#lawrence oates

[amundsenxcook]

Antarctica by Derek Mahon (1985)

[nopickls]

The heroic age of Antarctic exploration - after The Terror opening credits

[birdiebowers]

no surprises || terra nova expedition

112nd anniversary of finding the tent

series: the last place on earth (1985)

song: no surprises - radiohead

[antarcticlovebirds]

(x)

[mirages-and-polar-ice]

On my first rewatch of The Last Place on Earth and I can still safely say that Captain Lawrence Titus Oates waltzing with his freshly washed trousers is the best thing I have ever seen

[thehutpoint]

17 March 1880, Putney, posh district of London. William Edward Oates and his wife Caroline Anne (de domo Buckton) just welcomed their second bundle of joy and first son, Lawrence Edward Grace Oates.

The bundle grew into sickly, yet unexpectedly energetic boy, who loved to ride donkeys ("Rent a donkey for Laurie, we are coming for summer" wrote Caroline to her relative in southwestern England), and then horses. Wrestling heavily with education due to learning disabilities, little boy grew to be a sport-loving teenager, who voraciously read adventure books, then into young man who dreamed about becoming a soldier.

And he did became one, sent to war almost immediately, got wounded while protecting his injured men. The childhood was gone for good.

A fine man he was. Unpretentious, silent, maybe due to atypical, slow speech pattern that got also described as drawl. He had zero penchant for elegance, prefering comfort above all in his clothing and suffering greatly from the demands of fashion of his times (these stiff collars, ick!), he had low tolerance for snobs, assholes and dumbasses, was very known though from getting close friendships with men from social classes lower than his own, as he did not seem to care much about the social divides and stratas.

A man of great, dry wit, he did not have much of social life, out of his own choice. The other officers couldn't remember him going ever once to the town for an usual round of military entertainment, involving booze, ladies of the night and gambling, and every medical checkup confirmed Oates being squeaky clean, without a single trace of any venereal disease that were a plague among the soldiers, officers very much included. He was a frequent guest in the officers club, usually sitting quietly with a beer, which seems to be his favourite beverage, sometimes with his nose burrowed in a book.

Obviously, the life of a peacetime officer, forced him to attend some social events. Dinners, parties, picnics (he hated these fiercely, complaining to his mom about tepid tea and aching back), he seemed to go through these with his teeth clenched and no pleasure at all. He limited his social ventures though, so much he veered into the rude territory, refusing, for instance to drop his visit card in the letter boxes of the newcomer officer families as was the custom. The constant source of frustration for Oates was that during the peacetime, an officer could make a career easier in the drawing rooms, charming the wives of senior officers, than by actual work in the field. As you might expect Titus did not have much of social skills himself, and no gift of the gob whatsoever, despite being an excellent leader material.

Cool headed while facing danger, courageous, resillient, intelligent, avidly learning new skills when they caught his interest, be it woodworking, harness repair or gardening, loving horses, he seemed cut for a cavalry officer, yet he was deeply unhappy in the army. Having low tolerance for idiots certainly did not help, because every army since the beginning of humanity have had it fair share of idiot officers, petrified in their positions.

Oates had his sensitive side though. He was a compassionate big hearted man, who lectured his mother that a servant girl who got pregnant out of wedlock deserved compassion, not judgment, asked said mom to employ his fellow soldier who got kicked out of the army after injuring his spine in a work accident. When ill with smallpox in India, Titus made ruckus in the hospital until his sergeant, who, also ill with smallpox and not being an officer, did not get the nurse care, was brought into Oates's isolation tent where one nurse could tend to them both.

Let's remember and love this fine man today, on his birthday. Let's get a skinful of beer to celebrate this fine unique man!

Happy birthday, Titus Oates!

[thegodofhellfire]

“I am just going outside and may be some time.”

