Inger Sheil
Member
Have long been looking for ways to tie polar exploration in with the Titanic (besides obvious comparisons between the disastrous end of the Scott expedition in March 1912 and the Titanic's fate). Limb and Cordingly in their magnificent biography of Captain L.E.G. Oates drew an explicit comparison between the two events:
He probably still wanted to get to the Pole. He probably felt his luck would hold and enough sheer grit would get him there and back. His courage was Titanic - but so, alas, was his destiny. When the Norweigans' flag appeared in the snows and they knew they had lost, it was a struggle even for the overt Christians of the British party to be entirely graceful in defeat. But for Oates the sportsman it was easy.
The recent release of a new Oates bio by Michael Smith, I Am Just Going Outside (which brought it home to me that the more I read about Oates the more I like the bloke) had me pulling Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World off the shelf again (Cherry-Garrard was the youngest member of Scott's last expedition).
First published in 1922, the following lines - set at the time of the 'Winter Journey' of Bill Wilson, 'Birdie' Bowers and Cherry-Garrard that gave the book its title - were clearly written for Randy:
It was Birdie's picture hat which made the trouble next day. 'What do you think of that for a hat, sir?' I heard him say to Scott a few days before we started, holding it out much as Lucille displays her latest Paris model. Scott looked at it quietly for a time: 'I'll tell you when you come back, Birdie,' he said. It was a complicated affair with all kinds of nose-guards and buttons and lanyards: he thought he was going to set it to suit the wind much as he would set the sails of a ship.
As Cherry-Garrard went on to write, 'Anyway, Birdie's hat became improper immediately it was well iced up.'
He probably still wanted to get to the Pole. He probably felt his luck would hold and enough sheer grit would get him there and back. His courage was Titanic - but so, alas, was his destiny. When the Norweigans' flag appeared in the snows and they knew they had lost, it was a struggle even for the overt Christians of the British party to be entirely graceful in defeat. But for Oates the sportsman it was easy.
The recent release of a new Oates bio by Michael Smith, I Am Just Going Outside (which brought it home to me that the more I read about Oates the more I like the bloke) had me pulling Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World off the shelf again (Cherry-Garrard was the youngest member of Scott's last expedition).
First published in 1922, the following lines - set at the time of the 'Winter Journey' of Bill Wilson, 'Birdie' Bowers and Cherry-Garrard that gave the book its title - were clearly written for Randy:
It was Birdie's picture hat which made the trouble next day. 'What do you think of that for a hat, sir?' I heard him say to Scott a few days before we started, holding it out much as Lucille displays her latest Paris model. Scott looked at it quietly for a time: 'I'll tell you when you come back, Birdie,' he said. It was a complicated affair with all kinds of nose-guards and buttons and lanyards: he thought he was going to set it to suit the wind much as he would set the sails of a ship.
As Cherry-Garrard went on to write, 'Anyway, Birdie's hat became improper immediately it was well iced up.'