyage was prepared from the journals of his father, who was also a crewmember.  It is interesting to compare his account, written from the point of view of a crewmember, with limited responsibilities, to that of Cook, who had responsibility for the overall enterprise.  As may be expected, Forster’s account focused more on the hardships endured by the crew than Cook’s.  Forster writes about the discomforts of the cold, the constant dampness aboard ship, detestable food and the declining health of the crew.  “In short, we rather vegetated than lived; we withered, and became indifferent to all that animates the soul at other times.  We sacrificed our health, our feelings, our enjoyments, to the honour of pursuing a track unattempted before.”  Forster’s account made him famous in his time and is said to have influenced the work of Goethe and Heine and other German writers of the era.

The great discovery of the Cook Antarctic Expedition was that the Antarctic environment was a far greater challenge than they and others of their era were prepared to meet.  It became apparent that the discovery and exploration of the Antarctic continent, if indeed there were an Antarctic continent, would have to wait for a later, and better equipped, generation.  There were other expeditions to the Antarctic, in the early and mid-nineteenth century, notably those of the Russian, Thaddeus Bellingshausen, and of the Britishers, James Weddell and James Ross, and the American, Charles Wilkes.  These made valuable contributions to the mapping of the boundaries of Antarctica, but none of them penetrated to the interior of that continent.  It would be over 100 years after the Cook expedition, before explorers successfully negotiated the interior of the Antarctic and arrived at the South Pole.  This meant that nineteenth century, and particularly early nineteenth century, knowledge of the Antarctic was relegated to the realm of speculation rather than hard fact.  It is fortunate that the accounts of the Cook expedition made for good reading as well as scientific accuracy.  Their descriptions of distant and forbidding places, suffering and heroic effort fired the imaginations of nineteenth century writers, like Poe, Cooper and Melville and their works helped ensure a continuing interest in Antarctic exploration. 

The Romantic Movement was on the rise, if not already the dominant literary force, at the time of the early polar explorations.  A reaction against classical values, the Romantic Movement emphasized creative imagination over objectivity, feeling over logic, and freedom of form over formality.   A key value of Romanticism was a profound respect for, and awe of, nature and natural forces.  One of the persistent themes of Romantic literature deals with the relation of the individual to the forces of nature.  The awesome power of nature is embodied in the Romantic concept of the Sublime.  The Sublime is that which gives rise to the idea of pain or danger.  The experience of the Sublime is rooted in terror, the most powerful of emotions.  The Sublime may be, at a certain distance, beautiful, and at this distance, may produce a sense of awe or excitement, or an uplifting of the spirit.  To experience the Sublime, however, is not the same as to experience beauty.  While the experience of beauty may be profound and moving, it does not have the intensity and emotional impact of the experience of the Sublime.  The key to the experience of the Sublime is the “distance” from the awful event producing the experience.  To experience a storm at sea with waves crashing over the deck may be an experience of the Sublime, so long as one is reasonably confident of survival.  On the other hand, to be looking up at a monster wave, which is certain to drive your ship to the bottom of the ocean is not.

 The Antarctic environment evokes the Sublime.  It is truly awesome and terrible even today, with our technology of worldwide instant communications, global positioning systems, air travel, and advanced medicine.  It was infinitely more so in the days of Captain Cook.  Had Cook and Forster written dry, unemotional accounts of what they had seen and accomplished, they may not have inspired other writers of the Romantic era.  Their descriptions, however, of floating ice mountains, monstrous seas, strange wildlife, numbing cold, sickness and privation played into the Romantic concept of the Sublime and helped to spur a great surge of interest in the Antarctic. 

While science and the scientific method of investigating nature was gaining widespread acceptance in this era, it did not have the universal acceptance that it has today.  This, combined with the fact that Antarctica was still a mystery, still terra incognita, gave rise to some very unscientific theories about the nature of the South Polar Region.  One of the more popular of these was John Cleves Symmes’  “Theory of Concentric Spheres,” which described the earth as made up of concentric spheres with openings at the poles.  The theory stipulated that there were concentric ice rings at the South Pole, and that a warm climate and varied society, as well as a passage to the inner spheres existed between these rings.  While most people of the times rejected this ridiculous theory, it did have a significant number of adherents. 

