An early explorer who survived being lost in Antarctica long before retiring to Queensland's Sunshine Coast will have his famous diary published for the first time, 55 years after his death.
New Zealander Clarence Hare was the youngest crew member on the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions onboard the ship Discovery in 1901, led by Captain Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson.
He immortalised his adventure in a meticulously detailed diary, which he donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington in the 1960s.
In his later years, Mr Hare moved to a pineapple farm on the Sunshine Coast, and he died in 1967.
His private diary was only available to read in person and on special request, but now it is being published for the first time as A Young Man's Antarctic Discovery, compiled by Maureen Lee.
A chance meeting
Mr Hare's granddaughter Virginia Bassett, who lives on the Sunshine Coast, said her grandfather's employment on the Discovery expedition happened by chance when chief steward Reginald Ford visited a grocery store Mr Hare worked at in Lyttelton, New Zealand.
"They set up a friendship. Next minute, he was hired as the assistant steward onboard," Ms Bassett said.
She said his personal diary shared an insight into the lengths the crew went to for research, which claimed multiple lives onboard.
"They went out and collected penguins and brought whole penguins back, seals, shells, whatever they could find that would be samples to take back to England," Ms Bassett said.
"They had to take part in collecting ice blocks, big ice blocks for the water supply because it all had to be melted down and also to collect specimens for the scientific experiments."
A survival story
According to Mr Hare's handwritten diary, he got separated from the group during a blizzard in March 1902, just months after they arrived.
"When we first read his story about being lost in the blizzard, how anyone could survive for 46 hours was just a miracle, especially with the clothing," Ms Bassett said.
"We put it down to the dog, he had a favourite dog called Kid."
Mr Hare wrote that he tried to find his way back to the ship with the crew's dogs that were used to pull sleighs.
"A drowsy feeling came over me and I sat down on the snow beside them, while Kid, my pet dog, came and licked my face.
"I then remembered that people who went to sleep in the snow never woke up again, and I jumped up and pinched myself and started walking rapidly, followed by Kid."
Mr Hare wrote he attempted to find the group for hours before becoming too weak to move.
"The last thing that I can remember on that awful night was sliding down a slippery slope, down, down, then comes a long blank," he wrote.
"I went off to sleep in the snow."
When he awoke, he saw a spot in the snow beside him where he believed his dog Kid had slept.
Mr Hare had to crawl for "some distance" before he could walk and was seen by the ship.
"I learned then that the day was Thursday [the 13th], and just before noon, and I had been lost since Tuesday noon – about 46 hours, and perhaps I was asleep for 40 hours," he wrote.
"Kid, the dog which slept by me the first night, returned to the ship on Wednesday morning [and] with the exception of Warrior, all the dogs returned safely."
Writing history
Mr Hare donated his diary, in which he documented the two years he spent with the crew of navy personnel, scientists and civilians in the Antarctic, to New Zealand's national museum.
Hare Peak, 3 kilometres south of the Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica, was named in his honour.
His diary showed when he was 80, Mr Hare wrote to a friend describing his wish to return to the coldest place on earth.
"I would like to have the distinction of being the oldest man to visit Antarctica, as I was the youngest," he wrote.
"I am pretty good at chipping out weeds, so I am sure I could keep doing the same with ice.
"Even if I did not return, it would be a lovely way to go out."
