I have now started work on Bruce who led the ‘Scotia’ expedition (1902-04), a scientific expedition in the South Orkneys and the Weddell Sea. I would welcome any input.
Bruce seems to have had two outstanding enthusiasms; Firstly, natural sciences (he gave up the medical studies that he seems to have pursued in a desultory fashion for some years, to embrace the financial uncertainties of a scientific future) and secondly, a passionate Scottish Nationalism.
There are no obvious indicators for these passions;although Bruce’s father Samuel was born in Edinburgh, he grew up in London. Bruce himself was English born and educated. His overwhelming interest in natural science and Scotland seems to have started when he attended summer courses in biology in Edinburgh. These were organised by the inspirational Patrick Geddes. Geddes was an ecologist and promoted a holistic approach to the environment. In these courses Bruce met the foremost natural scientists of the day. His imagination and enthusiasm were caught. Aged 20, Scotland became his home and had his longterm loyalty.
Bitterness towards the South came later, no doubt fueled by Sir Clements Markham’s provocative reply to Bruce’s announcement, in 1901, that he planned a Scottish expedition to Antarctica to leave at roughly at the same time as Sir Clements’ baby. S.S ‘Discovery’
Sir Clements wrote…..’I do not understand why this mischievous rivalry should have been started and I trust you will not connect yourself with it…..’
Such comments inevitably stiffened the determination of the Scottish supporters of the scheme. ‘Scotia’ unusually, was fully financed by private, mostly Scottish backers.
The expedition was a success scientifically and a new land was discovered in the east of the Weddell Sea. He called this Coats Land after his principle backers.
Beyond Scottish borders Bruce is not as well known as other British explorers of the Heroic Era, although Professor David Munro mounted an important celebratory centenary exhibition.
Bruce deserves more recognition
WILLIAM SPEIRS BRUCE
14 OctUPDATE ON EDGAR EVANS MEMORIAL STATUE
28 SepProgress is rather slow. Apart from the £10,000 received last year there has been little in the way of significant funding. An application for lottery funds is being prepared and further “bucket” collections are planned for Winter Fund raising. Clearly lottery funds hold out the most hope.
BUT the maquettes look lovely. One is 4 ft, one 18ins. These are currently in store and I really hope they will be made available to the general public soon. They could help significantly in the marketing drive.
HOWEVER I am delighted that our Welsh hero is being recognised by a BLUE PLAQUE. A blue plaque is a permanent sign put up to celebrate the link between a location, in this case Middleton, South Wales and a famous person. Every application for permission to mount a plaque is assessed carefully, a number are not approved, so this is a most significant honour. The plaque is to be erected in Edgar’s home village, on November 27th I understand from Councillor Tony Colburn that it is not yet finished but I aim to put an image of it on my blog as soon as this is available.
SouthPole-sium v 2
19 SepRobert Stephenson who is the driving force of ‘The Antarctic Circle’ is co-ordinating a second SouthPole-sium. This event is to take place next May and is to be based in Argyll Scotland. Falcon Scott, Scott’s grandson, will be attending I believe.
The New Hampshire meeting (2012) was very good. Small (up to 100 enthusiasts), with the aim of sharing specialist knowledge and enthusiasms around the group.
If I have gathered sufficient information about William Speirs Bruce by May 2015, I will be able to make a short presentation.
Incidentally William was a Scottish Nationalist and proud to considered as such. He had started to study medicine but his passion for all matters polar took him to the Arctic many times, also to Antarctica as the leader of the ‘Scotia Expedition (1901-04)’ representing Scotland.
I expect that in the meeting in Argyll we will be looking forward to the pivotal developments in Antarctica. Some authors seem to feast on discovering and publishing failings of 100 years ago. I hope that in addition to reflecting on the achievements of the early explorers, we will learn more about the potential risks to a wild but peaceful Antarctica
As only 100 attendees can be tailored for I hope to produce a blog at the end of each day updating on interesting topics
The Western Ice Sheet Collapse
4 JunThis is worrying news.
The Western Ice Sheet covers West Antarctica, i.e. on the West side of the Transantarctic Mountains. It is bounded by: the Ross Ice Shelf – hinged onto the Antarctic by the Ross Sea and the take off point for innumerable explorers -, the Ronne Ice Shelf, on the east side of the Weddell Sea (named after Edith Ronne who accompanied her husband on his explorations in the late 1940s and who died in 2009, aged 89), and the Amundsen Sea. It is estimated to contain under 10% of the total ice sheet of Antarctica.
The British have a significant scientific research presence in this region of Antarctica.
The ice sheet collapse is a topic that is difficult to follow and apologies if I have not fully followed the argument, but it is a subject one that has important implications for us all. As I understand it, the Western Ice Sheets glaciers are ‘grounded’ below sea level and slope downwards, becoming thicker, and bigger, close to land. This makes for a bigger surface area for warm water to work on, to melt and thin, causing the ice mass above the deep water to recede and making it vulnerable to calving, (breaking off) and resulting in collapse of the ice shelf. Differences in temperature between the ice glaciers and relatively warmer water at these ocean depths are the main driver.