[faworsley]

I was tagged by the lovely @grahhams to post 9 books I’m planning to read this year so here they are! Right now I’m about halfway through the Iliad and I DO want to finish it but I’m not listing it since it doesn’t count in my heart if I started it January 31 2024 lol

1. I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination by Francis Spufford

2. Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure by F. A. Worsley (HEART EYES EMOJI)

3. Shackleton’s Valiant Voyage by Alfred Lansing (Skeptical it was valiant on Shackleton’s part because I’m a hater but I will enjoy anyway)

4. The Aeneid by Virgil

5. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

6. The Odyssey by Homer

7. Cook and Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved by Robert M. Bryce

8. The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

9. The Book of Common Prayer (kind of a long story and not really a light reading type book so I’m including a bonus)

10. May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth (I’ve been trying to get my hands on this one for so long, surely I can do it if I give myself another entire year lol)

And tagging some other folks who might want to do it heart hands emoji:

@wiwaxiacorrugata @c-horses123 @averagepolarexpeditionenjoyer

[greetingsprogramms]

I have dived into antarctic exploration wiki pages.

I just learned about Lawrence Oates.

I'm gonna need a minute.

[amorphousbl0b]

Reading about the Terra Nova expedition currently, and of course the guy in charge of the horses is called Oats

[richo1915]

"I am just going outside and may be some time."

Capt Lawrence Oates 17Mar1912

March 6th, 1912

"Poor Oates is unable to pull, sits on the sledge when we are track-searching- he is wonderfully plucky, as his feet must be giving him great pain. He makes no complaint, but his spirits only come up in spurts now, and he grows more silent in the tent."

Journal from Captain Scott's Last Expedition

Captain Lawrence Oates was never seen again….

[polarexplorerspoll]

POLAR EXPLORERS SHOWDOWN: ROUND THREE

[birdiebowers]

[antarcticlovebirds]

the universal experience of a haircut not being what you expected

[notalexhorne]

I have this image saved in an album on my phone. The album is called “pharmacy” and this is the only image in the album.

It is reserved for days like today, when what ought to be a quick dash across the street turns into an hour-long wait in a queue. I have this image saved just so I can send it to my husband to let him know that I have died of old age while waiting to pick up my prescription

[thehutpoint]

To add a bit to the Jessamine lore, a post about winter entertainment in the Cape Evans hut. Remember Deb gushing in his memoirs how he spends these nice evenings, playing chess and chatting with his absolutely best bestie Titus Oates?

Legendary eloquence of my Soldier and his penchant for chitchat is already well known, let's just focus on the other claim, the chess matches between Deb and Titus. What do the other sources say?

The above excerpt is from Ponting's "Great white South". As you can see Oates is mentioned here as the fan of backgammon, with Meares being his game partner. By the way, I cannot refrain myself from laughter at the mention of Scott, avoiding Nelson at the chess board, because chere Marie invariably kicked his arse every time. Con and his fragile ego... No mention of our dear australian jasmine though, let's move then to other sources, namely to Griff and his "Silver Lining".

Ah, so sweet miss Jessamine makes her entrance at last. Take a good notice that chess board was usually occupied by Scott and Atch, Nelson gets mentioned as the best player in the hut, while Deb... Deb usually plays chess with Griff. And Oates gets busy with backgammon. I wouldn't be surprised if Griff made a mistake with Titus's backgammon partner, thinking about Meares. Nobody ever, though, mentioned Titus playing chess. Ever. EVER.

Pictured above: Jessamine and her crush.

So it seems these long, romantic evenings of chess matches and talks existed only in the heated imagination of the australian jasmine, Frank Debenham. Looks like Deb had really huge crush on Soldier and really wanted to get close to him, so badly he attempted to bewitch reality a bit, writing about things not as they were, but as he wanted them to be (me Deb and my oh so close bestie Oates!).

I admit, getting close to Laurie wasn't an easy task, as he kept himself tightly shielded from people. Your chances grew exponentially if you had a mane and hooves, or at least four paws and a wagging tail (poor Deb had none of it). Or at least a pointy nose, have you people noticed that Meares and Atch had the pointiest noses in the whole Terra Nova team? Seems my man had a type!