British National Antarctic Expedition Research Articles

Nourishing food, clean air and exercise: medical debates over environment and polar hygiene on Robert Falcon Scott's British National Antarctic expedition, 1901-1904.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth century saw dramatic new developments in climatic medicine, particularly the institutionalisation of thinking about tropical hygiene. There were also more limited efforts to understand how hygiene theories should be applied in a polar environment. Studying the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-1904), led by Robert Falcon Scott, helps us understand how these practices had both similarities and differences from applications of hygiene in other contexts. The expedition offers unique insights into debates about hygiene, environment, and health because of the important, and well documented, role that medics, naval officers and scientists played in organising logistical arrangements for the journey to Antarctica. In analysing the writings of expedition members and organisers, this paper examines the ways that the universal tools of hygiene theories were applied and developed in a polar environment. Many of the most acute threats seemed to come not from the outside environment but from the explorers' supplies and equipment. There was general agreement on many issues. Yet the expedition's organisers, medics and leadership had numerous arguments about the best way to preserve or restore health. These disagreements were the product of both competing medical theories about the cause of disease and the importance of embodied (and somewhat subjective) observations in establishing the safety of foods, atmospheres and environments in this period.

Keeping it in the family: Relationships between Polar medallists

Abstract During the 19th century, members of British Arctic expeditions received one of two silver Arctic medals. In 1904, the British Polar Medal was established in both silver and bronze to returning members of the British National Antarctic Expedition. Subsequently awarded to members of both Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, the medal in silver is still awarded today. This paper explores the family links of the recipients from 1904 to the present. Polar medallists related by blood comprise five pairs of brothers, five father-and-son pairs, one grandfather-and-grandson pair, one uncle-and-nephew pair and six pairs of cousins including one male-to-female pair. A female-to-female link has yet to be recorded. Family links resulting from marriage include six husband-and-wife pairs and four pairs of brothers-in-law.

“A Good Advertisement for Teetotalers”: Polar Explorers and Debates over the Health Effects of Alcohol, 1875–1904

This article examines discussions about drink and temperance on British polar expeditions around the turn of the twentieth century. In doing so, I highlight how expeditionary debates about drinking reflected broader shifts in social and medical attitudes toward alcohol. These changes meant that by the latter part of the nineteenth century, practices of expeditionary drinking could make or break the reputation of a polar explorer, particularly on an expedition that experienced an outbreak of scurvy. At the same time, I demonstrate the importance of travel and exploration in changing medical understandings of alcohol. I examine these issues through an analysis of two expeditions organized along naval lines—the British Arctic Expedition (1875–76) and the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–4)—and, in doing so, demonstrate that studying exploration can offer new insights into changing attitudes toward drink and temperance in the nineteenth century.

Tainted bodies: scurvy, bad food and the reputation of the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–1904

This paper investigates scientific and public understandings of scurvy at the turn of the twentieth century in order to examine the cultural meanings attached to explorers' bodies. I analyse the medical and moral debates around outbreaks of scurvy on expeditions, the different and conflicting meanings attached to male explorers' bodies, and how these different understandings shaped the response to an outbreak of scurvy on the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–1904). Scurvy, I demonstrate, could be rendered as an inevitable part of an explorer's heroic, masculine adventures, in narratives of suffering for science, or as a source of shame. How scurvy was represented depended, however, on where it occurred, what its causes were understood to be, and the motivations of those representing the scurvy outbreak on an expedition. More fundamentally, I suggest that these different representations of scurvy exposed underlying disagreements about the purpose of exploration and the relationship between suffering, heroism, science and national pride on British polar expeditions in the Edwardian era.

“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

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.

An ancient Antarctic endemic genus restored: morphological and molecular support for Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni (Collembola: Hypogastruridae)

Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni Carpenter was only the second collembolon† to be described from the Antarctic continent. It was collected first in 1902 from Granite Harbour, southern Victoria Land, Eastern Antarctica, by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–1904). Since then several studies have investigated the distribution, ecology, ecophysiology and molecular composition of the species. Despite two morphological redescriptions and an absence of detailed evolutionary phylogenetic studies, the genus Gomphiocephalus was recently reduced to a subgenus of Schoettella Schäffer. Here, we redescribe the species in detail and use morphological and molecular (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and 28S) data to indicate its generic relationships within Hypogastruridae. Characters of Gomphiocephalus do not conform with those of any extant genus in the family, including Schoettella. In addition, the only Schoettella species described from the southern hemisphere, Schoettella subcorta Salmon, is shown here to belong in the genus Xenylla. Furthermore, molecular data indicates the genus has no close relationship to any other in Poduromorpha, and in particular Hypogastruridae. Therefore, we restore Gomphiocephalus to generic status. Our results reinforce the already recognized high level of endemism in the Antarctic fauna at both species and generic levels, and emphasise the necessity of using both morphological and molecular data in determining the systematics and evolutionary relationships of the fauna.

