Expedition South

Written by the base leader of the British Hope Bay base in Graham Land, describing his one year experience in Antarctica. Known formally as the Falkland Islands Dependencies, the British administered the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic lands claimed by the British and in the period that the author was there (1955), they had commenced a continued presence on Antarctica, due to the Argentine claim to lands.

Having returned to Britain and been discharged from the military, Anderson was looking for a new challenge, and some time to plan out his future. Being in Antarctica, he assumed he would have time. Of course, his role and responsibilities kept him plenty busy enough.

The book, while not a journal, chronologically describes his twelve months, with his various sledging expeditions, and travels to other Antarctic bases, as well as providing some historical background and context, and a description of his other responsibilities and the general way of life for the men in this base (they were certainly all men in this era).

Communal living, a small number of people living in close proximity, and practically no privacy, all contributed to the difficulty of being the man on charge. The book comes across as honest and the author freely writes about his decisions, and where with hindsight he made decisions that didn't work out.

Scientific research, and survey work were high among the list of priorities, and the party were successful in both during the 12 month period, and a part of the honesty of the book means that the author outlined three quite baffling discoveries. I won't spoil these for readers, but I fond myself wondering whether 1/. these were never explained sufficiently, or 2/. they were not explained sufficiently in time to print an epilogue to tell us the answers (or at least a theory / the theories), or 3/. the author decided the mystery was an appealing part of his book. It is mildly annoying to me, as I would be interested to understand the science!

So the mysteries were: 1/. there were a vast number of whales, Orca and seals all landlocked in a recently frozen channel, surviving around a number of airhole pools. The Orca were incredibly docile and didn't appear to hunt the seals - and the seals displayed none of the natural fear they show Orca. This behaviour was witnessed over a number of days, and was very unnatural. 2/. there were a number of dark rocks found sitting on top of ice (on the ice shelf if I recall correctly) some number of miles away from the land base. These were sitting, as I mentioned on top of the ice, but were not covered in any of the snow that laid on the ice from recent falls - yes common sense would suggest they heat up from the sun and therefore melt the snow, but they were not sitting in any melted depression. 3/. There were thousands of dead seals - their deaths sudden, all in a short period of time, and unexplained by the autopsies carried out - they hadn't starved, there were no signs of struggle or injury. Perhaps a viral infection spread through the whole community?

There are also some interactions with the Argentinian personnel in their bases. In a hilarious British way, both parties treat the other with the utmost courtesy, treating the other party as guests and allowing them access to the Antarctic Territory under control of the host. They present gifts, attend the occasion showing of a movie, and trade food. They also help each other with any medical or logistic situations, where necessary.

A word of caution - this was the 1950s. There was a lot of killing of animals going on. Penguin eggs, penguin breasts and seal meat - all on the menu, and seals formed the larger part of the sledge dogs diet. There was no hesitation when the men had an opportunity to slaughter a dozen seals to secure dog food for the next week.

Anyway, this book was great, and the author really got the mix right for me. Amusing, adventurous, some history and some science. There are literally hundreds of books by people who have done seasons in Antarctica - many of them suffer from being too dry (no pun intended), from being too scientific, or from being too self-important. This one has a great balance, and is worth the read if you can find a copy. Might be a bit obscure, since this is the only review/rating of this book.

Just short of 5 stars for me. But certainly a high 4 stars.