Mawson in Antarctica: To the ends of the earth by Joanna Grochowicz
Grochowicz, a polar historian, has written an engrossing tale of adventure and human perseverance during Mawson’s 1911-14 scientific expedition to map a section of the Antarctic. Combining her research on Mawson with the diaries and letters of a number of the expeditioners has enabled her to create conversations and daily situations that authentically flesh out the historically recorded facts. This results in feeling as if we are with the men as they establish the Cape Denison base, carry out scientific observations and set out in sledging teams to map the unexplored land and coast.
Her narrative includes graphic descriptions of the relentlessly fierce weather, the personalities and the bonds that developed between the men, and their daily routines, including perpetually frozen clothing, meals of seal and penguin and impossibly crowded living conditions. Embedded in the recounts of the men’s days is scientific information about the weather, geology, and animal life. Grochowicz’s account of this hostile and unfamiliar land comes alive as she describes ordinary men persevering in extraordinary situations.
A number of the chapters tell of Mawson’s previous expedition with Shackleton to the south magnetic pole, and these add to our understanding of Mawson’s tenacious character as a highly principled leader, in the fearsome Antarctic conditions. Also included is a list of the members of the expedition, which highlights just how young the majority were (only in their 20s), several maps, and a selection of Hurley’s photos showing the extreme conditions that they laboured in.
Highly recommended, with the warning that Grochowicz confronts head-on, the grim realities of Mawson’s physical deterioration, Ninnes’ and Mertz’s agonising deaths, and that the men were forced to slaughter and eat many of the dogs.
Grochowicz has also written three other narrative non-fictions, about Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton.
Themes: Antarctic, Adventure, Mawson.
Margaret Crohn