A century of Antarctic science; planning and serendipity

The British National Antarctic Expedition planned with discreditable bickering, sailed for the Antarctic in 1901 on the Discovery. The venture was well equipped and commanded by R. F. Scott who, without scientific training himself, was nevertheless remarkably in empathy with his scientists. The expedition was foremost among those dispatched around the same time in establishing basic knowledge of the continent. Followed by the second Scott expedition and those of Shackleton and Mawson, a cadre of able and enthusiastic scientists was established. The second involvement of the Discovery in Antarctic exploration was planned without quarrels and with unusual understanding of science by a government department, resulting in a massive accumulation of knowledge about the Southern Ocean. United States expeditions began in 1928, introducing modern technology, thereby extending greatly the scope of Antarctic research. The Norwegian-British-Swedish expedition of 1949–1952 put planned science before geographical exploration. The International Geophysical Year of 1957–1958, supported by governments and planned by international committees, achieved great success. Science has flourished in Antarctica with unplanned and serendipitous findings emerging, for example, the structure of the magnetosphere, collection of meteorites by ice movements, the microbial life of the apparently sterile Dry Valleys and the discovery of the ozone “hole”.

Antarctic sledging preparations and tacit knowledge

The article discusses how organisational structure and culture affected the preparations for sledging in three Antarctic expeditions between 1901 and 1904. The central focus is how expedition leaders sought tacit knowledge, ‘the knowledge of how we do things.’ Two organisational types were derived from a study of 36 major polar expeditions. These – the industrial organisation and the innovative organisation – were used to analyse how sledging practices evolved in the British National Antarctic Expedition, German South Polar Expedition, and Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. Robert Falcon Scott, in great part as a result of his naval heritage, did not fully understand the need for and the methods required to gain the operational knowledge required for sledging in Antarctica. He applied the traditional command-and-control system based on naval tradition. Erich von Drygalski and William Speirs Bruce applied Fridtjof Nansen's scientific approach, in which the scientific staffs were integrated into sledging operations. In this approach, every variable that could possibly affect the outcome of the research was incorporated into preparations, much as is the case in classical experimental design. While no attempt is made to judge sledging success in the study, the results clearly indicate the importance of knowing how to use the tacit dimension in sledging. The implications go far beyond sledging and suggest the need for managers to have an intimate understanding of how things work.

“No Joke in Petticoats”: British Polar Expeditions and Their Theatrical Presentations

By late March 1902, the British National Antarctic Expedition's ship Discovery was frozen in. Atop the ice, the explorers erected a hut, which was fitted with a stage, scenery, and footlights. The Royal Terror Theatre opened in June with Ticket-of-Leave and climaxed in August with a minstrel show. In the icy darkness white men played women and black men, parodied and critiqued structures of power, reinforced attitudes of racial prejudice, and labored at activities that saved their sanity if not their lives. The prolonged engagement in play challenges the easy narrative of courage, endurance, and heroic survival usually associated with polar expeditions.

British National Antarctic Expedition 1901–04: crew identities in extant photographs

British National Antarctic Expedition 1901–04: crew identities in extant photographs

Victor Campbell and Michael Barne in Svalbard: the 1914 voyage of Willem Barents

AbstractIn 1914 the Northern Exploration Company of London employed Commander Victor Campbell (the leader of the Northern Party of Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition of 1910–1913) to voyage to Spitsbergen in charge of a mineral-prospecting team. Campbell sailed in the schooner Willem Barents, taking Michael Barne (the second lieutenant on the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1904) as mate. There was a mixed British and Norwegian crew. Between May and August, Campbell took the schooner to various sites between Recherchefjorden and Krossfjorden on the west coast of Spitsbergen, maintaining two-way contact with London through the Norwegian radio station at Grønfjorden. Hearing that war was about to break out, the expedition visited the German meteorological station at Ebeltofthamna, then sailed back to Norway, from where the British members returned to England.

