[William Lashly] "was a man of great modesty, and was self effacing in the extreme. For all that, he was, by all accounts, one of the most remarkable "lower deck" men ever to come out of the Royal Navy. Writing about the Discovery expedition, Scott said that the "most important concession" the expedition ever received was permission to recruit from the Navy. Lashly was one of the naval men chosen for the engine room and he proved his worth over and over again. A quiet sort of man who knew his job backwards, he was a teetotaller and non-smoker. He was always selected for the most difficult expedition. Lashly kept a diary on the Discovery expedition which has never been made public before. Now, Commander Ellis, himself a retired naval officer with a lifetime of service behind him, presents this diary together with the diary that Lashly kept while on Scotts last expedition in the Terra Nova, and shows a new and remarkable view both of these expeditions and of life on the "lower deck". Parts of the latter diary were used in "The worst journey in the world": this is first time it has appeared complete ... The diaries have been slightly edited, and explanatory passages inserted, by Commander H. R. Ellis who was given the complete diaries by Lashly's daughter ..." -- Inside front cover.