[3] The rights of the book were assigned to the heirs of Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth, a benefactor of the expedition, who died in 1915.

[4] The book is dedicated to "my comrades who fell in the White Warfare of the South and on the red fields of France and Flanders".

I think that though failure in the actual accomplishment must be recorded, there are chapters in this book of high adventure, strenuous days, lonely nights, unique experiences, and above all, records of unflinching determination, supreme loyalty and generous self-sacrifice on the part of my men which ... still will be of interest to readers who now turn gladly from the red horror of war ... to read ... the tale of the White Warfare of the South."

The log of Joseph Stenhouse, first officer of the Aurora, is quoted for the description of the drift of the ship for several months in pack ice, unable to manoeuvre, after it broke away from moorings at Cape Evans.

The last chapter describes the subsequent involvement of the expedition members in the First World War; three were killed and five wounded.

Appendix I, "Scientific Work", consists of articles by members of the expedition who were scientists: "Sea-ice nomenclature" by James Wordie, "Meteorology" by Leonard Hussey, "Physics" by Reginald W. James and "South Atlantic Whales and Whaling" by Robert Selbie Clark.