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(above) Fiennes man-hauling in Antarctica where Scott died. |
"...savage bouts with diarrhea,
major weight loss, confusion, bitter fights with Ran...dementia,
blindness, and toes described as black bags of pus, ...our
muscles poisoned by the ice, the stench of rotting flesh added
to our already evil body odors. More a horror story than an
adventure epic."
(Amazon.com)
Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. |
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An editorial perspective by Henson website
creator Bradley Robinson |
| Is Fiennes qualified to comment on
Henson & Peary's dog sledge travel to the
North Pole? |
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(top) Peary & Amundsen each used dogs
for polar success.
Note medal from Royal Geographical Society. |
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Scott man-hauled supplies, without dogs, and
died with all of these men.
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The
English, traditionally, rejected dogs because of confusion between household pets and
the arctic Husky. They would never use "man's best friend" the way
Scott used his own men. That mistake cost Scott's expedition their lives.
But arctic Huskies are not pets! Peary described them as wolf-like
animals that fought viciously to determine dominance. The winner
was the King dog who then led each team. I don't think Fiennes
has much real experience with Huskies. Therefore he knows little
about the means of polar transportation Henson & Peary
mastered to reach the North Pole, and Amundsen the South Pole.
But Peary did not ski! Peary used dogs
to drag his supplies and used snow shoes when appropriate, and also
used skis when appropriate. And sometimes he simply rode in the
sledge on flat ground that was easy for the dogs to traverse.
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(Photo of Fiennes's
dog from: Living Dangerously) |
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This is what we are talking about:
Cute little Bothie has unique polar
ex-pee-rience.
But a lap dog peeing on a Pole is not the same as
reaching the Pole with a team of Huskies. Henson & Peary used
the powerful arctic Husky to haul their sledges. Fiennes once circumscribed both Poles using Land Rovers (now called Range
Rovers), snow mobiles, tractors, air support, etc. This is why
we say he is unqualified to comment upon the 1909 North Pole dog
sledge achievement that earned the posthumous Hubbard Medal award
for Matthew Henson.
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Man-hauling:
The British repeatedly used "long boats"
for sledges and men
as the dogs to pull them. This spared the real dogs, man's best
friend, who stayed home in England comfortably sipping tea
before a warm fire. |
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I think traveling alone without Huskies cost Fiennes his finger tips. In fact,
I think that Fiennes last North Pole trek would have killed him if he had not
been air rescued. He also had to be air rescued at the South Pole!
In fact, after freezing his hands attempting the North Pole, he cut off
his dead finger tips himself with a fret saw. This is not indicative of
a man skilled in polar travel the way Peary reached the North Pole
in 1909, or how Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1913.
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Matt Henson never lost any finger
tips, as Fiennes did, during his 18 years in the arctic with
Peary, but then Henson never tried to reach the North Pole alone,
as Fiennes did. Both Peary and Henson, in their books, discuss
how exposed skin freezes in minutes. One never took off one's gloves
to plunge bare hands under the freezing ocean. The
difference is that Peary and Henson mastered the Inuit ways of
living, traveling and surviving in the arctic. That is how they
reached the Pole in 1909. That was how they succeeded. |
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| Coming soon: A review
titled Living Expensively by Bradley Robinson about
Fiennes out of print classic Living Dangerously. |
| In response to reader letters we feel
more needs to be web published about this difficult to
understand topic. Hopefully, Bradley's next review will bring
insight into the mentality of the remaining vestiges of a "British Empire" from the
point of view of an American Colonial. |
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http://www.maxadventure.
co.uk/exped_north9.htm
(1) from a letter by Michael Kobold. |
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Copyright © 2002 Lord Vernon Russell-Twittledorf
Robinson, MCE (Member of the California Empire) |
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