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Mawson and the Ice Men of the Heroic Age - Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen

Mawson and the Ice Men of the Heroic Age - Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen

Peter FitzSimons

9781741666601

Random House


Biography; Biography: general; Biography: historical, political & military; Travel writing; Expeditions

Hardback

320 pages

$49.95  $44.95

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Douglas Mawson, born in 1882 and knighted in 1914, was Australia's greatest Antarctic explorer. On 2 December 1911, he led an expedition from Hobart to explore the virgin frozen coastline below, 2000 miles of which had never felt the tread of a human foot. After setting up Main Base at Cape Denision and Western Base on Queen Mary Land, he headed east on an extraordinary sledging trek with his companions, Belgrave Ninnis and Dr Xavier Mertz. After five weeks, tragedy struck. Ninnis was swallowed whole by a snow-covered crevasse, and Mawson and Mertz realised it was too dangerous to go on. With the scant food and provisions they had left, turning back was almost equally perilous. Their dwindling supplies forced them to kill their dogs to feed the other dogs, at first, and then themselves. Hunger, sickness and despair eventually got the better of Mertz, and he succumbed to madness and then to death. Mawson found himself all alone, 160 miles from safety, with next to no food. Peter FitzSimons tells the staggering tale of Mawson's survival, despite all the odds, arriving back just in time to see his rescue ship disappearing over the horizon. He also masterfully interweaves the stories of the other giants from the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration - Scott of the Antarctic, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen - to bring the jaw-dropping events of this bygone era dazzlingly back to life..

By:   Peter FitzSimons
Imprint:   Random House
Country of Publication:   Australia
Dimensions:   Height: 64mm,  Width: 239mm,  Spine: 165mm
Weight:   1.039kg
ISBN:  

9781741666601


ISBN 10:   1741666600
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   November 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained
Our supplier is currently out of stock. You can order it and we will ship it to you upon arrival.

Peter FitzSimons is the author of over 20 books - including Tobruk, Kokoda and biographies of Nancy Wake' Kim Beazley' Nene King' Nick Farr-Jones' Les Darcy, Steve Waugh and John Eales - and was Australia's bestselling non-fiction writer in 2001, 2004 and 2006.

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