The Coldest March: Scott`s Fatal Antarctic Expedition | 
|  | | | Title: | The Coldest March: Scott`s Fatal Antarctic Expedition | | Author: | Susan Solomon | | Publisher: | Yale University Press | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 01 September, 2001 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0300089678 / 9780300089677 | | List Price: | $35.00 | | Amazon Price: | $35.00 | |
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Product Description
"Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale."--R. Scott, written after traveling for weeks of daily temperatures below minus 35 F. This riveting book tells the tragic story of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his British team who in November 1911 began a trek across the snows of Antarctica, striving to be the first to reach the South Pole. After marching and skiing more than nine hundred miles, the men reached the Pole in January 1912, only to suffer the terrible realization that a group of five Norwegians had been there almost a month earlier. On their return journey, Scott and his four companions perished, and their legacy--as courageous heroes or tragic incompetents--has been debated ever since. Susan Solomon brings a scientific perspective to understanding the men of the expedition, their staggering struggle, and the reasons for their deaths. Drawing on extensive meteorological data and on her own personal knowledge of the Antarctic, she depicts in detail the sights, sounds, legends, and ferocious weather of this singular place. And she reaches the startling conclusion that Scott's polar party was struck down by exceptionally frigid weather--a rare misfortune that thwarted the men's meticulous predictions of what to expect. Solomon describes the many adventures and challenges faced by Scott and his men on their journey, and she also discusses each one's life, contributions, and death. Her poignant and beautifully written book restores them to the place of honor they deserve.
Amazon.com Review
The icy deaths of Robert Falcon Scott and his companions on their return from the South Pole in 1912 made them English icons of courage and sacrifice. Soon, however, Scott's judgments and decisions were questioned, and his reputation became one of inept bungler rather than heroic pioneer. Susan Solomon, senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Colorado, approaches Scott's story from a meteorologist's point of view. She shows that the three weeks from February 27 to March 19, during which the explorers fell further and further behind the daily distances they had to cover in order to survive, were far colder than normal. Unusual blizzards of wet snow had already slowed the party and depleted their provisions and strength. Without these once-in-a-decade phenomena, Solomon believes the party would have returned to its base on the Ross Sea--second after Roald Amundsen in the race to the Pole, but safely. She opens each chapter with comments from a hypothetical modern visitor to Antarctica, presumably to give a wider context to the human drama of the last century, though this reviewer finds them inappropriate. She enriches her narratives of Scott's two Antarctic expeditions with vintage photographs and tables of meteorological data that highlight the explorers' achievements. Their determination was pitted against the worst weather in the world. Scott's story has been told many times before, but its weather information makes The Coldest March a useful addition to the literature. --John Stevenson
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Customer Reviews:
• "the Worst Weather In The World" 17 July, 2005
The Coldest March (referring to the month as well as the verb) is about British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his team of explorers and scientists who raced a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen to the South Pole in 1911-12. Amundsen was the first ever to reach the Pole. Scott and four of his crew (hand-chosen by Scott) reached the Pole a month later. Amundsen's team made it back but Scott's did not. Many books and reports have been written since trying to explain why Scott failed to return. Many critics site several bad decisions on the part of Scott leading to the legend that he was a bumbler. Scott kept a journal right to the end and sometimes his self-effacing entries fueled the criticism.
Susan Solomon may seem to have an agenda. Throughout the book, Solomon attempts to defend many of Scott's decisions and actions. She has tremendous expertise in the subject. Solomon studied the Ozone layer in the Antarctic. She is a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado. When considering the legend of Scott, Solomon admits that she assumed the Brit explorer foolishly disregarded the power of Mother Nature until she studied the data and diaries left by Scott and his crew (xvii). While Solomon often defends Scott against highly critical historical accounts like Huntford's The Last Place on Earth, she is no apologist. She also points out Scott's errors and baffling decisions.
At the beginning of each chapter, Solomon includes part of the experiences of a modern-day Antarctic visitor. This visitor is not a specific person but a conglomeration of typical visitors. At first I was confused as, while reading about this modern experience, the story would shift gears to 1911-12. Soon, I figured out the pattern. The modern stories are at the beginning of each chapter (only about 2-3 pages each) and are in bold print. These stories are able to demonstrate clearly the issues or problems surrounding the Scott legend: i.e. comparing the huge stock of frozen vegetables at the warehouse there today and the comfortable living conditions against what Scott and his him men faced (pp. 71-2), the importance of drinking plenty of water in higher elevations versus the meager cups of tea Scott and company could drink each day with the scarce fuel they had, (p. 209), how much a visitor suffers in just a short period in extreme conditions (p. 286), etc. These stories, especially one explaining the need to risk snowblindness to better see crevasses (p. 183) helped me, as a reader who will never experience anything remotely close to the Antarctic, better understand the issues people face there.
Solomon clearly refutes points of criticism of Scott: i.e. that his men suffered from scurvy because they refused to eat seal meat or their ponies (pp. 3, 176), that the final five men who journeyed to the Pole did not have enough to eat because they only prepared food for four (p. 213), etc. She does point out Scott's weaknesses and mistakes. For example, he put too much faith in the opinions of some of his men (p. 86) and, even more importantly, he planned by the margins, putting too much stock in past experiences and not preparing for the possibility of worse case scenarios as did Amundsen. The inferior sleeping bags and faulty fuel cans were significant problems stemming from a lack of proper testing and preparation. Solomon is no sycophant and makes a fair assessment based on Scott's and his men's diaries and other primary sources.
