Two Years in the Antarctic (First Edition)

The second-in-command’s own account of Scott’s Discovery Expedition, in print before Scott’s, and one of the scarcest narratives of the heroic age.

Albert Borlase Armitage (1864–1943) was a merchant navy officer who went on to be commodore of the P&O line. He was second-in-command of the Jackson–Harmsworth expedition to Franz Josef Land and was involved in the 1895 rescue of Fridtjof Nansen and his companions. Scott chose him as navigator and second-in-command of the Discovery Expedition of 1901–04. On it he became the first person to walk on the polar plateau.

His narrative gives an insider’s view of the daily life of the expedition and a detailed account of the sledging journeys he led, as well as of the surveying and mapping. The text is illustrated with drawings by Edward Wilson, and includes some taken from the expedition’s short-lived magazine, The Blizzard.

It is said that Armitage annoyed Scott by publishing before Smith, Elder issued Scott’s own Voyage of the Discovery. Rosove calls it one of the scarcest books on the British Antarctic Expedition.

First edition. Large octavo. xix, 315pp., with 16pp of publisher’s advertisements at the rear. Photographic frontispiece and plates, with drawings in the text by Edward Wilson and a folding colour map. The map has a small tear at the gutter join, stabilised with archival tape. Original green pictorial cloth, stamped in white and gilt, with the front cover titled in white in an “icy” decorative font and illustrated in black, and the spine lettered in gilt. Text block edges uncut. Minor wear to the spine edges and corners. The binding is separating slightly between some signatures. Mark from a previously removed bookplate on the front free endpaper, with mild toning across the endpapers. The contents have some foxing throughout, heavier at the preliminaries and towards the rear, and minor creasing to the page edges here and there. The photographic plates are clear and bright. A very good copy.

Rosove 17.A1, Spence 67, Taurus 43, Renard 50.

Full title: Two Years in the Antarctic: being a Narrative of the British National Antarctic Expedition.

Provenance: From the library of Warwick H. Williams.

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This book is currently on display in the rare book section of our Paddington store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au