The Worst Journey in the World

Apsley Cherry-Garrard's memoir recounts the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913, led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott. The book chronicles the expedition's attempt to reach the South Pole, a harrowing midwinter journey to an Emperor penguin rookery, and the deaths of Scott and four companions on their return from the Pole. Cherry-Garrard draws on his own experiences and his companions' diaries to construct a tribute to the dead and a frank assessment of what went wrong.

Cherry-Garrard opens by surveying Antarctic exploration from Captain James Cook's voyages in the 1770s through Scott's first expedition aboard the Discovery (1901–1904) and Ernest Shackleton's 1908 journey to 88° 23' S. via the Beardmore Glacier. He introduces the Emperor penguin, whose midwinter breeding habits had been partially observed during the Discovery expedition. Edward Wilson, the expedition's chief scientist, believed that Emperor penguin embryos might reveal the evolutionary link between birds and reptiles, but obtaining them would require a journey in the total darkness and extreme cold of the Antarctic winter.

The Terra Nova sailed from Cardiff on June 15, 1910, with naval officers, scientists, and seamen. Cherry-Garrard introduces the key figures: Wilson, who served as zoologist, doctor, artist, and Scott's closest adviser; Lieutenant Henry "Birdie" Bowers, a seaman of exceptional energy; Captain Lawrence "Titus" Oates, a cavalry officer responsible for the ponies; and Lieutenant Edward Evans, who commanded the ship. At Melbourne, Scott received a telegram from Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen: "Am going South." The news shocked the British party. After refitting in New Zealand, the overloaded ship departed on November 29. A severe gale on December 1 nearly sank the Terra Nova; the pumps clogged, and seawater extinguished the furnaces until the chief engineer cut through a bulkhead to clear the pump wells. After three weeks in pack ice, the expedition reached Ross Island in early January 1911 and established its base at Cape Evans.

On January 24, 13 men set out on the Depot Journey, hauling supplies south across the Great Ice Barrier, a vast floating ice shelf, to establish food caches for the Polar Journey. Eight ponies and two dog-teams accompanied them, but the ponies struggled on the soft surface and blizzards weakened the animals. Scott laid the main depot, One Ton, at 79° 29' S. A note from Victor Campbell, leader of a secondary party, confirmed Amundsen had established his base at the Bay of Whales. The return cost six of the eight ponies, lost to exhaustion or drowning when the sea-ice broke up.

The 25 men settled into their first winter at Cape Evans with a routine of scientific work and lectures. Cherry-Garrard provides a portrait of Scott as a man of great sensitivity and extraordinary willpower. Thomas Atkinson, the expedition's surgeon, lectured on scurvy, attributing it to acid intoxication of the blood and noting that fresh meat alone might not prevent it.

The centerpiece of the book begins on June 27, 1911, when Wilson, Bowers, and Cherry-Garrard departed in midwinter darkness for the Emperor penguin rookery at Cape Crozier, 67 miles away. They hauled two sledges weighing 757 pounds through temperatures dropping to -77.5° Fahrenheit. Their clothing froze into rigid armor, and Cherry-Garrard's teeth shattered in the cold. Progress was sometimes a mile and a half in eight hours. After 19 days they reached Cape Crozier, built a stone igloo, and found only about 100 penguins. They collected five eggs, two of which broke. A hurricane then tore their tent away and ripped the roof from their igloo. The three men lay in their sleeping bags expecting to die, singing hymns. Cherry-Garrard resigned himself to death and thought of peaches and syrup. The tent was found half a mile away, miraculously intact, and after five weeks they staggered back to Cape Evans with three preserved embryos. A subsequent scientific analysis provided evidence that feather structures in birds are fundamentally distinct from reptilian scales, contributing modestly to understanding avian evolution.

The Polar Journey began on November 1, 1911. The motor party started first, but both machines broke down within a week. Ten ponies, two dog-teams, and man-hauling teams followed. A four-day blizzard near the Beardmore Glacier soaked everything and nearly finished the remaining animals. After the last ponies were destroyed, 12 men in three teams hauled sledges up the glacier. Cherry-Garrard and the First Return Party turned back on December 22 at 85° 7' S.

Two teams of four continued onto the polar plateau, averaging nearly 15 miles per day despite altitude nearing 10,000 feet and temperatures of -10° to -12°. Scott's team proved markedly stronger than the second, which included Lieutenant Evans and William Lashly, a stoker who had been man-hauling since the motors failed. On January 4, 1912, Scott announced the final Polar Party of five: himself, Wilson, Bowers, Oates, and Seaman Edgar Evans. The Last Return Party, Lieutenant Evans, Lashly, and Tom Crean, a petty officer, turned back. Lashly's diary records their harrowing return: navigating without a sledge-meter, a device for measuring distance; descending the glacier through crevasses; and watching Lieutenant Evans deteriorate with scurvy until he had to be dragged on the sledge. Near Corner Camp, Crean walked 35 miles alone to Hut Point in 18 hours to summon help.

Scott reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, to find Amundsen's tent and flags confirming the Norwegians had arrived a month earlier. Scott wrote: "The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected." The return began well, but Seaman Evans deteriorated, collapsing repeatedly, and died on February 17 near the foot of the Beardmore, likely from a brain injury. On the Barrier, temperatures dropped to -40° and below, far colder than expected. Oil was found short at depots, apparently because paraffin had evaporated through perished leather washers. Oates's feet became gangrenous; around March 16, he walked out of the tent into a blizzard, saying he might be some time, and was never seen again. Scott, Wilson, and Bowers pitched their last camp on March 19, 11 miles from One Ton Depot. A blizzard pinned them for nine days. Scott's final diary entry reads: "For God's sake, look after our people."

Meanwhile, Cherry-Garrard had taken two dog-teams to One Ton Depot in late February with Dimitri Gerov, the expedition's Russian dog-driver, depositing food and waiting six days. His orders specified the dogs must not be risked, and no dog-food depot existed farther south. The 13 remaining men endured a second winter at Cape Evans before voting nearly unanimously to search south for the Polar Party, reasoning that the dead men's records might be the only proof of what they achieved.

On November 12, 1912, Charles Wright, the expedition's physicist, spotted a snow-covered shape 11 miles south of One Ton Depot. It was the tent. Inside lay the bodies of Scott, Wilson, and Bowers. Scott lay in the center, his left hand stretched over Wilson, his diary beneath his head. Atkinson read Scott's Message to the Public to the assembled men. The tent was collapsed over the bodies and a cairn built. The party searched south for Oates but found only his sleeping bag, one boot slit to accommodate his swollen foot. Returning north, they learned Campbell's Northern Party had reached Cape Evans safely, having survived the winter in a snow cave and sledged 200 miles down the coast. A jarrah-wood cross was erected on Observation Hill, inscribed with the closing line of Tennyson's "Ulysses": "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." The Terra Nova arrived on January 18, 1913, and the expedition returned to New Zealand.

In his final chapter, Cherry-Garrard offers a frank assessment. He credits Amundsen's success to his reliance on dogs and ski and his single-minded focus. He identifies critical factors in the tragedy: an insufficient food ration of roughly 4,000–5,000 calories against a requirement of 7,700–8,500, the oil shortage, and unexpectedly severe March temperatures. He calls for future polar exploration to be publicly funded, closing with a reflection on the value of knowledge pursued for its own sake.