20th explorers on their way to Antarctica, including Ernest Shackleton, often visited NZ. They used local ports and quarantine islands, and gratefully accepted other offers of assistance. They also took on New Zealander crew with them, to take part in the Antarctic trips.
Capt Robert Falcon Scott
1905, Wiki
Scott’s plan was to explore the part of Antarctica around the Ross Sea, originally discovered back in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross. Scott led 2 expeditions to the Antarctic. His first expedition on the Discovery took place between 1901–04, partially Government funded. Discovery was specially built for the voyage, as a research ship to go through icy seas.
Clarence Hare, 1902
ABC News
New Zealander Clarence Hare (1880-1967) began his career as a clerk in N.Z and Fiji. While working in a Lyttelton grocery in Nov 1901 he met the Discovery's stores officer as they were preparing for their initial voyage south. The expedition's steward had been dismissed at Lyttelton and 20-year-old Hare was taken on as the replacement steward. He was the youngest crew member on board.
As steward, Hare was in day-to-day contact with Capt Scott and the other officers on board. He carefully kept a diary which has been widely quoted in accounts of the expedition and biographies of Scott. Hare's name is still recalled in most accounts of the expedition, for the observations he wrote about and for his miraculous story of life and death.
Note this was the first time Antarctic land had been explored extensively, zoologically and geologically. Dr Edward Wilson, for example, was a keen zoologist on both of Scott's expeditions. Hare's grand-daughter Virginia Basset agreed. She said grandpa’s personal diary revealed the lengths the crew went to for research, which claimed multiple lives onboard. They went out and collected penguins, seals, shells, whatever samples they could find to take back to England for scientific experiments. And they had to take part in collecting big ice blocks for the water supply.
Oates. Bowers, Scott, Wilson, and Evans at the South Pole.
UNSW
In 1910, Scott sailed on another scientific voyage in the whaler Terra Nova. With Royal Navy Officer E Evans (1876–1912) 2nd in charge, Scott determined to be the 1st explorer to reach the South Pole, but he faced stiff completion from Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Scott achieved his dream and reached the South Pole in Jan 1912, then he discovered that Amundsen had got there first. The 800-mile journey back to their base camp was hideous, and all 5 of Scott’s party died from cold and hunger. A search party was sent out from McMurdo Sound in late 1912 and found the bodies.
Where was the detailed diary in which he documented the 2 years he spent with the navy crew, scientists and civilians in the Antarctic? Hare had donated his diary to the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington in the 1960s, available for reading only on special request. And see the whistle he kept blowing while lost in a blizzard for 46 hours.
The diary from Scott's Antarctic voyage was published in 2022.
and edited by Maureen Lee
In 1961-2 the N.Z Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition named an Antarctic peak at the end of a ridge on the Leigh Hunt Glacier after Hare. This was approved by the N.Z Geographic Board in 1962. Clarence Hare retired to fruit farm on the Sunshine Coast, dying in 1967. But now the diary has been published for the first time as A Young Man's Antarctic Discovery, Maureen Lee ed., 55 years after his death!!
Capt Scott's memorial statue, Christchurch
erected 1916
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28 comments:
It is interesting to read about Hare, who is a new name to me. Captain Scott was taught to us at primary school as a great British hero, beaten to the pole by Amundsen and then perishing on the way back. I have always enjoyed reading about the exploration of the last great continent, far South of Australia.
Horrible death for those men, Hels. That would be an interesting book the adventure to read.
When I was studying at university, Douglas Mawson was a national hero in Australia. He led excursions that helped to establish the Australian Antarctic Territory. Yet I admired him so much because he was a scientist, and his expeditions made very important achievements in geology, meteorology and marine biology.
Patricia
the history we learned in school tends to remain in our brains, even after decades have passed. Roald Amundsen really did lead the first team to reach the South Pole in Dec 1911, beating the British expedition led by Robert Scott by just over a month!
How sad was that :( And the rest of Scott's story :(
Margaret
And imagine the widows and orphans they left behind :(
Joe
Douglas Mawson was indeed a national hero in Australia. We in Australia learned more about explorers and scientists in Antarctica than we did about similar men in the Arctic region, even though they were travelling in little known and dangerous areas in about the same time (i.e pre-WW1)
Bom dia minha querida amiga Helen. Obrigado pela visita e comentário. A maioria dos povos originários das Américas, foram literalmente massacrados, por vários povos europeus. Obrigado pela excelente aula de história e um grande abraço do seu amigo carioca.
