How Charles Dickens helped stranded explorers survive an Antarctic winter
When zoologist and surgeon George Murray Levick was stranded for about 8 months on a frozen Antarctic island in the perpetual dark of winter, instinctively he turned his mind to writing a novel. It was an adventure story set in the warmth of the Mediterranean
Raymond Priestley, (left) George Murray Levick and Frank Browning on 24 September 1912. The day before they headed out to escape Inexpressible Island. Canterbury Museum UD2023.2.1136
:format(jpeg))
Raymond Priestley, (left) George Murray Levick and Frank Browning on 24 September 1912. The day before they headed out to escape Inexpressible Island. Canterbury Museum UD2023.2.1136
How Charles Dickens was the key to Antarctic survival
When zoologist and surgeon George Murray Levick was stranded for about 8 months on a frozen Antarctic island in the perpetual dark of winter, instinctively he turned his mind to writing a novel. It was an adventure story set in the warmth of the Mediterranean.
Levick was second in command of the Northern Party during Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). The team of six men were stranded on Inexpressible Island during an exploration landing when their ship couldn’t collect them due to heavy sea ice and poor weather.
Levick called the island a “godforsaken spot” in his handwritten account of the ordeal, which is preserved in the Canterbury Museum collection. Their ordeal is known as one of the most remarkable feats of survival. One key to their survival lay in a cache of four books, including David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
:format(avif))
George Levick wearing reindeer mittens in the Antarctic. Canterbury Museum 2012.57.12
Realising that the ship would not be coming back for them, Levick and his five teammates began carving an ice cave into a snowdrift and rationed their meagre supplies of biscuits, sugar and chocolate. While one half of the team worked on digging out the shelter, the others killed seals and penguins to supplement their supplies.
Trapped in a tent
Before the ice cave was finished, they hid from blizzards and freezing winds by huddling in their reindeer fur sleeping bags in a tent frosted on the inside with ice crystals. During one of the worst storms, they spent 13 days trapped inside the tent. One night, hurricane-force winds snapped a tent pole, pinning them down under the flapping canvas. It was “a helpless suffocating sensation that took a very strong effort to suppress”, Levick wrote. This forced them to retreat to the nearly complete ice shelter. The shelter had a small room with a fireplace where the six shipmates slept toe to toe. Seal blubber provided fuel for candles and cooking. The soot blackened everything.
Trapped in such hostile conditions, with months of winter darkness ahead of him, Levick looked for a creative escape. He sketched an outline for an adventure novel. The story he drafted takes place in the warm climes of Izmir on the Aegean coast of Turkey and follows a sub lieutenant in the Royal Navy. It was a creative escape from his dire situation. And to survive an Antarctic winter, where better to flee in your imagination than the warmth of the Mediterranean?
:format(avif))
Levick on the ice with skis, poles and camera gear in about 1912. Cantebrury Museum 2012.57.2
His three-page manuscript, which the Museum has recently acquired, is written in pencil on paper stained with sooty fingerprints. It is lasting evidence of the vital role art played in sustaining his spirits through the ordeal.
The six men endured months of darkness and perpetual freezing temperatures that never got above minus 20°C and were often far lower due to the chill from the hurricane force winds. Levick knew that keeping up morale was as important to their survival as having shelter, warmth, food and water. He recognised they needed food for the body and food for the mind. Levick noted, “The constant craving of hunger is very trying to the mind, leading to despondency.”
Levick, a robust explorer and keen rugby player, was affectionately nicknamed “‘mother” by his teammates because of his caring instincts. His skills as a doctor, a diplomat and a psychologist helped maintain the team’s mental resilience. The men kept their spirits up by reading books to each other. Levick started with David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - reading one chapter aloud to the team each night.
Just as they rationed their food, they also stretched out their supply of emotional and intellectual sustenance. It kept them going as they looked forward to each instalment.
Levick would read to his shipmates by the “dim and fitful” light of the blubber lamps. He wrote. “After the wretched day, the comfort of the evenings sustained by the hot food made us happy’’. This cosy happiness, kindled in the most extreme circumstances, indicates how literature helped foster a sense of togetherness and, equally important, how it was used to transport the mind.
The six managed to escape Inexpressible Island at the end of the winter. When the sea ice was still frozen they trekked over 400 km to the safety of the expedition hut at Cape Evans. Dickens helped them survive their Hard Times in a Bleak House. The endurance of the Northern Party remains one of Antarctica’s most astonishing survival stories. It was fueled by seal blubber and a good book.
By Curator Human History Adele Jackson
19 July 2024
:quality(90):format(avif))
Levick endured on the ice. Canterbury Museum 2012.57.11
:quality(99):format(avif))
Ngaio Marsh. Canterbury Museum 1980.175.3266
Dame Ngaio Marsh: Author, Actress and Painter
One of the original 'Queens of Crime' was a multi-talented Canterbury legend.
Ngaio Marsh. Canterbury Museum 1980.175.3266
Scroll to read