Some Published Sources on Historic Sites in Antarctica
Historic Huts in the Antarctic from the 'Heroic Age'
Historic Monuments in Antarctica
Heritage Sites
Historic Guide to Ross Island, Antarctica
The Historic Huts of the Ross Sea Region. Compiled and written for Antarctic Heritage Trust by Paul Chaplin with reference to material produced by David L. Harrowfield. Published by Antarctic Heritage Trust, Private Bag 4745, Christchurch, New Zealand. 24 pages. No date (ca. late 1990s). This pamphlet includes a map locating 34 historic sites in the Ross Sea Region and highlights the following sites with photographs, floor plans, etc: Scott's Discovery Hut, Shackleton's Cape Royd's Hut, Scott's Cape Evans Hut, and Borchgrevink's Cape Adare Hut.
Icy Heritage: Historic Sites of the Ross Sea Region. By David L. Harrowfield. (Christchurch: Antarctic Heritage Trust, 1995, 88 pages, numerous color and black and white photo illustrations.) Contents: Map; The Historic Sites: Cape Adare/Robertson Bay [(1) Huts on Ridley Beach; (2) Hanson's Grave; (3) Supply Depot-Ridley Beach; (4) Supply Depot-Cape Adare; (5) Supply Depot, Cairn and Camp Site-Cape Adare; (6) Cape Site-Robertson Bay; (7) Rock Hut-Duke of York Island; (8) Supply Depot-Crescent Bay Duke of York Island; (9) Cave-Penelope Point, Robertson Bay]. Possession Islands [(10) Message Post-Svend Foyn Island]. Coulman Island [(11) Message Post-Cape Wadworth]. Terra Nova Bay [(12) Site of Ice Cave-Inexpressible Island; (13) Supply Depot-Hells Gate Moraine]. Ross Island [(14) Building-Hut Point; (15) Cross-Hut Point; (16) Building-Cape Royds; (17) Building-Cape Evans; (18) Cross-Wind Vane Hill, Cape Evans; (19) Message Post-Cape Crozier; (20) Rock Hut-Cape Crozier; (21) Supply Depot-Mount Cis; (22) Cross-Observation Hill]. South Victoria Land [(23) Supply Depot-Ferrar Glacier; (24) Supply Depot-Cathdral Rocks, Ferrar Glacier; (25) Supply Depot-Davis Bay (now Salmon Bay); (26) 'Granite House'-Cape Geology, Granite Harbour; (27) Camp Site-Devils Punchbowl, Granite Harbour; (28) Supply Depot and Cairn-Cape Roberts; (29) Supply Depot-Depot Island; (30) Camp Site, Supply Depot and Cairn-Cape Bernacchi; (31) Supply Depot-Butter Point, Bowers Piedmont Glacier. Queen Maud Mountains [(32) Amundsen's Cairn-Mount Betty]. Queen Alexandra Range [(33) 'Prestrud's Cairn'-Scott Nunataks]. Rockefeller Mountains [(34) Fokker Aircraft-Beryl Lake]. Working to Save the Past. The Early Expeditions. List of Sites. Selected Bibliography. Glossary. Index. Each site is fully described.
Mawson's Huts: An Antarctic Expedition Journal. By Alasdair McGregor, Foreword by Sir Edmund Hillary. (Alexandria, NSW, Australia: Hale & Iremonger Pty Ltd, 1998, 194 pages, color photographic illustrations and black and white drawings in the text. ISBN: 086806653-2) "In early January 1912, a party of 18 young men landed on a small rocky peninsula on the coast of Antarctica, directly to the south of Australia. In doing so, they had journeyed past the edge of the then known world. Over the next two years they struggled against appalling winds and cold, yet managed to explore significant tracts of the ice-bound coast and hinterland in pursuit of scientific knowledge. Their leader was 30-year-old geologist from Adelaide, Dr Douglas Mawson. The story of his survival after the death of his two companions while far from the expedition's base camp has justly become the suff of legend.
