Mason had completed the novel by the end of 1911, aligning his hero with Robert Scott more closely by matching his voyage to the Antarctic with the voyage that Scott himself was about to undertake. Unfortunately, by the time of its publication in September 1912, Scott had already perished and the press had published news of Amundsen’s success at the South Pole. In an introductory note dated May 1912, Mason said "In view of recent events, I think it proper to say that this book was planned and the writing of it begun by the spring of the year 1909".