Antarctica: Leaves from a Diary Kept on Board an Exploring Vessel

This is probably the rarest of all first-hand accounts of Scott’s National Antarctic Expedition (1901-04). Ford was a steward on the expedition and is notable mainly for being the first man to break his leg skiing in the Antarctic. Published privately in 1908 in New Zealand, this is a facsimile of his original booklet. Ford, in a letter to a friend in 1963, confirmed that Scott himself gave him permission firstly to lecture in England and then later in Canada and Australia and also to write a book. He said ‘I should quite probably have done these things without consent but I preferred to ask anyway.’ This is handsomely presented in a black gift box which also contains a pamphlet with biographical details, newspaper articles, and pictures and a facsimile of a 1905 brochure detailing Ford’s lectures in Australia. Two Antarctic postcards are also included. Original copies of Ford’s account are very scarce.

See Conrad p112, Renard 546, and Rosove 131.A1.a for references to the original, not in Spence, Taurus 44.