Profile: Thomas Crean

AbstractBorn in Annascaul, Ireland in 1877, Thomas Crean enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1893 and was serving in New Zealand when Scott's British National Antarctic Expedition passed through en route for McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. As an AB in Discovery he gained experience which he later put to good use in two further British expeditions, Scott's British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, in which he sledged to the polar plateau, and Shackleton's Imperial Tran-Antarctic (Endurance) Expedition, in which he was given charge of the dog teams, drifted on the pack ice of the Weddell Sea and took part in the epic open-boat journey to South Georgia.

Profile: Albert Borlase Armitage

Albert Armitage was the second in command of both the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition of 1884–1897 and R. F. Scott's British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–1904. He never led an expedition himself; as Frank Debenham wrote (1944), ‘For polar work his mind was perhaps not quite flexible enough or his aims were not sufficiently ambitious to make him lead an expedition of his own.’ Despite this he played a leading role in both expeditions, and contributed significantly to Arctic and Antarctic exploration.

Bequests for Research in Marine Biology

MR. EDWABD THOMAS BROWNE, a governor of the Marine Biological Association, who died on December 10, 1937, was for many years the leading authority in Great Britain on medusae and other ccelenterates. Under his will, a number of valuable bequests are made to different bodies for the benefit of scientific research. The residue of his estate, estimated to amount to some £50,000, goes to the Royal Society to form a fund for the promotion of marine expeditions or individual research on marine biology. In addition, £6,725, together with scientific books, instruments and apparatus, are left to the Marine Biological Association for special purposes in connexion with the Plymouth Laboratory, £15,000 to Queen's College, Oxford, for a research fellowship and a scholarship in biology, and £5,000 to University College, London, for a postgraduate research studentship in zoology, in memory of his wife. After graduating at Oxford, Mr. Browne took up the serious study of zoology under the late Prof. W. F. R. Weldon at University College, London, in 1891, and remained at the College as a research worker until 1909. His summers were spent at different marine laboratories, Port Erin, Plymouth,Millport and at other places suitable for his work, including Valencia, Falmouth and the Scilly Isles. A monograph on the British medusae is nearly completed, and provision is made in his will for its publication. He examined and reported on the medusae from many foreign collections, especially from expeditions, including those from the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelago, the Gulf of Manaar, the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, the British National Antarctic Expedition, the Falkland Islands, Norway and Spitsbergen, Browne was a very thorough and careful worker, with a complete knowledge of the literature of the groups in which he specialized. He gave great assistance both financially and, as a member of their respective councils, in the administration of the scientific societies in which he was interested, including the Royal Microscopical Society and the Quekett Club.

A New Mode of Transportation by Ice: the Raised Marine Muds of South Victoria Land (Antarctica)

The old and somewhat vexed subject of the methods of transportation of material by land- and sea-ice is again brought up in this paper, a subject on which there is so voluminous a literature that any attempt to add to it must have the support of the strongest reasons. It is, therefore, with some temerity that I attempt the description of a set of facts which appears to contain a key to some of the well-known problems of ice-action. Of all the phenomena of glacial deposits, perhaps the most puzzling are the occurrences of shelly drifts of marine origin in a great variety of circumstances, both as to height and as to composition. The great discussions of the past as to whether they indicated submergence, or merely an upthrust-action of the ice, can only be said to have been suspended and not concluded. The subject of this paper is a series of deposits on the Antarctic shores which point to an explanation of the origin of many of these shelly drifts and the peculiar circumstances in which they occur. In South Victoria Land we had the good fortune to see these shelly deposits at an early stage of their evolution, a stage now only possible in polar lands with a severe climate. The occurrence of raised marine muds, resting upon ice, was reported by the first Expedition that wintered in the Ross Sea, the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. They were described by Mr. H. T. Ferrar, the geologist

Magnetic Work of the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-4

Magnetic Work of the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-4

The British Antarctic Expedition

The British Antarctic expedition under the command of Ernest H. Shackleton, which recently returned from the Antarctic, has achieved a most brilliant success, one of the greatest in Polar annals. Captain Shackleton was born in Ireland. He entered the British merchant service and was an officer of the Union Castle Line, when he was appointed one of the officers of the British National Antarctic expedition under Captain Scott. His portrait,* taken with the other members of the expedition, shows that he is a man of tremendous determination and will power, qualities which explain his achieve-

The British National Antarctic Expedition

The British National Antarctic Expedition

Two Years in the Antarctic. Being a Narrative of the British National Antarctic Expedition

Two Years in the Antarctic. Being a Narrative of the British National Antarctic Expedition

The British National Antarctic Expedition

The British National Antarctic Expedition