Description

This game, from the famous shop 'Hamleys Of London' was produced around Christmas time in 1910 and is about Ernest Shackleton's near miss attempt to reach the South Pole during that year. (He eventually succeeds in 1914-1916). I know little about the game except that I did see an artist's rendition of the game being played in the book "SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL - The Heroic Age of Polar Exploration" written by John Maxtone-Graham. The game is about racing sleighs to the south pole and uses pencils to map out the route. From page 259 of the book. "The game was played on a large circular papier-mache board, painted white and grooved with concentric ridges of miniature sastrugi (SASTRUGI = Wind eroded snow, which often looks rough, like frozen waves. Usually found on windward slopes). Each player assumed the identity of a famous explorer and, equipped with special magnetic pencils, coaxed miniature sledges through the maze of tracks toward the central pole, False leads led to dead ends, and any player thus stymied could extricate his sled only by using a magnet of reversed polarity marked "Dr. Cook""