A remarkable association between two of the great names of the Heroic Age.
The inscription reads: "Frank Hurley in memory of our days together in the South where most of the photographs which illustrate this volume were taken by him with every good wish from the author John K Davis. Jan 26th 1920."
John King Davis (1884-1967) was master of the Aurora on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14, under the command of Douglas Mawson. He had previously served as chief officer on the Nimrod with Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition (1907-09). This copy is inscribed to the photographer Frank Hurley (1885-1962), who, as per the inscription, took the majority of the photographs which illustrate the work.
The delay in the publication of this book was no doubt caused by the outbreak of the First World War - The Aurora returned in February of 1914, and Davis enlisted, along with many other members of the crew, in June. He spent the much of the war captaining a troop transport ship. Hurley on the other hand was already committed to return south with Ernest Shackleton as official photographer on the Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917).
King was in fact Shackleton's first choice for commander of Endurance, however he refused the post on the grounds that he "thought the whole enterprise foredoomed" (Huntford, 370). Indeed, when no news of Endurance and her crew had reached London by April of 1916, King petitioned the Royal Geographical Society to launch a rescue mission. His view of the expedition had not changed, in his words "The Endurance ... was full of ... people without any qualifications ... just pushed in there because they thought it was an adventure" (Huntford, 542).
Later the same month, Shackleton departed Elephant Island in the lifeboat James Caird, attempting the first part of his own effort to save his stranded crew. Once he landed on South Georgia, he was able to rescue the men he had left behind, including Frank Wild, with the assistance of the Uruguayan and Chilean governments.
This still left the Ross Sea Party, and in spite of King's condemnation of the expedition, his sense of duty to his former crew mates was not diminished. In December of 1916, the British, Australian and New Zealand governments agreed to fund a relief expedition captained by King, once again in the Aurora. Shackleton was allowed to accompany King on Aurora as a supernumerary, and on 10th January, 1917, the seven surviving members of the shore party were rescued.
By the time this inscription had been penned, the Aurora had been sold off as a coal-carrier and lost at sea.
Rosove, 87.A1; Spence, 354; Huntsford, R. Shackleton. Abacus, 1985.
