75% mortality rate.

Heard on NPR this morning. 750 of the first 1,000 polar explorers, died in their explorations. A 75% mortality rate for something that, when you come down to it, was purely an elective choice.

This sounds somewhat like a fact I read many years ago. Regrettably, I do not recall the details but it was an historian who calculated the mortality rate of the first 100 years of transatlantic crossings or something like that. The number was startlingly high. My recollection is 30-50%.

We sometimes fail to keep in my mind just how steep can be the price of being first.