The South Georgia survey expeditions of the early 1950s provide an inspiring example of private enterprise applied to Antarctic exploration. Whilst it is commonplace for independent expeditions to claim altruistic objectives, few can have delivered more than the three survey missions to South Georgia between 1951 and 1956 masterminded by Duncan Carse (1913–2004). Alec Trendall was the geologist accompanying the first two of these expeditions, in the 1951–52 and 1953–54 summers, but has written a fascinating account of the entire exercise, drawing extensively on the diaries and reminiscences of his colleagues during those two periods and the third expedition in the 1955–56 season. His record of the field activities is supplemented by well-researched reviews of the conception and aftermath of Carse's ambitious project. Appendices provide biographical details of the participants - a quite extraordinary group of men - and a discussion of the possible route taken by Shackleton on his epic crossing of the island in 1916, an aspect that Carse had hoped to clarify during the survey work (Reference CarseCarse 1959). Separately, Trendall's two accounts of his geological investigations were published (Reference TrendallTrendall 1953, Reference Trendall1959) as scientific reports by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, forerunner of the British Antarctic Survey.
On 1 January 1952 Trendall fell into a crevasse, high up between the Spenceley and Ross glaciers, and sustained a serious leg injury. Accordingly, much detail of the first expedition, including the account of Trendall's rescue and evacuation, is provided by Walter Roots, an experienced mountaineer working with the survey party. Trendall made a good recovery and rejoined the second of the survey expeditions, which was beset with difficulties - logistical, medical and strategic - such that of the original four-man party only he and Carse completed the full season. Trendall's account of the third, more successful, expedition utilizes diaries and letters from five of the eight-man team, all of which he skilfully melds with informed commentary and assessment. It is our good fortune that the diarists were literate and imaginative. We share their aspirations, eccentricities, lyrical appreciation of their surroundings, and frustrations with each other and South Georgia's weather. They also provide some vivid insights into the whaling and sealing work pursued by companies based at the onshore stations in Stromness and Cumberland bays. All of these disparate themes are well illustrated in colour, reflecting the photographic talents of several expedition members but also, more significantly, the serious effort made to record all aspects of the teams’ progress. This policy has allowed almost 2000 expedition photographs to be lodged in the British Antarctic Survey archive. As might be expected in an account of surveying expeditions, the eight maps supporting the text are clear and informative.
Essential logistical support, including transport to and around South Georgia, was provided by the whaling companies then operating around the island, with Salvesen of Leith to the fore. However, once they had been landed on remote beaches the survey teams were very much alone, the excessive weight of the necessary batteries even precluding radio communication. Inland surveying work required triangulation sites on high vantage points that were accessed by man-hauling sledges up and along the principal glaciers to establish base camps. It was difficult, arduous work and dangerous too, with several near disasters. The result was the publication in 1958 by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys of DOS 610: South Georgia at a scale of 1:200 000. This remained the definitive map of the island until superseded in 2004 by an edition based on satellite imagery. Alec Trendall provides a fitting tribute to the men who made it happen, principal amongst whom was Duncan Carse. Woven into the survey story is biographical detail about this complex character, best remembered by older members of the British public as the radio voice of Dick Barton - Special Agent, but probably better known in Antarctic circles for his role in the 1934–37 British Graham Land Expedition. Carse's lifelong ambition, ultimately unrealized, was to emulate his hero, Shackleton, and lead major Antarctic exploration. In 1953 he distributed plans for a Transantarctic expedition, and conceived the South Georgia surveys as a means of improving his credentials for leading such an undertaking. Trendall's assessment is sympathetic but honest: as a leader Carse could be inspirational but also infuriating - and at some crucial moments simply absent, with depression and alcohol both contributing.
Alec Trendall's book can be thoroughly recommended and is an important contribution to the South Georgia literature. It is a delight to read, is superbly illustrated, is candid in its description of events and in passing exposes one or two myths. Quite apart from the detailed accounts of the surveying work and the topography of South Georgia, there are first-hand descriptions of life in the whaling industry and fascinating insights into the backroom manoeuvrings amongst the Antarctic élite as British science and exploration policy evolved through the early 1950s. And perhaps most important of all, Putting South Georgia on the map invites long overdue recognition for a remarkable pioneering venture.
