INTO THE GREAT EMPTINESS

The late, prolific adventure writer returns with a fresh account of an epic yet little-known Arctic expedition.

Polar explorers Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, and Ernest Shackleton are household names, but Henry George “Gino” Watkins (1907-1932) rings few bells. In this fascinating biography, Roberts (1943-2021) points out that, unlike his predecessors, Watkins was neither a military man nor a seasoned traveler. Rather, he was a carefree Cambridge student fond of risky antics and mountain climbing but no expert explorer. Inspired by a Cambridge don who had traveled with Scott and Shackleton in the Antarctic, Watkins decided to explore the Arctic. Dropping out, he led a 1927 expedition to a poorly explored island in the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, and to Labrador a year later. Despite his youth, he turned out to be a good leader. Building on these successes, he organized and led the British Arctic Air Route Expedition of 1930-1931, aiming to survey the obscure east coast of Greenland and gather climate data to plan a shorter air route to North America. By this time, others had crossed the island, but no one had overwintered in Greenland’s unspeakably cold, stormy interior. Roberts devotes most of his book to a gripping account of this expedition, with equally fine asides on Greenland’s history and Indigenous inhabitants. Despite the usual mishaps, the men accomplished many of their goals. They established a weather station 140 miles inland, although reaching it proved far more difficult than anticipated, and occupants spent frightening weeks waiting for relief. One man volunteered to spend the entire winter; by spring, his tent was sealed under 20 feet of icy snow, and the relief expedition did not find it until it was nearly too late. Ultimately, everyone returned to wide acclaim. Watkins drowned during a 1932 expedition, but Roberts blames his obscurity on the fact that he left no popular writing, never sought fame, achieved no iconic discoveries, and experienced no disasters.

An outstanding account of a great expedition led by “a child prodigy who died before his full genius could flower.”