The South Polar Trail: The Log of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

The first facsimile edition of Joyce’s incredible story of the Ross Sea Party which provided support for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17) which planned to make the first crossing of the Antarctic continent. Joyce first journeyed to the Antarctic as a member of Scott’s British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-04), then with Shackleton on the British Antarctic Expedition (1907-09). The Ross Sea Party consisted of ten men, including Joyce, Aeneas Mackintosh (leader), Ernest Wild (brother of Frank Wild), Joseph Stenhouse, and Dick Richards. For the Antarctic crossing, Shackleton placed Joyce in charge of dogs, provisions and laying out of depots. When their ship ‘Aurora’ ripped from its moorings, along with most of their supplies, the ten men scavenged equipment and food and set out to set the depots needed for Shackleton and his men. Joyce and his companions sledged over 1600 miles to lay the depots which, with the sinking of the Endurance, were never utilised. Of the ten, three men died including Mackintosh. This book is based on Joyce’s diary and is the primary, first-hand account of the Ross Sea Party. This new, limited edition includes a 17-page introduction by Beau Riffenburgh.