Edgar Allan Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym embodies Romantic values and plays upon the popularity of Symmes’ Theory of Concentric Spheres.  The adjective most commonly applied to Poe’s writings is “gothic,” and Pym certainly has a gothic quality.   Poe makes use of several standard gothic devices in Pym, the most compelling of which is Pym’s entrapment in total darkness in the hold of the Grampus.  More relevant to the subject of Antarctic exploration, however, is the Poe’s use of the Sublime.  There are several episodes in Pym in which Poe evokes images of the Sublime.  Most convincing of these is the description of the plight of the crippled ship, Grampus, during a hurricane after Pym, Augustus and Parker survive the mutiny of the crew.  After surviving a harrowing night, a day and another night in the gale, Pym writes, “In this frightful situation we lay until the day broke so as to show us more fully the horrors which surrounded us.  The brig was a mere log, rolling about at the mercy of every wave; the gale was upon the increase, if anything, blowing indeed a complete hurricane, and there appeared no earthly prospect of deliverance.”  Although not as convincingly realistic as his depiction of the storm at sea, Poe also attempts to conjure up an image of an awesome natural environment, consistent with Symmes’ Concentric Spheres theory.  As Pym and Peters, their canoe caught up in a rapid current, are drawn toward the South Pole, they experience an unexpected, incredibly strange and increasingly frightening series of natural phenomena.  First is the precipitation of heretofore-unknown white ashy material.  Then comes the appearance of a looming, massive “cataract” of gray vapor, and finally, as they are drawn into the polar chasm, the appearance of an enormous, shrouded, white “human figure, far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men.”  While this depiction of the South Pole is clearly a fantasy, and was regarded so, by most even in Poe’s time, it underscores the degree of fascination which the polar regions held for the public of that age.  What was clear to the public then, and still is certainly true, was that the Antarctic is awesome, and rightly should be described in terms that conjure up the Sublime.  The literature of the Romantic Movement was influenced by the strangeness, hugeness and power of the Antarctic environment.  Conversely, and perhaps in some symbiotic manner, the cause of Polar exploration was enhanced by the literature of the Romantic period.  That the period of early Antarctic exploration roughly coincided with the growth of the Romantic Movement, was fortunate indeed. 

There was a hiatus in Antarctic exploration during the latter half of the nineteenth century, but when it resumed in the early twentieth century, it did so with vigor and purpose.  The years between 1901 (Scott’s “Discovery” expedition) through 1916 (the end of Shackleton’s attempted Transantarctic Expedition) may be thought of as the “golden age” of Antarctic exploration.  These years witnessed many failures, but also the first crossing of the Beardmore Glacier by Shackleton and his penetration to within 97 miles of the pole, the Scott expedition’s “Worst Journey” described by Cherry-Garrard, the first successful trek to the South Pole by Amundsen, and Scott’s successful, but tragically-ended, trek to the pole.  This is the period, which has generated the most and best of the literature of Antarctic exploration.  Although the most successful expedition of this era was that of the Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, most of the expeditions were British.  The British expeditions for the most part failed, but their failures provided the material for much of the best Antarctic exploration literature. 

One may argue at length whether or not British “cultural arrogance” led to decisions, which doomed their expeditions to failure and their men to hardship, and in some cases death.  Scott’s decision to use ponies and men for hauling sledges across the Antarctic terrain, rather than dogs is one of the most universally-criticized decisions in the history of Antarctic exploration.  The ponies were totally unsuited to the blizzards of the Antarctic and had all expired or had to be destroyed during the late winter months, when Scott was setting up supply depots for his return trip from the pole.  Having to use his men for hauling sledges during their trek to and from the pole wore them out and slowed them down significantly, a fact, which may have ensured their demise.  Amundsen, on the other hand used dogs, and had much easier traveling.  It has been argued that British “cultural arrogance,” prevented them from learning from the “primitive” peoples of the North, how to cope with extreme cold environments and how to use dogs to travel in the Arctic and Antarctic snow and ice.  Scott’s decision to use ponies and men for hauling may have been due to “cultural arrogance” or may simply have been a bad judgment, resulting from inadequate planning.

