This important book offers discussion about a man whose accomplishments were ignored for far too long. Heidt and Lackenbauer’s grasp of the existing literature is extraordinary, their judgements are prudent, and the story is fascinating.
Galen Perras
In Two Years Below the Horn, engineer Andrew Taylor vividly recounts his experiences and accomplishments during Operation Tabarin, a landmark British expedition to Antarctica to establish sovereignty and conduct science during the Second World War. When mental strain led the operation’s first commander to resign, Taylor—a military engineer with extensive prewar surveying experience—became the first and only Canadian to lead an Antarctic expedition. As commander of the operation, Taylor oversaw construction of the first permanent base on the Antarctic continent at Hope Bay. From there, he led four-man teams on two epic sledging journeys around James Ross Island, overcoming arduous conditions and correcting cartographic mistakes made by previous explorers. The editors’ detailed afterword draws on Taylor’s extensive personal papers to highlight Taylor’s achievements and document his significant contributions to polar science.
This book will appeal to readers interested in the history of polar exploration, science, and sovereignty. It also sheds light on the little known contribution of a Canadian to a distant theatre of the Second World War. The wartime service of Major Taylor reveals important new details about a groundbreaking operation that laid the foundation for the British Antarctic Survey and marked a critical moment in the transition from the heroic to the modern scientific era in polar exploration.
Andrew Taylor, Two Years Below the Horn: A Canadian’s Experiences in Antarctica, 1944-1946, Edited by Daniel Heidt and P. Whitney Lackenbauer (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2017), 480 pp.
Introduction: By Daniel Heidt and P. Whitney Lackenbauer
Section 1: Establishment
Chapter 1: Recruitment and Goodbyes
Chapter 2: Beyond the Tropics
Chapter 3: From the Falklands Southward Bound
Chapter 4: The North Coast of Graham Land
Section 2: Port Lockroy
Chapter 5: Establishment at Port Lockroy
Chapter 6: The Winter Months
Chapter 7: The Manhauling Journey of 1944
Chapter 8: Spring at the Base
Chapter 9: Moving
Section 3: Hope Bay
Chapter 10: Hope Bay
Chapter 11: March 1945
Chapter 12: Early Winter 1945
Section 4: The First Sledging Journey
Chapter 13: Preparations for Sledging
Chapter 14: Start of the First Sledge Journey
Chapter 15: Nordenskjöld Haunts
Chapter 16: Polar Rationing
Section 5: The Second Sledging Journey
Chapter 17: Interlude
Chapter 18: The Second Sledge Journey – 1945
Chapter 19: East Ross Island
Chapter 20: West Ross Island
Chapter 21: North Towards Home
Afterword: By Daniel Heidt and P. Whitney Lackenbauer