Tryggve Gran’s journals provide a direct line from the here and now right back to Captain Scott’s freezing, fatal tent in 1912.
On 29 October 1912, the search party set out. They were looking for their leader, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, and his four close companions, who a few months earlier had begun a quest to become the first men ever to reach the South Pole.
On 12 November, though, came a grim discovery: a tent containing the frozen corpses of Scott and two of his comrades (Edward Wilson and Henry Robertson Bowers).
‘All gastsly [sic]. I will never forget it so long I live — a horrible nightmare could not have shown more horror,’ wrote one search party member, Tryggve Gran, in his journal that day.
‘In a tent, snowcovered til up above the door, we found the three boddies. The Owner [Scott] in the middle... Birdie [Bowers] on his right and Uncle Bill [Wilson] on his left... The frost had made the skin yellow & transparent; I’ve never seen anything worse in my life.’
The elements, the cold wind whipping across their faces,
temperatures often in excess of minus 30 degrees.
The story of Captain Scott and his companions on the race in the South Pole
is one that really resonates not just with the British public,
but indeed throughout the entire world.
And so these two journals from Trigford Graham
take us directly to one of the most famous moments in polar history.
My name is Herman Graham from Norway.
I'm the son of Trigford Graham,
who was a member of the Scott expedition 1910 to 1913.
He was the strongest skier,
both mentally strong and physically strong.
All the qualities that would be required.
He had a very special situation because nobody knew that Amundsen,
the star of Norwegian exploration,
were planning on going south.
Now he was competing against his own people.
He turned out to be sort of the man in the middle
and he would make the best out of it.
Christie's is incredibly fortunate to have these journals by direct descent.
It is from his son Herman that we are offering them now.
A direct line that can be drawn from the tent of Robert Falcon Scott
to the journals we see sitting in front of us today.
Both journals are incredibly important
and contain some very intimate moments in their own way.
This one chiefly written in Norwegian in great condition.
I found an extraordinary entry recording a dream
that he had on the 14th of December 1911
that Raoult Amundsen had in fact reached the South Pole.
Now that, as you can imagine, sent shivers down my spine
when I twigged that that was, of course,
in fact, the day that Amundsen had reached the pole.
When there is a moment like that,
it raises the hairs on the back of your arms.
As Norwegian, I should be proud,
but poor Scott, more misfortune.
This is the diary that they will keep on the sledge
when they were out in the field.
Right.
It's written in the moment.
This one is all written in English
and covers the search for Scott's party in 1912.
A first-hand account of the discovery of Scott's tent
with the frozen bodies contained therein.
My father was the one that was first up to the tent.
He said that Scott's skis are going to complete the journey.
He took his own skis and made the cross
and then he used Scott's skis on the return back to the base.
It has happened.
We have found what we sought.
Horrible, ugly fate.
And I've never seen anything worse in my life.
I mean, it's just extraordinary, isn't it?
And also it is the age of 25.
So yes, it's very emotional.
It's just incredibly special for us to have this first-hand account
that has not been known to the public in full before.
That makes it incredibly rare.
The race for the South Pole was perhaps one of the most famous races of all.
And these diaries can be an important part of showing what really happened.