The British culture of the times had a tradition of gentlemanly exploration, of a “stiff upper lip,” stoic fortitude and even good humor in the face of extreme hardship.  In short, nothing less than selfless heroism was demanded of the British explorers.  The expectation that British explorers would endure the most frightful hardships and continue to persevere may be at least partly to blame for the lack of thoroughness in the planning of the Scott expeditions.  It leads to a sense that, if there’s not quite enough food, or our depots are a little far apart or inadequately marked, or our men have to work a little harder pulling sledges, their willingness to suffer and endure will in the end, prevail.  The problem with this approach is that the Antarctic environment is so severe and unforgiving that there is no room for error.  Heroic effort can only accomplish so much.  Even the bravest and most determined explorers must eat, must rest and must have adequate protection from the environment.  Amundsen, in contrast, planned his expedition in exhaustive detail.  In addition to using dogs, the clothing used by the Amundsen expedition was better suited for the extreme cold his men were exposed to.  He further devised an extremely clever method of transversely marking his supply depots so that if his party strayed off course they would still be able to locate them.  While Scott’s men missed some of their depots, contributing to their weakened condition and, inevitably damaging their morale, Amundsen’s men missed none of their depots and actually gained weight during their trek to and from the pole.  The accounts of the Scott expedition are full of descriptions of the horrific suffering of Scott and his men.  The Amundsen accounts barely mention discomfort at all.

While inadequate planning may have been the primary cause of the failure of the Scott, and perhaps even the Shackleton, expeditions, the suffering it caused is the stuff of great literature.  Heroic perseverance in the face of danger, suffering, hardship, pain and fear are much more interesting to read about than an uneventful success, no matter how admirably planned.  The British Antarctic explorers of the early twentieth century were unquestionably heroic.  They were also mostly upper class “gentlemen,” educated in the classical tradition.  They read great literature, studied philosophy and classical languages (Greek and Latin) and knew the history of Western Civilization.  They were comfortable and facile with the written word.  They were, in short, well rounded in their education.  One imagines they would be very enjoyable company.  Not surprisingly, they wrote well. 

Perhaps the best writer among the Scott expedition’s members is Apsley Cherry-Garrard.  Cherry-Garrard was one of three men, who took part in one of the most extraordinary treks in Antarctic history, a nineteen-day journey from Cape Evans to Cape Crozier on Ross Island to gather Emperor Penguin eggs for study.  What made the trek extraordinary is that it was done in the middle of the Antarctic winter, in darkness and in the most intense cold imaginable.  Remarkably, all three survived and succeeded in their mission.  They suffered unimaginably and nearly died, however.  One small excerpt from Cherry-Garrard’s account, The Worst Journey in the World, cannot do justice to the degree of their hardship, yet it will serve to give some idea of what they had to endure almost constantly for the duration of their trip.  Cherry-Garrard writes, “The temperature that night was –75.8^o, and I will not pretend that it did not convince me that Dante was right when he place the circles of ice below the circles of fire.  Still, we slept sometimes, and always we lay for seven hours.  Again and again, Bill (Wilson) asked us how about going back, and always we said no.  Yet there was nothing I should have liked better: I was sure that to dream of Cape Crozier was the wildest lunacy.  That day, we had advanced 1½ miles by the utmost labor, and the usual relay work.  This was quite a good march – and Cape Crozier was 67 miles from Cape Evans!” 

Cherry-Garrard, fortunately for the cause of Antarctic exploration literature, did not accompany Scott on his final trek to the pole.  His companions on the Cape Crozier journey, Birdie Bowers and Bill Wilson, did, and they perished with Scott.  Cherry-Garrard’s accounts are lively, vividly descriptive and moving.  They provide perhaps the best account of what it was like to live day-to-day with the Scott expedition. 

The journal of Robert Falcon Scott, himself, is most poignant.  The entry below was made on March 16 or 17, 1912 (Scott is not sure).  This is during his return from the pole, having borne the disappointment of discovering the remains of Amundsen’s camp there, and now having to deal with the impending death of his men and himself, since it is becoming clear that there is little hope of their survival.  The second of his five-man party, Titus Oates, has just died and the entry talks of the increasingly dismal outlook for his remaining companions and himself.  “I can only write at lunch, and then only occasionally.  My companions are unendingly cheerful, but we are all on the verge of serious frostbites, and though we constantly talk of fetching through, I don’t think any one of us believes it in his heart.”  Scott and his men plod on as best they can for over a week, steadily deteriorating.  Finally, on March 29, 1912, Scott writes,

“Since the 21^st we have had a continuous gale from the W.S.W. and the S.W.  We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece, and bare food for two days on the 20^th .  …..I do not think we can hope for any better things now.  We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. 

It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.

 

R. Scott

Last Entry.

For God’s sake look after our people.”

