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Racing with Death: Douglas Mawson - Antarctic Explorer
 
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Racing with Death: Douglas Mawson - Antarctic Explorer (Hardcover)

by Beau Riffenburgh (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £18.99
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (18 Aug 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747580936
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747580935
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 193,835 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Review
PRAISE FOR 'NIMROD' 'A masterful balance of true drama and first-rate scholarship. The narrative moves with the speed of a novel, while the author's unerring eye for historical detail captures the essence of polar exploration and explorers and locates Shackleton and his men in the grand scheme of empire.' Sir Ranulph Fiennes 'Beau Riffenburgh brilliantly brings this earlier one into focus in an account so vivid that we can almost feel the freezing temperatures ourselves.' Sunday Telegraph 'Gripping and superbly researched.' Max Jones, author of 'The Last Great Quest'

Product Description
The early twentieth century was the 'heroic age' of Antarctic exploration - a time when adventurers such as Scott and Shackleton were national icons who personified the contemporary ideal of manly struggle for the good of Empire. But, while these two are world famous to this day, Australian Douglas Mawson, whose Australasian Antarctic Expedition, undertaken in 1911 after Mawson had been a key member of Shackleton's Nimrod expedition, Dr Edmund Hillary described as 'the greatest survival story in the history of exploration', is not. He should be, however.Mawson's expedition, undertaken on a small whaling ship called Aurora, combines several exceptionally exciting elements. Once in the Antarctic, the expedition split up into smaller parties exploring different areas. The two other members of Mawson's party died and Mawson was left to struggle hundreds of miles back to base on his own. Despite incredible odds, he made it, only to find that the rescue ship had sailed away, leaving him to face a year on his own in the Antarctic. Mawson, who had complex relationships with both Scott and Shackleton, was changed utterly by his struggles in the Antarctic and his story is a fascinating insight into the human psyche under extreme stress.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Forgotten Antarctic Hero, 4 Oct 2008
By S. P. Haddelsey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Beau Riffenburgh has produced an excellent and highly readable introduction to the now largely forgotten Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911-14 and its heroic leader Douglas Mawson. Although referencing Mawson's important work on Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-09 and the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition of 1929-31, the bulk of the book focuses on the AAE - and this is just as it should be; in fact, one of the few criticisms of the book is that, perhaps, the BAE and BANZARE are given a little too much space. The AAE set off for the Antarctic in December 1911, on board the steam yacht "Aurora" - a ship that would later play a key role on Shackleton's ill-fated "Endurance" Expedition. In January the following year, Mawson and his team of specialists landed at Cape Denison, a place that they would subsequently identify as being the windiest spot on the face of the planet, scoured by winds averaging 50mph for a whole year and regularly experiencing gusts of well in excess of 200mph. In such conditions, it soon became clear that the work of the expedition would be severely hampered, with the planned sledging parties not being able to set off until November of 1912. It was during these sledging expeditions that tragedy struck. During the Far Eastern Sledging Expedition, Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis fell to his death down a seemingly bottomless crevasse, taking with him his sledge and most of the party's food, equipment and sledge-dogs. Mawson and Xavier Mertz were thus forced to begin a return journey of over 300 miles in an appallingly handicapped condition. Obliged to eat the remaining dogs, both men quickly succumbed to Vitamin A poisoning, which brought on lethargy and caused the men to slough large areas of skin and hair. With 100 miles still to travel, Mertz finally collapsed and died in their tent, leaving the exhausted Mawson to first bury him and then stagger the remaining distance. His last final trek makes for truly harrowing reading. When he finally arrived back at the expedition's winter quarters, Mawson discovered that the ship had been forced to sail, leaving behind a small Relief Party, made up of the best men among his original staff. Abandoned for yet another year, these men soon found, to their horror, that one of their number had become insane: suffering from delusions and extreme paranoia, occasionally turning to violence. The entire story is thrilling, heroic and hugely impressive; it should appeal to anyone interested in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration and clearly demonstrates that Mawson was a leader on a level with Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen; that he has been so largely forgotten is a travesty.
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