Racing with Death: Douglas Mawson - Antarctic Explorer [Paperback]

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.

As a fan of "Heroic Age" exploration, especially in Antarctica, I've read several books on Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton, and chose this book, from several on the same subject, as Mawson certainly seemed to be an under-rated member of this famous group. I can say that Mawson certainly lives up to such a high reputation, however flawed he too may have been, but this book is probably not the best one to read on him and his adventures in the far south. The author is rated as a first-class historian, but that may be the problem, as he can't seem to distinguish in many cases between useless, repeticious, pointless, not to say boring, details that add little or nothing to the story, and the real human drama which gives the whole thing sense. He gives almost as many pages to telling us rather shallow and uninteresting information about arrangements in the expedition's hut and what and how things were packed on the sledges (e.g., which pieces of the Primus were in which boxes and where they were put on the sledge...) as he does to Mawson's most famous feat, his solo return to the base camp following his first sledge journey, fighting against titanic, indeed seemingly unsurmountable odds. This story does indeed make Mawson an heroic figure, much more than either Scott or Shackleton, especially as Mawson went on to do a lot of scientific work later on, as opposed to the tragic disasters of both Scott and Shackleton, which are really the only reasons we remember them today. I would frankly have expected a more feeling treatment, rather than what comes across more as just a chronological telling of the events. Of course, a so-called historian who starts off by saying that Scott, Shackleton and Mawson were the greatest exploreres of the Edwardian period, somehow completely forgetting Nansen and Amundsen, obviously has a rather skewered view of things. (He does get around to complimenting the two Norwegians, plus Sverdrup, around page 107 or so, but in a short subordinate clause, not even a full sentence!) By comparison, the books by Roland Huntford and Alfred Lansing, if at times somewhat sensational, certainly give a better idea of what it must have been like for the people involved, which is the true task of the historian. One interesting sub-product of this book, having read others on similar experiences, is to make one question the whole point of this type of exploration. The Victorian ideal of progess, of conquering the world, aided and abetted by strong nationalistic tendencies, apparently pushed many of these these men (Scott and Shackleton simply for personal glory, Amundsen and Nansen perhaps for something more) to go to extremes, the British especially ill-prepared and high with hubris that made them think they could overcome all obstacles. Mawson certainly shared some of these faults, along with others of his own, but he was undoubtedly also very dedicated. Differently from Scott, he planned carefully and learned from his mistakes, and better than Shackleton he equipped his team as adequately as possible for what they were to face. However, I think it is the best monument to his memory that he refused Scott's insistence that he go with him to the South Pole, saying that he was interested in science, geology to be precise, and not just a glory-seeking stunt. Amundsend and Nansen were certainly better explorers in the technical sense, really in a class of their own (however little credit they usually get), but Mawson deserves the palm as the one with the best motivation. Read about him in some other book, though, not this one. He deserves a better job.

I had not previously heard of Douglas Mawson even though I have read other polar exploration biographies. The fact that he is such a forgotton figure is indeed a travesty. I was gripped by this book especially in the first two parts. The book explains Mawson's initial experience with Shackleton and then goes on to explain how Mawson raises funds and sets off on his own expedition in 1911. The story of the ill fated expedition and in particular Mawson's terrible struggle back to base after the death of his companions is both harrowing and gripping. The last part of the book deals with the Banzare expedition to in effect claim territory for the British empire and although interesting was a little bit of an anti climax following the high drama earlier in the book. Never the less it is a well written book which only took me a few days to read and has informed me about a figure who deserves to have the wider reputation of other explorers such as Scott, Shackleton and Amundson.