Diaries of the Shackleton expedition talk about the sorrow that our pictured Second Officer Tom Crean suffered when the time came to make dinner out of the little guys. (For those of you who joined us late, Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition was the tragic and heroic last-gasp effort by the Brits to capture a polar first by crossing the continent on foot. The Norwegians beat them.)
Although the crew, Crean especially, took a fondness to the dogs, the huskies could be a nasty pack prone to chomping on the hands of their handlers. But they were critical to early 20th century polar expeditions. Attempts to use gas- or diesel-powered tractors proved disastrous. And ponies, it turns out, even when fitted with pony snow shoes (no kidding) are much better for birthday parties than crossing the ice.And dogs, when the going gets really tough, are as good for breakfast as they are for lunch.
2 comments:
The Lewis and Clark expedition ate hundreds of dogs the winter they stayed in the Northwest. They traded with the Indians for dogs because the got tired of the rotting salmon the Indians used in the winter. Ambrose talks about this in his book.
KCPL8R
I think you're confusing this with the expedition of Robert Falson Scott.
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