Scott of the Antarctic Paperback – 4 Sept. 2006

Since reading Roland Huntford's book, 'The Last Place on Earth.' I had lost respect for Scott, but reading this very unbiased book I have changed my opinion.Scott was brought up in a different world to the likes of you and I. He really knew only one way and that was 'The Navy Way' The RN in his day was so utterly different to my days in the RN. The way he lived and served was to him quite normal. He was the Captain and what he said, thought and did was the way it would be. This was 'The English way. The Navy Way.' Where as Roald Amundsen went to live with and learn from the people who lived in those kind of conditions. He was willing to learn and be told, plus he never had the strait-laced attitude of the British Gentleman who could not bear the thought of killing the poor dogs who had worked for them."No Sir, we man haul our sledges like true British." Was Scott's attitude and it cost him his life.He was a very brave and dedicated Naval Officer. He attracted such loyalty that no one felt it right to disagree with him. It is such a pity that he never knew of any other way of life. If he had and had listened and learnt from others of much more experience of survival in those awful cold and dangerous lands. I am sure the outcome would have been so very much different.John Stevens. Royal Wootton Bassett

Having revisited the whole Scott of the Antarctic story by reading a biography of Amundsen, followed by rereading Ranulph Fiennes' book and then acquiring the life of Kathleen Scott by her granddaughter, I decided to track down another, hopefully impartial, biography of Scott. Excellent and informative though Fiennes' work is, it is avowedly partial and very much a rebuttal of the Huntford biography that caused so much stir. I wanted the Elspeth Huxley biography mentioned by Fiennes, as I admire her work, but it was not easy to acquire, so went for the David Crane one.I rather like an extremely detailed biography; if I'm deeply into a particular person/era/topic, I want exhaustive detail - no trivia is too small for me! So, this fitted the bill. I also admired the way that Crane really tried very hard to be impartial, and I felt he succeeded. He did not shrink from discussing the difficult aspects of Scott's character - this man was very far from being a simple sailor - but he was always balanced. His depression, and irritability, were discussed in relation to his undoubted leadership skills, whilst at the same time they served to detract from them.Some have said they found the detail about the Royal Navy of the time extraneous and dull. I did not - but then I confess to bias, coming from a Naval family and having been in the Navy myself. My own father joined in 1915, via HMS CONWAY. He too was from a less than exalted background and his father was "in trade". His father had done well, though and was probably better off than the Scotts. Although able to pay the fees at Dartmouth and provide the uniforms etc, he was unable to fund a private income for my father, and I remember my parents discussing how terribly poor they were when first married (not before the age of 25, of course!) My mother bitterly remembered how they had to have a maid once a week to receive callers on her "at home" day and how my father's replacement white kid gloves took priority sometimes over actual food. They had to submit the address of any accommodation they wished to rent to the Commander, and were told they could not take a very nice (affordable) flat they wanted, because it was above a butcher's shop and was therefore not suitable accommodation for a Naval Officer. So I could really empathise with Scott and his constant struggle for money, plus the upkeep of his mother and some of his sisters. My mother's brother - an Army Officer also without a private income - had to take on the upkeep of his mother, and felt unable to marry a woman he wished to, because he simply couldn't afford to keep a mother and a wife. For men of that time the Royal Navy was not a career, it was a way of life. So the emphasis and detail on something so integral to Scott's whole outlook and approach was not over-stated. Whether or not he was entirely suited to a Naval career was discussed, the author feeling that he would have been better as an Engineer or scientist, given his interest and ability in these topics. He was however, a successful Naval Officer, and worked hard to be so. It was very clear that his desire to lead the 1901 expedition was very much to make a name for himself and earn recognition and possibly money. His marriage to an interesting and eccentric woman who pushed hard and supported him wholeheartedly was dealt with fairly and in some detail.Crane handled his relationships with his fellow expedition members (in both expeditions) interestingly and sensitively. He was very interesting, I thought, on Bowers, but rather less so on the difficult and disloyal tendencies of Oates, who he did not discuss at any particular length. The importance of his relationship with Dr Wilson, and the latter's peacemaking role, was also fascinating. Well-known though the story is, I found the whole book riveting, although surprised at the seemingly abrupt ending (I was reading it on a Kindle). I then found the epilogue elements, though. Interestingly, there were no pictures at all. I'm grateful to the author for the references to and discussion of A E W Mason's book "The Turnstile" which is a contemporary's take on Scott. I am now reading this avidly!

A thoroughly good biography of this remarkable man. Read the book to learn about the man, his companions and their 'endeavour'. you learn how the took up and executed the challenge. The result is part of our British history.

Excellent

An interesting story well written

Still wading through this heavy tome after more than a year and I haven't got to the epic journey. Lots of detail but I can't say it is an easy read you want to get to the heart of the matter but it is like man hauling a packed sledge. For me I want the story of the South Polar expeditions and what led to them but instead there is far too much back-story which I haven't found illuminating.

clean writing. Like high quality journalism, and avoiding most of the smugness that hindsight seems to convey on weker biographers

This is the 17th book I have read on the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration, and with the exception of Roland Huntford's The Last Place on Earth, it is the best. Crane's book is a biography of Scott, not an analysis of his expeditions, and is thus somewhat skimpy on the details, especially on the journey that resulted in Scott's death. (By contrast, Crane presents a thorough discussion of Scott's Western Journey on the earlier Discovery expedition, and I learned a great deal from it.) One bizarre comment jumped out at me early on: Armitage, the pilot on the Discovery journey, is the only source of a couple of the most famous anti-Scott/pro-Shackleton anecdotes, and Crane dismisses their truth in part by calling Armitage a "proto-Fascist" because Armitage enjoyed feeling the power of the ship as he rode high above it in the crow's nest. Just an odd remark.Thankfully, the rest of the book, though opinionated, is not marred by such ill-founded judgments. Quite the literary stylist himself, Crane argues that Scott's saving grace was his ability to give voice to the suffering he and his men endured. In a sense, then--as was said of one of the characters in Macbeth--"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it." Thus Crane presents a much more balanced portrait of Scott than Huntford does, and though Huntford's book has the detail and coverage of Amundsen that this one lacks, Huntford's savage tone really becomes off-putting after a while. If I were new to this topic, I would read Huntford, watch the magnificent production of The Last Place on Earth on DVD, and then read Crane's book.Crane's maps could have been better done--my memory is that only one has a scale attached to it--but overall this is a beautifully-written, well-researched biography that is an indispensable read for those interested in the subject.

A fair balanced rendition of Robert Scott. Anyone who is interested in polar exploration should read this and make it part of their library. It was well written and researched and held my attention from front to back. It's time to end the misconceptions and put this seminal polar explorer in a place he deserves to be - as one of the greats.

This is a great "counter" to the Roland Huntford's The Last Place on Earth (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375754741) which is unbalanced in its criticism of Scott. This bio shows Scott as a product of his time. I still don't feel that it dealt with why "no dogs" effectively, other than pulling sleds was honorable. But otherwise the book shows a very rounded view of who Scott was, why he did what he did and what a great leader he was.

Having personally visited Antarctica in January 2014, I am able to appreciate the incredible bravery displayed and the massive hardships endured by Captain Scott and his comrades which has all been so vividly depicted in "Scott of the Antarctic". Clearly, much research has been done by David Crane in the production of this most readable and impressionable book.

Good biography. More about Scott himself than his famous expedition.