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Sharon Michalove writes the Global Security Unlimited romantic suspense series. Her latest book is Relatives and Relationships: A Short Story Collection. You can learn more about her on her website, read her last post here, and buy her books here.

A volunteer on Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard was rejected twice by Scott before finally being accepted as assistant zoologist at the age of twenty-four. His trip to the far side of Ross Island was undertaken in complete darkness, and unable to use his goggles, the functionally blind young man, manhauling sledges with his two companions, Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers, arrived nineteen days after they set out to make the sixty-mile trek.

Relay hauling happens when there is more than one sledge and it takes everyone, in this case three men, to pull one sledge. Because they didn’t have dogs, Cherry-Garrard, Bowers, and Wilson were man hauling the two vehicles and the sledges were very heavy. They would pull the first sledge for a mile, then walk back to the second sledge, and pull it one mile. So for every mile of progress, the men had to walk three miles in temperatures ranging from −40 to −77.5 °F.

Most of Cherry-Garrard’s teeth shattered because of the extreme cold. In the end, they left anything they didn’t need behind and began their return journey and arrived back at Cape Evans shortly before midnight on August 1st. He was also in one of the support parties when Scott and his four-man team raced to the pole.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard called his time in Antarctica “the worst journey in the world.” He lived until 1959, but his physical and mental health were profoundly affected by that trip.

The Great White North. The Bottom of the Earth. Why do these places—cold and remote—exert a pull on our imagination? Whether it’s Sir John Franklin eating his boots, Frankenstein chasing the Creature through the Arctic, or Captain Oates bravely announcing, “I am just going outside and may be some time,” the stories create indelible pictures in the imagination.

So many explorers suffered so many hardships. And yet, many of the ones who survived were drawn back, again and again. Sir John Franklin was a member of an expedition to Spitzbergen in 1818, commanded the harrowing Coppermine overland expedition from 1819 to 1822 where his men had to rescue him when he fell into Robinson Falls, and eleven of the twenty men under his command died. His third expedition was on the Mackenzie River in 1825, returning in 1827. Hardship, death, and meager, results. And yet, he was drawn back again and again. His final expedition, in 1845, at the age of fifty-nine, ended in the death of everyone. A search for the missing ships and crew in 1997 finally reasolved the mystery of what happened. Twentieth century examples of explorers fascinated with the poles include Robert Scott, Roald Amundsen, and Ernest Shackleton. All of them continued their quests until their deaths.

While exploration for its own sake was exciting, the motive for finding both a northeast passage and a northwest passage were predicated on the idea of an open polar sea. The prevailing thought was that when you sailed far enough north, the ice would disappear and you could sail unimpeded. The goal, like in sailing east to Asia, was to establish new trade routes. Unfortunately, there was no open polar sea, then. Ironically, with climate change, there are now times when an open polar sea in the north has become a reality.

My own fascination began with the so-called Third Pole, which meant mountain climbing in the Himalayas. Annapura, K2, and Everest were my touchstones. I read books about Tibet, Sir Edmund Hillary, and first of them all, Annapurna by Maurice Herzog. Herzog reached the summit in 1950 and his book was published 1952. I read it in the early 1960s, taking the library copy everywhere until I finished it. It sowed the seeds both for armchair travel and for travel in general.

From Everest, Annapurna, and K2, I moved on to first the Antarctic, and then the Arctic, first Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton. After seeing Sean Connery as Roald Amundsen in “The Red Tent,” my interest widened. He disappeared on that search for the airship Italia in the Arctic in 1928, and his body was never found. Why did he go? At the age of 56, Amundsen was ill with heart disease and cancer and depressed by the turns his life had taken, when he heard that the Italia had crashed and decided to do something about it. He and Umberto Nobile had been at odds during the early flight of the Norge in 1925 so he may have felt an obligation to the Italian pilot, but perhaps these words explain why he was driven to be part of the rescue attempt.

“If only you knew how splendid it was up there!” he exclaimed. “That’s where I want to die, and I wish only that death will come to me chivalrously, will overtake me in the fulfilment of a high mission, quickly and without suffering.” (https://www.gethistory.co.uk/historical-period/20th-century/interwar/amundsens-last-expedition)

Fergus Fleming’s Barrow’s Boys, published in1998, opened my eyes to a wider range of explorers. Many of the explorers had written books about their voyages, and the exploration libraries that were carried on the various ships brought the realization that this was living history.