Nearly 86 years later another party landed on the still remote and wild Cape Denison, the site of Mawson's winter quarters. Their aim was to rescue the huts that Mawson's men sheltered and worked in from unrelenting assaults of wind, ice and time. In so doing the party ensured that these rare and priceless relics from the heroic era of Antarctic exploration, the age of Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton, would survive to their centenary and beyond.
For nearly two months over the summer of 1997-8, 13 members of the AAP Mawson's Huts Foundation work party battled what Mawson dubbed the "home of the blizzard" to complete urgent repairs to the Cape Denison huts. Mawson's Huts: An Antarctic Expedition Journal is artist and photographer Alasdair McGregor's personal account of the trials and triumphs of living and working in the windiest place on earth. Vivid descriptions of landscape and wildlife are intertwined with reflections on the history and significance of a great Australian and his vision in this rare glimpse of Antarctica, past and present."
--From the back cover.
Reclaiming a Lost Antarctic Base. By Michael Parfit, Photographs by Robb Kendrick. In National Geographic Vol 183, No 3, pp 110-126, March 1993. A survey and restoration team visits "...historic East Base, the United States' first permanent toehold in Antarctica, surrendered to the cold in 1948." East Base was established in 1940 on Stonington Island, Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula. It was here where the first two women winter-overed: Edith "Jackie" Ronne and Jennie Darlington.
Sledging into History. By David L. Harrowfield. (Auckland: The Macmillan Company, 1981, 119 pages, numerous color and black and white photo illustrations and plans.) Contents: Preparation for the Field. Sledging into History: Cape Royds. In the Wake of Scott: Cape Evans. They Passed this Way: Hut Point. The Historic Huts and their Future. Appendices: Chronological List of Expeditions to the Ross Dependency Sector of Antarctica. Personnel of Expeditions' Shore Parties. Illustrators with Expeditions of Scott and Shackleton. Provisions--Discovery, Nimrod and Terra Nova Expeditions. Summary of Known Early Historic Sites in the Ross Dependency. Restoration Parties and Caretakers. This book "...is a chronicle of modern caretaking work, and such brief sketches of the personalities, the plans, and the achievements of the pioneers as can be deduced from old encampments, and to old records."
Two Huts in the Antarctic. By L. B. Quartermain. (Wellington, New Zealand: R. R. Owen, Government Printer, 1963, 85 pages, 30 mostly black and white photo illustrations.) Contents: Two Huts in the Antarctic; The Story of the Huts; The Huts at Cape Adare; The Hut at Hut Point; The Hut at Cape Royds; The Hut at Cape Evans; Interlude; Man Comes Back; Endeavor; Restoration; The Huts Today. Focuses on the history of the Ross Sea huts, their condition when re-visited and their initial restoration.
Ten Myths About the Preservation of Historic Sites in Antarctica and Some Implications for Mawson's Huts at Cape Denison. By Janet Hughes, Cultural Heritage Research Centre, University of Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Appearing in the Polar Record 36 (197): 117-130 (2000). Contents: Introduction. Misunderstanding of deterioration processes. Simplistic assumptions about how historic buildings should be conserved. Inappropriate comparisons between dissimilar sites. Conclusions. Acknowledgments. References. ABSTRACT: "A review of popular writing on the subject of preservation of historic sites in Antarctica, including buildings, graves, and artefacts, has revealed many misconceptions about the existence and cause of deterioration problems. These myths include the belief that the artefacts inside the Ross Dependency huts are in a near perfect state of preservation and that there is no corrosion in Antarctica because of the dry cold. Further examination, however, shows these views to be incorrect. These and other misconceptions are classified into three groups: (1) misunderstanding or denial of deterioration processes in Antarctic conditions; (2) simplistic assumptions about how historic buildings should be conserved in Antarctica; and (3) inappropriate comparisons between dissimilar sites.
