An account of one couple's life on a remote island beyond the Polar Front, a tale to rival the exploits of the great nineteenth-century explorers.
After twenty-five years of cruising the world's oceans, renowned blue-water sailors Pauline and Tim Carr found themselves being drawn to the lonely places of the higher latitudes to experience earth's last, scarcely touched regions. Antarctic Oasis records the culmination of those exploits. True adventurers, the Carrs have lived year-round on South Georgia for five years its only civilian inhabitants experiencing a way of life that has all but vanished from our modern world.
A center of the Norwegian whaling industry in the last century, today a remnant of the far-flung British Empire, South Georgia is a splendid if forbidding land of towering, glacier-clad mountains and a treacherous, storm-torn coast punctuated by sheltered bays. During its brief polar summer, the island's verdant shoreline offers Antarctic wildlife a place to feed, mate, and rear their young. The only humans on the scene, the Carrs have learned intimate details about the lives of whales, penguins, seals, albatrosses, skuas, and many others.
In all seasons the Carrs explore South Georgia's uncompromising coast aboard their yacht Curlew. Their deep fascination with the island, its wildlife, and its history will stir the spirit of adventure and discovery in us all. (from Abe Books)
Contents
Foreward
Preface and Acknowledgements
Chapter I - Ultimate Landfall
Chapter II - Antarctic Outpost
Chapter III - Nine to Five
Chapter IV - Green Antarctic
Chapter V - Kindred Souls
Chapter VI - Shackleton's Shadow
Chapter VII - The Rough with the Smooth
Chapter VIII - Albatross
Chapter IX - Elephantastic
Chapter X - The Mountaineering Dimension
Chapter XI - Just Talking to the Birds
Chapter XII - The Wild Side
Chapter XIII - A Shimmer of Ice
Chapter XIV - A Clean Pair of Heels
Index
Notes
Ephemra of Margaret Gmoser pertaining to trip removed from book and added to AC637 box of archival materials
Signed by the eleven participants of the September 17-19, 2004 Shackleton Crossing trip
Signed by the authors with greetings addressed to Margaret Gmoser
"For three years Voss and the Tilikum, aided by a rotating cast of characters, visited Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and finally England, weathering heavy gales at sea and attracting large crowds of spectators on shore. The austere on-board conditions and simple navigational equipment Voss used throughout the voyage are a testimony to his skill and to the solid construction of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth vessel. Both Voss and his original mate, newspaperman N.K. Luxton, later wrote about their journey in accounts compromised by poor memories, brazen egos and outright lies. Stories of murder, cannibalism and high-seas terror have been repeated elsewhere without any regard to the truth. Now, over a century later, a full and fair account of the voyage--and the magnitude of Voss’s accomplishment--is at last fully detailed. In this groundbreaking work, marine historians John MacFarlane and Lynn Salmon sift fact from fiction, critically examining the claims of Voss’s and Luxton’s manuscripts against research from libraries, archives, museums and primary sources around the world. Including unpublished photographs, letters and ephemera from the voyage, Around the World in a Dugout Canoe tells the real story of a little-understood character and his cedar canoe. It is an enduring story of courage, adventure, sheer luck and at times tragedy."-- Provided by publisher.
Contents
John Claus Voss -- Treasure Hunting in the Xora -- Norman Kenny Luxton -- “Out-Slocuming” Joshua Slocum -- Preparing to Voyage -- Across the Pacific -- Penrhyn Island and Beyond -- The Mate Walter Louis Begent -- Australia -- New Zealand -- South Africa -- Brazil and up the Atlantic to England -- Repatriation to Victoria -- The Sea Queen, the Tilikum II and Voss’s Last Years.
Notes
Contains materials from the Luxton family fonds from the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies Archives & Library
Film pertains to a trip aboard the M/S Endeavour from November 12th to November 29th, 2004 of South Georgia and the Falklands which included a trekking party who crossed South Georgia Island following Shakleton's route, led by guides David Hahn, Deirdre Galbraith, James Norton