 

This is not to imply that the writings of Roald Amundsen or the accounts of his expedition are not interesting.  Amundsen’s account of his successful march to the pole with four companions is very well written and quite a contrast to the accounts of the Scott expedition.  In the excerpt, below Amundsen and his men have arrived at what they calculate to be the location of the South Pole.  Because of the impossibility of having perfectly accurate readings (there is always at least a little inaccuracy in all measurements), Amundsen wants to be absolutely sure that the area he has covered does, with certainty, include the South Pole.  Accordingly, he dispatches three of his men, two in directions perpendicular to the direction of his trek to the pole and one to continue in the direction of the trek.  They are each to walk 12 ½ miles in a straight line to ensure that the area covered by his expedition has, in fact encompassed the actual, exact location of the pole.  The operation is somewhat risky, as each of the three men will be on his own in the Antarctic wilderness, with its unpredictable and suddenly changing weather.  Amundsen writes, “That these three risked their lives that morning, when they left the tent at 2:30, there can be no doubt at all, and they all three knew it very well.  But if anyone thinks that on this account they took a solemn farewell of us who stayed behind, he is much mistaken.  Not a bit; they all vanished in their different directions amid laughter and chaff.”

The emotional impact of Cherry-Garrard and Scott’s accounts ensured that there would be much continued interest in the Scott expedition and in Antarctic exploration, by the public at large and by professional writers, particularly.  The tragic end of the Scott expedition and the gallantry of its members, received great publicity in Britain.  That the story of the Scott expedition became known on the eve of World War I, when Britain needed heroes, served to raise the expedition members to folk hero status and to give Robert Falcon Scott a permanent place in the pantheon of great British explorers.  That Great Britain was the pre-eminent world power at the time of the Scott expedition, that it had an exceptionally rich literary heritage and that English was spoken throughout much of the world further contributed to not only Scott’s fame, but also, to the English-speaking world’s familiarity with Antarctic exploration.  Hence, the public, as well as students of history and literature, and writers around the world became familiar with the exploits of Antarctic exploration, particularly with those of the early twentieth century.  This, in effect, created an audience for Antarctic exploration literature, which ensured that this literature would continue to be produced not only in Britain and Norway, but also throughout the English-speaking world. 

A final factor contributing to the wealth of Antarctic literature is the environmental factor, the continent of Antarctica itself.  Explorers have braved in, endured in, and perished heroically in other locations.  Cabeza de Vaca suffered greatly in his explorations of the Gulf Coast of the New World.  While the privations and danger that Cabeza de Vaca endured were real and very great, the most immediate dangers to his life were not due to the extremes of the physical environment.  The extremes of temperature, cycles of day and night, and topography of the New World were all within, or close to, the range of what Cabeza de Vaca, and most of his readers, have experienced previously.  In our own lifetime, American astronauts have risked their lives to visit our sister planet, the Moon, and walked in a lower gravity environment in the complete absence of an atmosphere, an environment as alien and hostile as has ever been faced by humans.  The astronauts, however, were protected from the lunar environment by their space suits.  What they experienced was the environment inside their space suits.  They were isolated from direct contact with the lunar environment.  Had it been otherwise, they would have died in seconds.  The Antarctic explorers, while they wore clothing, which provided some insulation from the intense cold, were not and could not be similarly isolated.  They had to cope with, not only the ever-present danger of freezing to death, but also great discomfort from being constantly cold.  The cold is of such an intensity that persons, who have not experienced it, cannot really imagine its effects.

Antarctica is simply the most extreme environment on earth.  It is the most remote, the coldest, the darkest, the most desolate and the most unforgiving place a person can go and still be on this planet.  From all accounts, one cannot travel to Antarctica, even in the mildest season and not be forced to adjust one’s way of life.  It is truly deserving of the designation, “Sublime.”

 

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Works Cited:

1.      In Search of a Continent - excerpts from the account of Captain James Cook’s Antarctic voyage of 1772-1774.  From Antarctica: First Hand Accounts of Exploration and Endurance edited by Charles Neider. 

2.      In High Latitudes – excerpts from George Forster’s account of Cook’s Antarctic voyage of 1772-1774, ibid.

3.      The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, by Edgar Allan Poe.

4.      The Worst Journey in the World – by Apsley Cherry-Garrard.  From Ice: Stories of Survival from Polar Exploration, edited by Clint Willis.

5.      Scott’s Last Expedition: The Journals – by Robert Falcon Scott.  Ibid.

6.      At the Pole – by Roald Amundsen.  From Antarctica: First Hand Accounts of Exploration and Endurance edited by Charles Neider.