Scientists have recorded the thinning and melting of the ice sheet over a number of years and forward projections suggest that this is irreversible and will continue. The melting will cause a rise in sea water level and although they conclude that the change is irrevocable, I am relieved that they suggest that a massive increase in water level will happen slowly in the next few years, perhaps less than a mm per year for a hundred years or so, but then, at a faster level, indeed so fast that it is suggested that the Western Ice Sheet may disappear.
My tiny contribution: recycling, reduce heating, energy saving light bulbs. Also, I drive a Smart Car!
Tour of Chatham Dockyards this Saturday plus talk by who re-enacted Shackleton’s 1914 journey
MORE ON SCURVY
16 MayReally enjoyable visit to Vervey and the British Residents Association.
Interest was expressed in scurvy, which so bedevilled the Scott expeditions, and it occurs to me that many will be unaware of the history of a disease, which killed thousands and thousands of people; in many years practicing as a doctor I never saw it (and if I had, the treatment would have been straightforward), but in Scott’s time vitamins were unknown and vitamin C (the deficiency of which causes scurvy), was not isolated till the 1930s (and then in the laboratory of the famous scientist, Sit Almoth Wright, who had been emphatic against the connection of the vitamin and the disease).
Scurvy was the dread of all long sea voyages. It was known to the Crusaders, British sailors in the American Revolution, Soldiers in W.W.1. The vitamin is necessary for collagen formation in humans. A lack of the vitamin causes, after about three months, lassitude, fatigue, swelling of the joints and lower limbs, spongy gums, lesions in the limbs that can break down and coalesce so that the victim seems to be rotting to death, also cardiac problems: a most unpleasant death that all were only too keen to avoid.
James Lind, a naval surgeon, cured scurvy in a controlled trial as early as the 1750s when he gave orange and lemons to some sufferers and alternative treatments to other sufferers. He did not think of the disease as a deficiency disease, but rather, a digestive problem. The Navy did introduce citrus fruits for its men, but by the 1900s the citrus fruit cure has lost credibility for the understandable reason (it seems to me), that men were given citrus fruits but still developed scurvy. This was because of the problem of Unintended Consequences. Limes from the Caribbean were utilised by the navy, rather than lemons from the Mediterranean. Limes have less vitamin C than lemons and the juice was transported across the Atlantic in copper containers, which damaged the vitamin’s potency. i.e. the final product was ineffective but the reason for this not understood.
So, by the early 1900s, scurvy was thought to be due to the unpleasant sounding ‘ptomain poisoning’ putrefaction in tins and Wilson’s duty on ‘Discovery’ was to sniff and taste all tins to be eaten each day (virtually everything was in tins) and to throw away any suspicious item. As we know this remedy was ineffective and scurvy broke out when ‘Discovery’ had left England for a year.
Vitamin C is present in citrus fruits and some plants and vegetables. Scurvy can now be quickly cured by oral doses of the vitamin.
I was fascinated to read that James Cook thought that one of his greatest achievements was to have avoided scurvy on his three-year voyage to the Antarctic in the 1700s. He gave his crew sauerkraut also fresh fruit (whenever they landed in a Pacific Island). I understand the Inuit apparently avoided scurvy by eating raw fish and the skin of the Beluga Whale.
We don’t know how lucky we are.
CAPTAIN SCOTT’S MEN
3 MayI have been asked to make a presentation to the British Residents Association of Switzerland next week. The subject chosen, is a review and comparison of the contributions of Edgar Evans and Edward Wilson on Scott’s expeditions.
It is an interesting subject. The most fascinating aspect is the way the two men were remembered after their deaths on the return from the Pole in 1912.
They were an ill-assorted duo, coming from very different classes of society: –Wilson’s grandfather was High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire, his father a doctor, a respected practitioner in Cheltenham. Edgar Evans’ grandfather was a quarry man and his father served in the Merchant Navy. However, the two came into close proximity in the final assault on the Pole and shared a respect and admiration for Scott.
In both expeditions the two earned Scott’s esteem and affection individually. In the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904, they were each on three-man expeditions with Scott into the interior of Antarctica. Wilson was with Scott and Shackleton on the Southern Journey from 3 November 1902. Scott already trusted him (Wilson was his choice to accompany him on the attempt to get close to the Pole), but he grew to rely on the doctor’s calm good sense and intelligence. They became friends and confidants on this expedition. Edgar was with Scott and Stoker Lashly on the Western expedition in October 1903. The three advanced over the plateau, together for three weeks in the closest proximity. Scott admired them both, their practical ingenuity and their imperturbability.
Both Wilson and Scott returned to England as heroes in 1904. Everyone wanted to meet the men who had actually been to and seen, the magical mysteries of Antarctica
How different in 1913. When the news of the British parties’ party demise was telegraphed to England, Wilson remained a hero. Poor Edgar however became the fall guy in some circles for the disaster.
