Ice: Polar Expeditions and Adventures

The ship was broken by the ice on 27 October 1915. The 28 crew members managed to flee to Elephant Island, bringing three small boats with them. Shackleton and five other men managed to reach the southern coast of South Georgia in one of the small boats (in a real epic journey). Shackleton managed to rescue all of the stranded crew from Elephant Island without loss in the Chilean's navy seagoing steam tug Yelcho, on August 30, 1916, in the middle of the Antarctic winter. (Summary from Wikipedia)

As the last section of this project we include a short original recording by Ernest Shackleton about his 1907 "Nimrod" expedition.

(Summary by Wikipedia)

Volume 2 HERE

As so often in such cases the ‘truth’ of the explorers’ experiences (and there were many important figures in the party besides Scott) is much more rich, varied, and fascinating than the boy scout stereotype. Few know for example how much time during the many months of the journey were spent in scientific researches which remain of huge value to this day. But what comes across most vividly in Scott’s fascinating and finally very moving diary account is the complexity of the man and his closest comrades who reached the Pole fatally too late (the Norwegian Amundsen has beaten them to it by many weeks), then died trekking home, facing tortuous weather conditions, dwindling food supplies, and that gnawing, bitter sense of defeat. Ironically Robert Falcon Scott is now far more famous than Amundsen: his triumph secured by history and by myth. For if Scott was finally an imperfect explorer, he was the perfect author of his own amazing tale. Scott’s account is introduced by Clements R. Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society at the time of the expedition; and concluded by E.L. Atkinson, a member of Scott’s party and leader of the relief expedition which found the bodies of Scott and his comrades some months after their death in November 1912. - Summary by Steve Gough

Amundsen had a better understanding of dogs and their handling, and he used of skis more effectively. He pioneered an entirely new route to the Pole, and they returned. In Amundsen's own words: "Victory awaits him who has everything in order -- luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck." Short accounts by other members of the party are appended. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline.)

"Robert Peary is remembered as the intrepid explorer who successfully reached the North Pole in 1909. Far less celebrated is his companion, Matthew Henson, a black man from Maryland. Henson's gripping memoir, first published in 1912, tells this unsung hero's story in his own words. Henson...was indispensable to the famous explorer's journey; he learned the language of the Eskimos, was an expert dog-sled driver and even built the sleds...." (Publishers Weekly)

"An original document.... One of the giants of polar exploration, Henson had the graceful modesty of genuinely big men.... The world would know even more about him now if his commander, Peary, had been less an egotist and more generous in sharing credit for his discovery of the North Pole." (Washington Post Book World)

"A really valuable addition to the literature of [polar exploration].... Filled with incident, occupation, description, emotion, [and] comment." (The New York Times)

This is McClintock's own account of the two year voyage of the 'Fox'. Following an initially unsuccessful attempt to cross the Davis Strait, the 'Fox' was forced to spend the first winter trapped in the sea-ice off the coast of Greenland. After the next year's thaw, McClintock eventually reached the islands of the Canadian Arctic, where an extensive search finally revealed the grisly truth of the fate of Franklin. (Summary by Patrick Eaton)

LibriVox volunteers wish to thank the volunteers of Distributed Proofreaders for their work over the last 20 years to convert public domain books into e-books. "Shores of the Polar Sea" was DP's 35,000th title.

Congratulations and Happy 20th Anniversary Distributed Proofreaders!

(Summary by MaryAnn, LV reader and DP proofer).

Nor is the interest confined solely to the achievement of modern explorers. However great the results of their exertions may be, the fact that, in spite of all the advantages conferred by recent scientific discovery and modern appliances, the explorers of to-day have failed to penetrate the uttermost secrets of the worlds of ice, renders more impressively heroic the struggles of the earlier travellers, whose equipment, viewed in comparison with that of modern man, was apparently so inadequate and often inappropriate.

No series of Polar adventure stories would be complete without a prominent place being given to the earlier explorers, and especially to that British hero, Franklin, whose name is so inseparably associated with the history of Arctic exploration. The account of his daring voyages and of his tragic end, at the moment of victory, has already been given in many a form; but the tale is one which will stand re-telling for generations yet to come. In the present instance it has been of necessity briefly written, but in such a manner as will, it is hoped, without loss of interest, render clear a comparison of the conditions under which he and his brave companions worked and fought to their death, with those that existed for later expeditions and especially the expeditions of Nansen, Peary, and Abruzzi.

The Antarctic, equally with the Arctic, now commands the attention of man. In the South, as in the North, the British race has again produced explorers who have fought their way into the icy fastnesses. From the time that Captain Cook sailed round the unknown southern ocean, more than a century ago, the British flag has waved in the forefront of the advance. The work which Sir James Ross began, over half a century since, has now been carried farther than ever it was anticipated it could be. By the voyage of the Discovery, the Antarctic continent has been revealed to within five hundred miles of the Pole, and in the gallant exploits of the commander, Captain Robert Scott, there are many who see a repetition of all that made the name of Franklin so immortal.

The source of the information on which these stories are based (as is frequently mentioned in the text) is the personal narrative of the explorer concerned, where available; and if the interest aroused in any of them requires more to satisfy it than the exigencies of space renders possible in this volume, the attention which will thereby be drawn to the more comprehensive records will stand as a slight acknowledgment of the indebtedness of the writer of these re-told stories to the authors of the original narratives. - Summary by the Preface

Listen as Cook, equipped with one of the first chronometers, pushes his small vessel not merely into the Roaring Forties or the Furious Fifties but becomes the first explorer to penetrate the Antarctic Circle, reaching an incredible Latitude 71 degrees South, just failing to discover Antarctica. (Introduction by Shipley)

In this book he details the lives of the crew as they must overwinter in the frozen north including their meetings with Eskimos and bears and their struggles with disease. This is a realistic account of what life was like for the explorers of the Arctic. (summary by Esther, adapted from Wikipedia)