South Pole Quotes

“And if the worst, or best, happens, and Death comes for you in the snow, he comes disguised as Sleep, and you greet him rather as a welcome friend than a gruesome foe.”
― Aspley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World

“All in the immediate vicinity of the ship, is the blackness of eternal night, and a chaos of foamless water; but, about a league on either side of us, may be seen, indistinctly and at intervals, stupendous ramparts of ice, towering away into the desolate sky, and looking like the walls of the universe.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, MS. Found in a Bottle

“It wasn't all misery. On one of our halts we lay spreadeagled on the ice and stared up at a sky blazing with the glory of the most wonderful aurora I'd ever witnessed. I groaned beneath the splendour of those silken curtains, yellow, green, and orange, billowing at the window of the heavens.”
― Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys

“Two Dutch, two Americans, one German and one Australian. And yet, as the rocket began to quake beneath us, my mind focused on a man in Antarctica. I thought about Sam "Snowbow" Archambeau waiting for the September sunrise to reach the South Pole. I smiled recalling him getting a haircut in a lawn chair next to the frozen barbershop pole." -- Nikki in the upcoming novel, "Nikki White: Polar Extremes" (Nikki, #3)”
― Jack Chaucer, Nikki White: Polar Extremes

“Surely misfortune could scarcely have exceeded this last blow. We arrived within 11 miles of our old One Ton Camp with fuel for one last meal and food for two days. For four days we have been unable to leave the tent - the gale howling about us. We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships , help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last. But if we have been willing to give our lives to this enterprise, which is for the honor of our country, I appeal to our countrymen to see that those who depend on us are properly cared for.
Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.”
― Robert Falcon Scott, Last expedition Volume 2

“Sam "Snowbow" Archambeau sat on his bunk and finally sharked his thumbnail through the sealed envelope marked, “Do not open until I blast off!” It had been inserted inside an outer envelope that had flown from Amsterdam to Cape Town to Christchurch to McMurdo Station to South Pole Station.
As he unfolded the red construction paper inside, Snowbow smiled at the incongruity of a rocket girl using snail mail to communicate her last Earthly message to him.

-- from the upcoming novel, MARS COLONY AGATHA: NIKKI RED by Jack Chaucer, 1-1-20”
― Jack Chaucer

“In broad terms, we are trying to find the Endurance so that she might be protected into the future, when conservation science will have advenced sufficiently for a responsible body to consider raising her remains for preservation and public display.”
― Mensun Bound, The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance

“Ships can give you moments of subliminal happiness but they can also stretch you in ways you never thought possible.”
― Mensun Bound, The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance

“It used to be said that the sea was a ruthlessly hostile environment which you only ventured at your peril.”
― Mensun Bound, The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance