754 



NATURE 



[November 34, 1923 



1 



Moorish pirates. Francis Dawes, who hanged himself 

 with the chapel bell-rope, must have had a grim sense 

 of humour. Lastly, the modem touch giving the sense 

 of continuity in the history of Cambridge is supplied 

 by William Hawteyne, who went out as an army 

 chaplain in Flanders and Germany. 



The Quest Expedition and its Lessons. 



ShackUlon's Last Voyage : the Story of the " Quest." By 

 Comdr. Frank Wild. I'Vim the Official Journal and 

 Private Diary kepi !>> I )i . .\. H. Macklin. Pp. xvi -f 

 372 + 100 plates. (London, New York, Toronto and 

 Melbourne : Cassell and Co. Ltd., 1923.) 305. net. 



CLOSE upon the heels of the excellent " Life of 

 Sir Ernest Shackleton," by Dr. H. R. Mill, comes 

 the story of his last voyage. It is told by his old com- 

 rade in adventure, who took part in all the expeditions 

 with which Shackleton was connected, and whose experi- 

 ence of Antarctic life was even greater than Shackleton's. 

 Commander Wild is assisted in his literary labour by a 

 member of the expedition who seems to have been in- 

 valuable at every turn. Dr. A. H. Macklin. 



The tale is told in a plain, straightforward manner 

 which reflects the character of the writers, who ask 

 neither for eulogy nor for sympathy, although both will 

 be readily forthcoming. Of the success they hoped for 

 there was but little, of the bitterness of thwarted plans 

 there was much, but there is small mention of either. 

 The events of the voyage are duly chronicled, and 

 comment is usually reduced to the minimum. The 

 main features of these events are already well known 

 through the medium of the daily press, but the book 

 adds to them so much in the way of personal detail, 

 and the pros and cons of the decisions which were made, 

 that we recognise at once the inadequacy of a press 

 narrative. 



The expedition was unfortunate almost throughout, 

 and the story resolves itself into a tale of misfortunes 

 endured or overcome, many but not all of which were 

 unavoidable. The crowning misfortune, the loss of 

 its leader before the expedition had even reached its 

 cruising ground, would have wrecked the future of 

 most expeditions, and it is this which absorbs one's 

 interest and overshadows the other incidents to a great 

 extent. Every reader, and especially those with 

 Antarctic experience, will admire the spirit of Wild's 

 decision to " carry on " after the death of the leader ; 

 indeed, in the circumstances as given in this book, none 

 would have blamed him had he turned back. 



It is the duty of every leader of an expedition to 

 write its narrative, the tale of the things done ; but as 

 he writes it we suspect that he writes a second one in 

 NO. 2821. VOL. 112] 



hi.s own mind, the tale of the thmgs left undone and i" • 

 things he did unwisely, and there can be no douln t' 

 the one which does not reach the printer is ti 

 valuable of the two. It Is in no unfriendly spirit, 

 with the greatest admiration for all the actors in • 

 story, that we propose to examine some of the < 

 misfortune, causes which must be writ large in » 

 mandcr Wild's own mind as things he would avoid iv 

 time. It is the business of those interested in p< 

 exploration to extract the lessons of thr ; • 

 as to applaud its successes. 



With so popular a leader, so varied a program i 

 and so small a ship, it was p)erhaps inevitable that • 

 expedition should have become the prey of the sei; 

 tion-monger reporter before it started. Such a 1 

 should rank perhaps as a nuisance rather than a 

 misfortune, but it was scarcely fair either to the lea'i 

 harassed with the thousand details of preparation 

 to the members, most of whom had their polar sj* 

 yet to win, to find the press following every movemt 

 publishing every plan, and " featuring " every dt' 

 down to the ship's cat. 



Beside such a small matter, the enforced changi 

 plans at a late date was a very real misfortune. The 

 fundamental character of this change, for which but a 

 few months was available, is perhaps not apprecia' 

 by the general reader, to whom the Arctic and " 

 Antarctic are merely opposite poles of cold and . 

 pleasantness. The change was really from a slv ' 

 North Atlantic voyage followed by sledging exploration 

 in the Beaufort Sea — essentially a land expedition, in 

 fact — to an oceanographical cruise in the stormiest st ; 

 of the world, essentially a ship expedition. W^e deplore 

 the change for other reasons, for we believe that a 

 leader with the qualities of Shackleton, and followed 

 the men he had selected, would have made great dis- 

 coveries in the blank spaces of the Beaufort Sea. 

 Indeed, only the most urgent circumstances could he. < 

 prevailed on the leader to make such a change, circum- 

 stances not at all covered by the phrase, " as it was 

 too late to catch the Arctic open season the north- : 

 expedition was cancelled." 



Even so, we think that success would ha 

 somehow achieved were it not that the element : 

 hurry now came doubly into the preparations, an 

 element which must have been responsible for the 

 totally inadequate survey of the Quest's boilers and 

 engines, the defects in which crippled the expedition 

 from the moment it left England. It is sad to read, 

 for example, that only after infinite delay and expense, 

 enforcing vital changes in the plans — in fact, only after 

 reaching South Georgia — was it found on consulting the 

 ship's record that the boilers were thirty-one years old, 

 and Commander Wild marks his surprise and chagrin by 



