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Barometer

Henry Worsley and the annals of heroic British failure

Also in our Barometer column: the fate of beached whales, and the fastest and slowest commutes

30 January 2016

9:00 AM

30 January 2016

9:00 AM

So near and yet so far

Henry Worsley died in a Chilean hospital of peritonitis after being airlifted from Antartica, 30 miles short of what would have been the first solo unaided crossing of the continent. How does this compare with Britain’s other heroic failures?
— Scott and his two surviving companions died 11 miles short of their one tonne food depot, but were still 140 miles short of their journey’s end, having travelled just over 700 miles from the South Pole.

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