Although soon after his death on February17 1912, his companions said that they thought that Edgar had weakened even before he reached the Pole, but his downward path was accelerated by frostbitten fingers and falls (which could have caused brain damage), a physical breakdown was not favoured by the media. Mental causes was the preferred explanation
In the early 1900s self -control epitome of masculinity. Edgar (confused and ill) had not been in control of his actions. He had not faced death like a gentleman.
Some examples of writing relating to Edgar’s death:
‘Ah, well for him he died, nor ever knew
How his o’er wearied, stumbling forward drew
Death’s snare about his friends to hold them fast’ i.e. he had caused the deaths of the group
‘Like English Gentlemen’ was a book for children which explains how when Edgar weakened, his companions ‘like English Gentlemen’ never thought of leaving him but stayed with him to the end. Oates, by contrast, took control of his own death by crawling out of the tent, as a gentleman should.
Cigarette cards were printed showing all the Antarctic heroes except Edgar Evans. This outrageous omission must have been terrible for his children.
An ‘Eminent Medical Specialist’, wrote that the breakdown was due to lack of an education, which meant that Edgar could not stand the monotony of the return. ‘
St Katherine’s Press in 1913, made a booklet of the dead heroes, but omitted Edgar entirely
In 1930 it was written that ‘Science no place for those who have only done manual labour. Presumably Edgar would not be able to comprehend what they actually HAD achieved.
Edgar was the victim of remarkable class prejudice; it took years for a proper understanding of his deterioration was reached.
I think times have changed and will be interested in the views of the British Residents Association.
The SOUTH POLE TELESCOPE
18 AprOnly experts can fully understand the recent discoveries from the South Pole, but all of us can marvel at the implications.
The South Pole is an ideal place for observation of the cosmos because of its high altitude (thin atmosphere) and cold (little water vapour which can confuse signals). The telescope is designed to detect microwave radiation and can scan huge areas of the universe.
The aim, to investigate the nature of the universe, has been triumphantly successful recently and strengthened the importance of continued scientific research in Antarctica. Scientists from Harvard have found evidence of gravity waves, ripples in space-time that were formed in an infinitely miniscule time when the cosmos was created.
The presence of the gravity waves supports the theory of HYPERINFLATION, the idea that, at the start of the universe, there was a violent and hugely fast, period of expansion,
Professor John Kovac’s team recorded photons, which were pulled and squeezed by the gravity waves. This caused light packets to line up in a way that would not be expected if they had crossed the cosmos undisturbed by these gravity waves.
It is claimed that hyperinflation is the only way that these gravity waves could have been produced. An important implication is that our universe is not the only one formed in this way, there could be many, many other galaxies, all containing a similar number of stars.
I think that every confirmation of the validity of Einstein’s theory of general relativity is comforting.
This is further evidence of the value of scientific research in Antarctica. The research by men of science began with Scott’s two expeditions. Scott laid much emphasis on the scientific work.
Impossible for most of us to understand in any detail, but some may say this is part of the scheme of things inspired by the Almighty.
EMPEROR PENGUIN IN OATES MUSEUM
3 AprEdward Wilson’s interest in science was overriding. In 1910 there was much interest in the idea that birds have descended from dinosaurs. The polymath Ernst Haekel (biologist, naturalist, physician, artist, who amongst other things suggested the terms, phylum and phylogeny), proposed that ‘ontology recaptures phylogeny’–the recapulation theory–,
i.e. an individual’s biological development, ontology, follows its species evolutionary development, phylogeny. He was also, importantly from Wilson’s point of view, a supporter of Darwin and Wilson was very interested in this theory.
He postulated that if he obtained early specimens of Emperor Penguin eggs, he might find vestiges of teeth or other evidence that would show that birds do indeed descend from dinosaurs. He was interested in Emperor Penguins because they were flightless and he thought they were amongst the most primitive of birds. His journey, in mid winter, in the dark and in temperatures that reached -76 degrees F, was a horrible story of endurance made famous by the book, ‘The Worst Journey in the World’ by the youngest member of that sortie, Apsley Cheery-Garrard
The Oates Museum has a wonderful collection of penguins but lacked an Emperor (there are apparently few well preserved stuffed specimens in the UK). When one died naturally near the British Halley Research Station in Antarctica, arrangements were made to add this specimen into the collection. The journey, of over 9780 miles, is worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan. The frozen male bird was taken from the Antarctic Peninsula on the research ship ‘Shackleton’, to Port Stanley. The complications of paper work, a licence from DEFRA and a passport was successfully navigated but the defrosting and taxidermy work took so long that the Emperor ‘ missed the boat’ when the ship ‘Shackleton’ returned to England.
Contacts were contacted. The Ministry of Defence were able to help, but would have to charge for the air freight which was expensive, The situation was saved eventually when the Governor of the Falklands, His Excellency Nigel Haywood, agreed to bring the 40 kilo box to England as part of his luggage.
The Earl of Portsmouth opened the exhibit; The Emperor is now a proud part of the collection in the Oates Museum.
I am not sure what Oates would have made of it but Wilson would have been delighted.
Isobel Williams – Author, Cruise Speaker and Lecturer 