{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02408429503261415, 'fraction_numerical': 0.019568489713998997, 'mean_word_length': 5.116564417177914, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Chapter 11 The National Antarctic Expedition of 1901: a fiasco avoided

The aphorism ‘Anyone can make a mistake; a fool's one who makes the same mistake twice’ could well be applied to this episode. Gregory had learnt from the disastrous Villiers expedition about the necessity of good organization and clear management for expedition success and avoided falling into what could well have been an equal, but much more public, debacle. This whole saga has been summarized elsewhere (Huntford 1989) so only the gist of the matters relevant to Gregory and the necessary background are given here.

Clements Robert Markham FRS, knighted in 1896, became President of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in 1893. He was a former naval man and had accompanied Sir George Strong Nares's (1831–1915) Government promoted naval Arctic expedition in 1875–6. For twenty years Markham had advocated Antarctic exploration, first as Honorary Secretary and then as President of the RGS, Britain's leading society for promoting geographical discovery and exploration (Huntford 1989). As a member of the RGS, and indeed one quite friendly with Markham, all this and what follows would have been known to Gregory. As President, Markham began a serious campaign to mount an Antarctic expedition, initially raising funds through the RGS. However, by 1897, the response, although encouraging, was inadequate and it seemed that support would be needed from scientific fields other than geography, if the required funds were to be raised, especially if the Government was to be persuaded to give financial support. This meant inevitably involving the Royal Society of London, the Government-supported body of eminent scientists and the one that the Government turned to for scientific advice. There was enthusiastic support from Fellows of the Royal Society and other scientists to undertake a range of scientific work. At a meeting on the scientific advantages of an Antarctic Expedition, held at the Royal Society …