Why “The Penguin’s Egg”?
For many years, Donna has been fascinated by Antarctica, and writings about the continent and polar exploration. Several years ago, Chris bought her a book by Cherry Apsley-Garrard. Apsley-Garrard was one of the members of Scott’'s expedition to reach the South Pole, though not, of course, one of those chosen to accompany Scott on the final trek to reach the pole. After the first world war, Apsley-Garrard wrote up and published his personal account of the expedition. Titled “The Worst Journey in the World”, it was first published in 1922.
A particular task that Apsley-Garrard undertook during the polar expedition was to obtain some Emperor penguin eggs. At the time, little was known about these penguins, their physiology, development, or where they fitted in the taxonomy of species. An egg, particularly one containing a partially developed embryo, would provide much useful material for scientific research.
And so, in the middle of the antarctic winter, Apsley-Garrard and one of the other explorers set off on a trek of over 100 miles to the location of an Emperor penguin colony, in order to obtain some of the eggs which, every year, are abandoned and frozen. They both came close to death on this trek, but eventually returned to the base camp with some penguin eggs.
Several years later, back in England, Apsley-Garrard visited the museum to which the eggs had been sent, and was much embittered to find that, far from being subjected to detailed scientific research, the eggs he had almost given his life to collect were sitting in a drawer in a store room, disregarded and almost forgotten. The bitterness he felt was also related to the reaction of the world to the results of the expedition - while he and his colleagues were living and working in the freezing conditions of Antarctica, the world was moving on, and in particular the events of World War One meant that little attention was paid to the party’s return to Europe.
In later years, some of his bitterness mellowed, but it was still sharp and painful when he was writing his book. At the end of the book, he wrote:
There are many reasons which send men to the Poles, and the Intellectual Force uses them all. But the desire for knowledge for its own sake is the one which really counts and there is no field for the collection of knowledge which at the present time can be compared to the Antarctic.
Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion.
And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore. If you are a brave man, you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but cowards have need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say ‘What is the use?’ For we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year. And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: that is worth a good deal. If you march your Winter Journeys, you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.
Putting the understandable bitterness to one side, the quote struck a chord with both of us. The underlying concept which it conveys, i.e. that it is important to do things because you feel passionately about them, and that that will bring its own rewards, is one that embodies much of what we have each done in the various aspects of our lives, and something we both feel is important. We agreed that if we ever had our own web domain name it would be “penguinsegg”, and that we would include this quote by Apsley-Garrard.
So there you have it. That’s where the quote comes from, and what it means to us, and that’s why our website is called “The Penguin’s Egg”.
Donna Smillie & Chris Bourne,
December 2005.