OHYAT: In Memoriam

It had been decided before the ship's arrival to erect a memorial cross for the Polar Party; with the ship came wood and a carpenter. On January 20th a party sledged the prepared pieces across the sea ice (some of it dangerously slushy) to the land at Hut Point, for Observation Hill was decided upon as the place for it.

Three of them were Discovery men who had lived three years under its shadow: they had seen it time after time as they came back from hard journeys on the Barrier: Observation Hill and Castle Rock were the two which always welcomed them in. It commanded McMurdo Sound on one side, where they had lived: and the Barrier on the other, where they had died. No more fitting pedestal, a pedestal which itself is nearly 1000 feet high, could have been found.

– Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY, they got the pieces up the hill and mounted the construction, facing south, which had been carved with the names of the Polar Party and (at Cherry's suggestion) the closing line from Tennyson's Ulysses: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."


Then they sledged back to the ship and turned their backs on McMurdo Sound forever.





Well, most of them; Silas came back briefly in 1960, but the story's better when you leave that out.

Oscar Shorts

Want to see the Academy Award-nominated shorts, including (perhaps especially) the animated ones? They're touring the US and Canada!

Find Your Nearest Location Here

I can personally vouch that at least two of them are quite good.