Details
GEORGE P. ABBOTT, Petty Officer (d.1923)
Autograph letter signed to William Wright, Terra Nova, 'At Sea', 8 February 1913, 3½ pages, 8vo, on a bifolium, printed roundel of 'British Antarctic Expedition' (some soiling, splits at folds, upper portion of f.2 detached but present), envelope with cancelled 'Victoria Land' 1d stamp (split through at folds).
'IT WAS A SLOW LINGERING DEATH THAT THE POLE PARTY HAD'. Abbott writes two days before Terra Nova's landfall at Oamaru in New Zealand, confidently predicting the newspaper frenzy once Scott's fate is known, and commenting on the deaths of Scott's Southern Party, before going on to sum up his own extraordinary experiences as a member of the Northern Party after what was intended to be only a 'six weeks sledging trip' left them stranded at Inexpressible Island for the whole Antarctic winter: 'In March we began to dig out a Cave in a snow drift & lived in there for 7 months till the Winter was well over -- we existed almost entirely on seal meat & blubber. We were without the sun for 5 months ... We sledged to Capn Scott's Winter Quarters arriving there 10 months from the time the ship left us. We hadn't shaved, washed, or shifted clothes all that time so were in decent trim for a Bath etc not to mention a decent feed'.
The Northern Party's successful survival of an entire winter in an ice cave was one of the most impressive exploits of the Heroic Age. George Abbott did not survive unscathed, however: he lost the use of three fingers in the desperate butchering of a seal in mid-winter, and the mental strain brought on a nervous breakdown after the party's return to Cape Evans.
Autograph letter signed to William Wright, Terra Nova, 'At Sea', 8 February 1913, 3½ pages, 8vo, on a bifolium, printed roundel of 'British Antarctic Expedition' (some soiling, splits at folds, upper portion of f.2 detached but present), envelope with cancelled 'Victoria Land' 1d stamp (split through at folds).
'IT WAS A SLOW LINGERING DEATH THAT THE POLE PARTY HAD'. Abbott writes two days before Terra Nova's landfall at Oamaru in New Zealand, confidently predicting the newspaper frenzy once Scott's fate is known, and commenting on the deaths of Scott's Southern Party, before going on to sum up his own extraordinary experiences as a member of the Northern Party after what was intended to be only a 'six weeks sledging trip' left them stranded at Inexpressible Island for the whole Antarctic winter: 'In March we began to dig out a Cave in a snow drift & lived in there for 7 months till the Winter was well over -- we existed almost entirely on seal meat & blubber. We were without the sun for 5 months ... We sledged to Capn Scott's Winter Quarters arriving there 10 months from the time the ship left us. We hadn't shaved, washed, or shifted clothes all that time so were in decent trim for a Bath etc not to mention a decent feed'.
The Northern Party's successful survival of an entire winter in an ice cave was one of the most impressive exploits of the Heroic Age. George Abbott did not survive unscathed, however: he lost the use of three fingers in the desperate butchering of a seal in mid-winter, and the mental strain brought on a nervous breakdown after the party's return to Cape Evans.
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