Luiz
I imagine Antarctica was important to all the countries nearby - Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia etc. And still is.
I was always fascinated by Scott's story when I read about him as a teenager.
I didn't know most of this, having learned only that some people explored and the South pole was reached. I think such people must have stood in line two or three times when Bravery was being handed out.
The theory about Evans is plausible, but we will never know.
Andrew
history is written by the victors or the survivors. So Evan's story is another bit of history that we will never know about, nod
diane
I too remember history stories from high school very well, especially if they were romantic or tragic. The prison outbreak at Cowra during WW2, for example, killed hundreds of Japanese prisoners - I will never forget that.
Teenagers won't necessarily remember physics however.. their minds might not find it very moving.
River
the team members were very motivated to go on with the project, even though it was known in many countries to be critically dangerous. In fact one or two of the men were originally key members of the group who were left behind and fought vigorously to reenter the group en route to the South Pole. Very brave!!
The initial reaction to Scott’s death in Britain was an overwhelming display of public grief – comparable in many ways to the mourning of Princess Diana in the 1990s. The press obituaries were hagiographic; British schools and churches across the country organised special commemorations; and King George V himself kneeled to pray at Scott’s funeral in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Like General Gordon in 1885, whose defeat at Khartoum made him a national hero, Scott’s death chimed with a popular conception of peculiarly British masculinity, in which emotional fortitude and brave acceptance of fate were venerated above mere victory.
Gov.UK
I remember the nation's heartbreak when Princess Diana died, in Britain itself but right across the British Commonwealth. But I don't remember hearing about the Scott tragedy when a huge memorial service with King George V was held in St Paul's Cathedral, and other services held around Britain.
Nor did I know about Australian memorials (Cool Antarctica). In early 1913, Australia held many memorial services for Capt Scott and his team. There were official observances in Melbourne and Sydney with crowded services that drew significant public and civic participation.
So true Hels, devastated widow and children along with the rest of their family and friends.
Margaret
Two of the men were single, so it was the widows who were thrust into the public eye. But even then, the financial realities were difficult. Lois Evans was impoverished due to her husband's naval pay being cut during the expedition. She had to return to her parents in Wales to feed her 3 children and eventually she had to sell her husband's cherished Polar Medal.
This is someone I have heard of and the Antarctica expedition
Jo-Anne
When we were in grade 5, 6 and into High School, most Australian schools took history, geography and literature quite seriously. I am not at all surprised you knew about these expeditions.
My grandchildren, however, will not know anything about the expeditions.
What an incredible story of courage, survival, and exploration.
An incredible story of courage, exploration, fame and tragedy ... I would say. I would never have risked my life in pursuing a dream project, but then noone will remember my name in 100 years. Captain Scott's achievements will definitely be celebrated and honoured in academic books and journals into the future.
Without adventurers like Scott and Shackleton, among many others, the world would be more of a mystery than it still is.
jabblog
Medical researchers seem even more deadly risk-takers.
Dr Jesse Lazear was on the U.S Army Yellow Fever Board. He deliberately had infected mosquitoes bite him, to research and prove that they transmitted yellow fever. He died at 34, leaving a widow and 2 toddlers.
Clara Maass was a nurse assisting the Yellow Fever Commission who also deliberately got bitten by infected mosquitoes to study the disease. She died from it at 25.
I seen several shows, both documentaries and dramatizations about Scott, but I didn't know that crew members came from New Zealand. Thanks for this interesting article.
Erika
most of the men were from UK and Ireland, but each time they were in New Zealand and Australia, they took on extra crew. Capt Scott was stationed in South Africa for a while, but I am not sure who in his crew was South African.
Cecil Meares, in charge of dogs, was responsible for purchasing dogs in Siberia for the expedition.
In the Wake of Scott & Shackleton: Ross Sea Antarctica.
Helen, your readers could visit Antarctica's Ross Sea on this 28-day expedition which also includes the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands and Australia's Macquarie Island. Visit penguin rookeries, explore historic huts, walk on the ice, visit scientific bases, field camps and Zodiac cruise the ice edge.
https://www.heritage-expeditions.com/destinations/antarctica-travel/#trips
Deb
I would definitely not travel to the Antarctica because I loathe cold temperatures, and because we have seen what happened to earlier explorers and scientists :(
However I would happily go to the 1. Scott Polar Research Institute and Museum in Cambridge, 2. The Shackleton Experience Dublin and 3. the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum NSW: Scott, Mawson and Shackleton.
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