What makes this work a fresh approach is the information on weather conditions taken from stations set up near Scott's path. They provided data for several decades demonstrating that the conditions Scott faced during the last month of their lives (March 1912) were extremely rare and perhaps unprecedented. What is puzzling is Solomon's conclusions which are contradictory. She discusses the rarity of the blizzard they faced in March 1912 and then shifts to explain that a 10-day blizzard noted in Scott's diary probably did not occur and that the men stayed in their tent for other reasons; one possibly being Scott's frost-bitten foot. Then, out-of-the-blue, Solomon mentions a suicide plan Scott wrote in his diary on March 11 involving opium tablets (p. 322). They decided not to take them but it seems odd to only mention such an entry briefly towards the end of the book. They probably lived another 18 or more days. Her confusing and inconclusive ending is the only criticism I have of this well-written and fascinating book. It is extremely well-researched and, on a historical level, offers fresh ideas and approaches. She also discusses the men on Scott's team (Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates, Henry Bowers, Edgar Evans, Lt. Edward Evans, Apsely Cherry-Garrard, etc.) describing some of their backgrounds, characters, and personalities which added a lot to the human side of the story.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AD39QGHGWAOPQ
• Cold, Yes, But... 22 March, 2006
Solomon's is a well-written book that begs the question: How many ways are there to say that it is cold in winter at Antarctica?
Solomon builds a molehill of meteorological data that pales in comparison to mountains of other evidence. Scott's lack of provisions, inadequate marking of depots, splitting of teams, depoting of ski and evaporation of stored fuel are not the only problems with his journey.
Scott apologists lay the journey's failure and death of the party on the bad weather encountered at the end. They fail to note that 2 companions had already died by the last encampment and the last (Evans) party barely made it back 3 weeks earlier (for the same reasons listed above).
The sheer fact of the matter is, that on a journey of over FOUR MONTHS, Scott had barely FOUR DAYS of extra rations for a job requiring 5000 calories per man per day.
A 3% margin of error in the coldest, windiest, least hospitable corner of the globe is hoping on more than luck...
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1PTKCOOEXISEA
• An Unforgiving Land 17 October, 2005
Primarily a scientific investigation and a good one at that, with the human interest aspect secondary but significant. Solomon is very informative. Being in the Antartic may mean not just reckoning with the cold but also with low humidiity and high elevation. What being severely frostbitten is like. Considerations of what to bring on an Antartic expedition. The impact on bodies and minds as the temperature drops lower and lower.
Diary fragments are used heavily to reveal what Scott and his team were thinking. Solomon's tone is more descriptive than dramatic. One page the team has reached the South Pole and not many pages later, with little buildup, they are dead. Much of the human interest comes from Solomon's speculations after that as to why the team died as they did.
For a polar story told with less science but more drama, try also "Mawson's Will" by Leonard Bickel. They complement each other well. That Mawson, alone of his team, escaped the fate of Scott and his team is incredible. The PBS video based on "The Coldest March", an episode of the "Secrets of the Dead" series entititled "Tragedy at the Pole" is excellent.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AFLPMS5K3DZL5
• Focus On Weather Doesn't Tell The Whole Story 12 February, 2007
I've read several books on this subject. This one doesn't add quite enough.
What's important to note is that Scott's expedition was not considered a failure at the time. His primary goal, unlike Amundsen, was to gather scientific data, not reach the pole first. Amundsen traveled fast and light; Scott put scientific discovery first. Among other achievements, the rock fossils his men gathered later contributed to proving plate tectonics.
While Solomon's weather information is fascinating, the book "Captain Scott" by Ranulph Fiennes covers absolutely everything that was a factor, including the hellish weather. Fiennes even crossed the Antarctic using Scott's methods.
Fiennes was moved to undertake his dangerous mission by "The Last Place on Earth," which he viewed as a slander of Scott's achievements. A British court agreed; the author of "The Last Place on Earth" was ordered to pay damages to Scott's son.
Fiennes gives detailed background on all of Scott's decisions, including what is seen as one of his greatest errors, using ponies instead of dogs.
Although the book "The Last Place on Earth" was found to be slander, the drama by the same name, available on DVD, is a fine piece of film making with excellent performances. Don't take it as gospel, though.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A349L1PB9WRYX1
• This Is Not The Place To Take Chances 12 February, 2006
Susan Solomon's book on the ill-fated Scott expedition of 1911-1912 tries to refute the Scott bashing in Roland Huntford's superior book, "The Last Place on Earth." Huntford carefully explains why the lesser-known Amundsen deserves praise while Scott pretty much kills himself. Solomon describes Scott as a "bumbler"- someone who makes mistakes because of incompetence. But her title and thesis is- it was the weather's fault. Inspector Clouseau was a bumbler. Scott's "preparation and leadership" cost him and all his men their lives.
The best part of Solomon's book is her make-believe Antarctic visitor. One evening he watches the television serial "The Last Place on Earth" based on Huntford's book. She even quotes from it, "Any man who sits in his tent in the Antarctic and whines about the weather is not fit to lead." She then explains it was very cold. She should have kept quoting the film because it has many great quotes she didn't use; allow me to recite just a few. "Men die; cattle die; I thyself shall die; one thing I know shall never die- Judgment over the Dead". Hello Susan.
In Scott's group, Meares says, "I took a trip across Siberia a journey of 2,000 miles, taught me many things, but chiefly I learned the narrowness of the line that man walks in nature between farce and tragedy, a lesson the Norwegians have learned on sea, on ice and mountain; it is a lesson Scott and his kind will never learn." I don't know if Mr. Meares said this but his case is stronger than Solomon's.
Finally, the most eloquent for last. Amundsen warns his men to lay out markers an additional 2 miles in both directions of a depot. "Two miles?" they ask. "Yes" replies Amundsen, "This is not the place to take chances."
If Susan Solomon wants to blame the weather, okay, but perhaps she has been breathing the ozone too long.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A37EEMWFTJBLIK
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