“Blizzard blowing again and considerable discomfort on board as usual.” Personal accounts of weather as scientific data, and the weather’s influence on expedition members during the Heroic Age

Abstract

This paper presents an historic view on diaries and correspondence; in particular, how information related to weather was personally recorded and how Antarctic weather conditions influenced the expedition members in the Heroic Age (1897–1922). The paper is based on a presentation made at the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Open Science Conference in Auckland 2014. In this study, diaries have been used from the German “Gauss”-Expedition (also known as the “German South Polar Expedition”), led by Erich von Drygalski and the British “Discovery”-Expedition (also known as the “British National Antarctic Expedition”), led by Robert Falcon Scott. Both expeditions were undertaken during the period from 1901 through 1904. The timeframe is of particular interest, because it is a time when the men who went south did not have reliable comparative accounts in order to adequately mentally prepare for what they were about to experience. To put the research into a wider context, there are links drawn between other expeditions of that era. It is shown that a combination of low temperatures, winds, and light conditions had an impact on the expedition members’ wellbeing and in some cases on their behaviour and social interactions.