The second issue of the first edition, issued in the same year, and identified by its red cloth binding.

The second issue of the first edition, issued in the same year, and identified by its red cloth binding.

This was the leader and organiser's account of the Antarctic cruise of the Southern Cross, the first expedition to winter on the Antarctic continent. The Norwegian-born Borchgrevink migrated to Australia aged 24 years. He was a member of Henrik Bull's Norwegian expedition on the Antarctic, which completed the first confirmed landing on the Antarctic continental mainland in 1895. On his return, Borchgrevink began planning for an expedition to reach both the Magnetic and South Poles. He travelled to England to raise sponsorship and eventually convinced the publisher Sir George Newnes to back the project, with his purchase and refit of the Southern Cross. Consequently, Borchgrevink and a party of nine other men and 75 sledge dogs were the first to make winter camp on the Antarctic mainland. The inhospitable conditions prevented the expedition achieving their goals, however they did successfully complete the first sledging journey across the Ross Ice Shelf and reached a new furthest south, exceeding Ross's earlier benchmark set in 1840. By proving that a party could winter safely on the ice, they laid the groundwork for the Antarctic expeditions which followed.

The Southern Cross expedition could claim a number of "firsts" in Antarctic exploration, including having been the first to establish a base to winter over on the continent. Louis Bernacchi and Will Colbeck were amongst the expedition members, one of whom, Nikolai Hanson, died, and was the first person to be buried on Antarctica. Rosove calls it "one of the most important in the Antarctic bibliography".