Erebus: The Story of a Ship

by Michael Palin

for the purpose of colonising the island they had now reached – the establishment of new species on remote islands being one of the aims of the mission.

Rae was an explorer in the mould of Amundsen and Nansen, listening to the locals, learning from them what to wear, what to eat and how to survive. In his lifetime he mapped 1,750 miles of unexplored territory, with the loss of only one man. What a contrast with the disastrous expedition whose fate he was the first to discover.