The Worst Journey in the World

The Worst Journey in the World is a memoir of the 1910–1913 British Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. It was written by a member of the expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and has earned wide praise for its frank treatment of the difficulties of the expedition, the causes of its disastrous outcome, and the meaning (if any) of human suffering under extreme conditions. In 1910, Cherry-Garrard and his fellow explorers travelled by sailing vessel, the Terra Nova, from Cardiff to McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The second-in-command, Dr Edward Wilson had a personal goal in Antarctica to recover eggs of the Emperor penguin for scientific study. As the bird nests during the Antarctic winter, it was necessary to mount a special expedition in July 1911, to the penguins' rookery at Cape Crozier. Wilson chose Cherry-Garrard to accompany him and another crew member across the Ross Ice Shelf under conditions of complete darkness and temperatures of -40 °C and below. All three men, barely alive, returned from Cape Crozier with their egg specimens, which were stored.