Tuesday Rostrum heads south

TWO of modern history’s most dramatic stories – of heroism, sacrifice and almost inhuman endurance – told by a master storyteller, provided riveting entertainment for guests at the February Tuesday Rostrum lunch.

Although he cut his storytelling teeth on the Anglo Zulu battlefields, where he worked as a specialist tour guide with David Rattray, Rob Caskie has always been passionate about the Antarctic. He chose to take his Tuesday Rostrum listeners on an unforgettable journey south with two of the most famous explorers associated with the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton.

The rivalry between the two men began after Shackleton had served as third officer aboard the ‘Discovery’ during Scott’s first Antarctic expedition, from 1901 to 1904. Shackleton was sent home early on health grounds and from then the race was on between the two men to be the first to reach the South Pole. Little did they know there was a third contender, waiting in the wings.

Setting the scene for their dramatic stories, Rob describe the unbelievably inhospitable nature of the Antarctic, the earth’s highest, coldest, windiest and driest continent. The story of Scott’s ill-fated, second Terra Nova expedition, from 1910 to 1913, is well-known. Scott, together with companions Petty Officer Edgar Evans, Captain Laurence Oates, Dr Edward Wilson and Lieutenant Henry Bowers, achieved their ambition to reach the South Pole – only to discover that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them to it.

All five of the men perished on their nightmare return journey, four of them just a short but unreachable distance away from a supply depot where food and fuel had been stored. Had they been able to reach it, these supplies would have probably saved their lives.

“Did Scott and his men die psychologically after their terrible disappointment of losing the race to the pole?” wondered Rob.

His expert dramatisation of their long trek back, enduring unusually severe blizzards and gales, icy temperatures, starvation and the deadliest of physical hazards, as well as his ability to reach into the character of each of the men, brought their tragic story vividly to life. An accident killed Evans along the way and the four remaining men trudged on without him to make their final camp. Compounding their difficulties was the fact that vital fuel for heating had been lost.

Oates, who believed he was slowing down his companions because of an injury, left the tent and walked into the blizzard. “I am just going outside and may be some time,” were his final words. Wilson and Bowers are thought to have died of starvation and the bitter cold before Scott, too, succumbed. Scott left a diary and a moving letter asking for assistance for the families of the expedition members.

A story of miraculous survival rather than a tragedy, the account of Shackleton’s 1914 to 1917 Trans-Antarctic expedition was no less dramatic. With the polar prize already won, he planned to cross the Antarctic continent via the South Pole. Many believe that changing the name of a ship is unlucky and interestingly, Shackleton had renamed his expedition ship, ‘Endurance’.

Rob told how the worst pack ice in living history had trapped and eventually sunk ‘Endurance’, leaving Shackleton and his men stranded on the treacherous floating ice. They set off in three small boats, eventually reaching Elephant Island. Together with five crew members, Shackleton spent 16 days in a small boat crossing 1,300 km of ocean to reach South Georgia to seek help. They then trekked across the island to a whaling station, alerting those stationed there of the plight of their fellow expedition members. The rest of the group was later successfully rescued. Amazingly, although their ordeal had lasted for more than 18 months, not one member of the expedition lost his life.

What was particularly impressive about Rob’s captivating presentation was the fact that he used no electronic equipment, relying solely on his powerful voice, sense of drama, encyclopaedic knowledge of his subjects and, most of all, his natural gifts as a storyteller supreme.