Akademik Shokalskiy

Mawson’s vision had been to make a series of bases on the costal margin of the Antarctic mainland directly below Australia. His purpose was to make scientific and geographical discoveries and especially, to locate the position of the South Magnetic Pole more accurately than on his previous attempt (1908).

However Mawson could only make one land base in Adelie Land and one ice-shelf base off Queen Mary Land

Mawson wrote, ‘Here was an Ice Age in all earnestness. A picture of Northern Europe during the Great Ice Age some 50,000 years ago’.

To-days plight of the passengers, scientists and crew of the ‘Akademik Shokalskiy’ has been shared with the rest of the world in real time and has confirmed that even modern, up to date, state of the art ice ships can become locked in ice, at the mercy of the elements, precisely as their predecessors, but happily aided by modern communication. This has enabled assistance to be mobilized with evacuation of  passengers and scientists by helicopter and then boat transfer to the ice breaker ‘Aurora Australis’.

History tells us that ships locked in sea ice are at the mercy of sea currents, wind force and ice thickness, combinations of which are unpredictable. We await the larger icebreaker ‘Polar Star’ to see if a channel can be made in the sea ice to the ice bound ‘Akademik Shokalskiy’

Aurora’s track.       Mertz Glacier as in 1911.