The rabbit holes grew wider and deeper. By the time I moved from Champaign to Chicago in 2017 and sold much of my collection, I had two massive bookcases stuffed with books, DVDs, framed photos and maps. Thick binders of articles sat on a table nearby. I had taught several classes on the history of polar exploration and had given a lecture on the race to the North Pole between Peary and Cook to accompany an exhibit at the Spurlock Museum on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana.

But when I decided to focus on writing fiction, I began by using all that research. I toyed with a novel using either a real explorer or a fictional member of an expedition, but those attempts failed. While I loved Beryl Bainbridge’s The Birthday Boys about Scott’s ill-fated 1912 expedition, and Mrs. Chippy’s Last Expedition by Caroline Alexander, there was no point in trying to surpass their achievements. In the end, I managed to find ways to insert smaller bits of history into my contemporary writing.

My short story, “Melting the Iceman,” is it about an Antarctic cruise and I wrote it while on an Antarctic cruise. I had plotted the story in advance, but sitting in the lounge, looking out at the icebergs, the rugged coast and inlets of the Antarctic peninsula, walking on the deck and seeing seals sunning themselves on small bergs just off the bow, was inspiring. But I also used
research about Shackleton’s 1914 desperate open-boat voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia after the Endurance sank.

From Melting the Iceman:
A few months ago, I had a couple of days in London before my return flight to Chicago. My assignment, covering the explosion of an offshore oil rig in the North Sea, had been cold, wet, and gruesome. A friend suggested the Dulwich Art Museum. Needing to decompress and a fan of noir fiction, I knew Raymond Chandler attended Dulwich College, so why not? It was at
the museum, I saw a poster with a small boat featured.

A docent lounged nearby. “What’s this about?”
“Shackleton’s boat, the James Caird. Very famous.”
“The boat, or the man?”
Lip twisted, he said, “Both.”
Although the name Shackleton was unfamiliar, there I was at 11:30 on a Friday morning,
staring at a small, white wooden boat with sails surrounded by a railing. I was reading about its
significance when a long stick of a man stopped next to me.
“Here to pay homage?”
My brow furrowed.“No? You just happened to stop by and you’re wondering what this is all about.” He waved
his hand toward the boat.
What was his game? I edged farther away and gave a little cough. “Someone at the Art
Museum suggested I make a reservation.”
Before I could escape, his hand clamped on my wrist. My pointed look caused him to drop
it.
“Sorry, eh. Just didn’t want you to leave. This boat is the embodiment of one of the
greatest Antarctic adventures in the history of the world. A story of bravery, leadership, and
survival.”
Sharon Michalove,“Melting the Iceman,” 2024.

My character, Cress Taylor, in At First Sight, is a historical novelist who receives a National Science Foundation Writers and Artists Grant to spend time in the Antarctic and then writes a novel about the rivalry between Scott and Shackleton. This is from Cress’ morning TV interview early in the novel:

“Why did you decide to write historical novels rather than find a job at a college or university?”

Snark, snark.

I flinch. My instant reflex is to ask her why she chose fluff TV over something more serious. I don’t.

“Getting an academic job isn’t easy. I had some savings and always wanted to write, so I decided to try my luck.”

“You say you are a medievalist, but your first novel is about polar exploration. How did that happen?”

NO, NO, NO. Move her to the Cornaro book. That’s what I’m here for. I look her in the eye. My love of exploration history overrides my good sense.

“I was inspired by Beryl Bainbridge’s The Birthday Boys about Scott’s final expedition. I even got a fellowship from the National Science Foundation, so I was able to go to Antarctica for research.”

“What sort of research can you do there? Check out the penguins?” She sounds dubious.

“The chance to visit places like Scott’s Hut, McMurdo, and the Ross Ice Shelf. I learned to create descriptions that allow the reader to see the place.”

I stop and chance a glimpse down at my lap. My fingers are twined so tight they’re turning white. I loosen my grip. Don’t stare at the crumpled cards.

Sharon Michalove, At First Sight, 2021

Having now spent time in Iceland, I hope to return to the cold with a romance novel I’m planning, Love Under the Northern Lights, as well as a couple of mysteries, Dead in Ushuaia (Antarctica) and Icy Death (Greenland).

Writers get their inspiration from many sources, and the coldest places on earth definitely inspire me.

Sharon Michalove writes romantic suspense and traditional mystery as well as being a published historian. After growing up in suburban Chicago, she spent most of her life in a medium-sized university town, working as an academic professional as well as teaching history. She was married to a composer and frequently uses her knowledge of music, history, and food to enrich her novels. A hockey fan, Sharon moved back to Chicago in 2017 so she could go to Blackhawks games and spend quality time at Eataly. Posts by Sharon Michalove coffeeandeclairs.com