There has been considerable debate in Australia and New Zealand about how historic Antarctic buildings should be preserved. Proposed preservation methods have covered a wide range from dismantling and repatriation to a museum, re-cladding with new timber, insertion of vapour barriers inside walls to exclude ice ingress, covering buildings with a dome, and, at the other end of the spectrum of views, minimal intervention, The preservation of artefacts has also been an issue, particularly concerning whether artefacts can be effectively preserved in Antarctica or whether it is necessary to treat and store them at museums outside Antarctica. It is important to encourage consideration of all appropriate means of preservation, but it is particularly important that the causes of deterioration are understood (that is, correct diagnosis) before prescribing treatment."
Location | Winter Years | Expedition | Winter Leader (Ship) | Maintained by |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cape Adare | 1899 | British Antarctic Expedition (1898-1900) | Carsten Borchgrevink (Southern Cross) | Antarctic Heritage Trust (N.Z.) |
Hut Point | 1902, 1903 1916 |
British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-04) Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedtion (1914-17) |
Robert Scott (Discovery) . |
Antarctic Heritage Trust (N.Z.) |
Snow Hill Island | 1902, 1903 | Swedish South Polar Expedition (1901-03) | Otto Nordenskjöld (Antarctic) | Instituto Antártico Argentino |
Laurie Island | 1905-present | Oficina Meteorológica Argentina (1904-05) | Otto Diebel (Uruguay) | Instituto Antártico Argentino |
Cape Royds | 1908 | British Antarctic Expedition (1907-09) | Ernest Shackleton (Nimrod) | Antarctic Heritage Trust (N.Z.) |
Cape Evans | 1911, 1912 1915, 1916 |
British Antarctic Expedition (1910-13) Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17) |
Robert Scott (Terra Nova) Æneas Mackintosh (1915) Aurora) |
Antarctic Heritage Trust (N.Z.) |
Commonwealth Bay | 1912, 1913 | Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-14) | Douglas Mawson (Aurora) | Mawson's Hut Foundation |
Ruins (roofless) (4)
Location | Winter Years | Expedition | Winter Leader (Ship) | Maintained by |
---|---|---|---|---|
Paulet Island | 1903 | Swedish South Polar Expedition (1901-03) | Carl Anton Larsen (Antarctic) | Instituto Antártico Argentino |
Hope Bay | 1903 | Swedish South Polar Expedition (1901-03) | Gunnar Andersson (Antarctic) | Instituto Antártico Argentino |
Laurie Island | 1903, 1904 |
Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-04) Oficina Meteorológica Argentina (1904-05) |
William Bruce (Scotia) | Instituto Antártico Argentino |
Cape Adare | 1911 | British Antarctic Expedition (1910-13) | Victor Campbell (Terra Nova) | Antarctic Heritage Trust (N.Z.) |
Sites where Huts were deployed but where they no longer exist (9)
Location | Winter Years | Expedition | Winter Leader (Ship) | Reason for loss |
---|---|---|---|---|
Iles Kerguelen | 1902 | German South Polar Expedition (1901-03) | Emil Werth (Gauss) | Dilapidation |
Booth Island | 1904 | French Antarctic Expedition (1903-05) | Jean Charcot (Français) | Dilapidation |
Petermann Island | 1909 | French Antarctic Expedition (1908-10) | Jean Charcot (Porquoi Pas?) | Dilapidation |
Bay of Whales | 1911 | Norwegian Antarctic Expedition (1910-12) | Roald Amundsen (Fram) | Calving of the Ice Shelf |
Inexpressible Island | 1912 | British Antarctic Expedition (1910-13) | Victor Campbell (Terra Nova) | Ablation and melting |
Shackleton Ice Shelf | 1912 | Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-14) | Frank Wild (Aurora) | Calving of the Ice Shelf |
Macquarie Island | 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915 |
Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-14) Commonwealth Meteorological Expedition (1914-16) |
George Ainsworth (Aurora) Harold Power (1914), A. Tullock (1915) |
Dilapidation |
Point Wild | 1916 | Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-16) | Frank Wild (Endurance boats) | Overwhelmed in storm |
Waterboat Point | 1921 | British Expedition to Graham Land (1920-22) | Thomas Bagshawe (Svend Foyn) | Dilapidation |
The listing below was developed at Antarctic Treaty consultative
meetings VII, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, and XVII and appears as Section 4 in the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978... (Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, October 1995).
