With the "Aurora" in the Antarctic 1911-1914.

£9,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

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 m

• Year: 1919

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