Footnotes

• The front pastedown with the grandiose inscription "The British Imperial Antarctic Expedition 1920-1922 To my friend Mr. Vivian Osborne. John L. Cope Commander BIAE".
  
  Cope's expedition was conceived to comprise about 50 people with the goal of cicumnavigating Antarctica in Terra Nova, making the first flight over the South Pole, and to carry out detailed work on the western shore of the Weddell Sea. For all this a sum of £100,000 was sought, but as Shackleton was discovering on his own account, in the years immediately after WW1 money was needed elsewhere.
  
  The reality was that no ship was found, and a mere four men had to rely on the kindness of a whaling company to drop them off from catchers at a location where a landing could be made, rather than where Cope planned. Cope decided he should not stay, but instead try to find a relief ship for the following year. Hubert Wilkins (with previous experience in the Arctic with Stefannson), became pardonably disillusioned and decided to quit the expedition altogether (but was soon back in Antarctica with Shackelton and Quest). This left just two men, Maxime Charles Lester and Thomas Bagshawe. Without a proper hut they elected to stay, and settled down as a more-or-less static weather station, also making tidal observations and studying the four species of penguin to be found locally.
  
  The images include: views of Gritviken; factory ships, catchers and whaling operations; unloading the expedition's packing cases before bewildered penguins; various views of the hut made from packing cases and the meteorological screen; many studies of seals, penguins and the mountains and ice of the Antarctic Peninsula. See illustration overleaf.

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Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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