HISTORIC MONUMENTS IN ANTARCTICA
1. Flag mast at South Pole
90°S. Flag mast erected in December 1965 at the geographic South Pole by the first Argentine Overland Polar Expedition.
The following listing appears on the website of the Antarctic Heritage Trust at http://www.heritage-antarctica.org/index.cfm/Human/Heritage/
The Antarctic Heritage Trust recognises 34 sites of historic interest in the Ross Sea Region. The following lists each site and its classification.
CATEGORY 1 SITES
1. Site of ice cave, Inexpressible Island, Terra Nova Bay
2. Shackleton's hut, Cape Royds
3. Scott's hut, Cape Evans
4. Ross Sea Party cross, Wind Vane Hill
5. Discovery hut, Hut Point
6. Vince's Cross, Hut Point
7. Cross on Observation Hill
8. Rock hut, Igloo Spur, Cape Crozier
9. Borchgrevink and Northern Party huts, Ridley Beach, Cape Adare
10. Hanson's grave, Cape Adare
11. Cairn, Mt. Betty, Queen Maud Mountains
12. Rock hut, Granite Harbour
13. Supply depot, Hells Gate Moraine, Terra Nova Bay
14. Message post, Cape Crozier
15. Message post, Svend Foyn Island
16. Prestrud's cairn, Queen Alexandra Mountains
17. Message post, Cape Wadworth, Coulman Island
CATEGORY 2 SITES
18. Supply depot, cairn and camp site, Cape Adare
19. Supply depot, Ridley Beach, Cape Adare
20. Rock hut, Duke of York Island, Robertson Bay
21. Cave, Penelope Point, Robertson Bay
22. Supply depot and cairn, Cape Roberts
23. Supply depot, Mt. Cis, Cape Royds
24. Fokker aircraft wreckage, Rockefeller Mountains
CATEGORY 3 SITES
25. Supply depot at top of track, Cape Adare
26. Camp site, east side Robertson Bay, Cape Adare
27. Supply depot, Crescent Bay, Duke of York Island, Robertson Bay
28. Supply depot, Depot Island, Ross Sea
29. Camp site, Devils Punchbowl, Granite Harbour
30. Camp site, depot and cairn, Cape Bernacchi
31. Supply depot, Ferrar Glacier, McMurdo Sound
32. Supply depot, Cathedral Rocks
33. Supply depot, Butter Point
34. Supply depot, Davis Bay (now Salmon Bay)
To find out where each site is located, check out the regional maps listed below.
Map - Antarctic Continent
Map - Ross Sea Region
Map - Ross Island
More details arranged by the following Table of Contents appear on Rob Holmes' website at http://www.theice.org/historicguide.html. It is also linked from the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs site.
The following are excerpts from the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs publication "Historic Guide to Ross Island, Antarctica." This booklet, first printed in 1971, was prepared for the National Science Foundation by Charles Neider, who worked in the Antarctic while collecting material for his book Edge of the World: Ross Island, Antarctica (New York, Doubleday, 1974, 461p.). It has been updated by the Office of Polar Programs (Revised 1989).
Introduction
Discovered in 1841
Scott's Discovery expedition
Shackleton's expedition of 1907-1909
Scott's last expedition
Shackleton's Endurance-Aurora expedition
Operation High Jump
International Geophysical Year
WALKING TOURS:
The "Discovery" Hut
Vince's Cross
Our Lady of the Snows Shrine
Raymond Smith Monument
Old McMurdo
Chapel of the Snows
Richard E. Byrd Memorial
Observation Hill
Fortress Rocks and Crater Hill
Williams Field
Scott Base
Arrival Heights
HERITAGE SITES
Sites listed and specifically protected by the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty:
Significant sites which have been recently visited but which do not justify special listing in the Treaty.
Sites with historic significance but which have little visible evidence remaining.
HISTORIC GUIDE TO ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA
CONTENTS: