George P. Abbott

George Percy Abbott was born on 10 March 1880. After ending his schooling he joined the Royal Navy in March 1895 at age 15. By age 18 he was classified as an Ordinary Seaman. As a Petty Officer he signed articles to join the Terra Nova Expedition, bound for Antarctica, in 1910.[1]

As a messdeck seaman, Browning helped sail the Terra Nova from Cardiff to McMurdo Sound in Antarctic waters. During the voyage he was asked to undergo training by the expedition's scientific staff, and naturalist Edward Wilson chose Abbott to learn taxidermy. Wilson praised Abbott as "a nice gentlemanly fellow",[2] and had good reason to give positive encouragement: soon Abbott was asked to help cut up and skin penguins for the expedition members to eat. The preserved skins were set aside as specimens for the expedition's work in natural history.[3] After the Terra Nova anchored at Cape Evans, Abbott joined the Shore Party and embarked upon active Antarctic service. Expedition commander Robert Falcon Scott and one of his officers, Victor L. A. Campbell, chose Abbott to serve under Campbell in what became the Northern Party, a subsidiary expedition to a patch of Victoria Land Antarctic coastline northwest of the main base.[4] As a Petty Officer, Abbott was supposed to assist the scientific staff of the Northern Party as they searched through a section of rocky and icy coast to collect specimens of geological and natural history. The Northern Party was then supposed to be retrieved by the Terra Nova, but the expedition's vessel was prevented by ice from taking off the men. Extremely poor Antarctic weather conditions in February and March, 1912 had led to catastrophe for the expedition as a whole: Scott and four fellow sledgers died as they returned from the South Pole.[5] Meanwhile, although still alive, the men of the Northern Party were icebound and marooned on Inexpressible Island, an island on the coast they had tried to explore. [6]

More fortunate than Scott, Abbott and his comrades were on a coastline with some animal life that could be killed and eaten. The castaways dug a large foxhole in the ice to create a makeshift igloo, and were able to hunt fresh meat.[6] The members of the Northern Party suffered intensely that winter, but survived. With the coming of the Antarctic spring in the final months of 1912, they were able to trek towards their main base and rescue themselves.[7]

On the voyage home to England, Abbott suffered symptoms of mental derangement and had to be restrained by his fellow seamen. A historian believes this was a delayed post-traumatic response to his privations,[7] but no diagnosis was made at the time. After a lengthy period of institutionalization, Abbott was seen as having made a full recovery, and rejoined active service in the Royal Navy in World War I. However, he died in 1923 at age 43.