The Antarctic
“[The crushing of the Antarctic]…seems to me more glorious than if she had gone to meet the usual fate of vessels to slowly rot in some port, or to be used for something far off from her designation and purposes as an icy seas and research vessel.”
— Alfred Gabriel Nathorst, the Antarctic’s previous owner
Sketch by Thomas Orde-Lees showing the apparatus built by Harry McNeish for Captain Worsley to indicate changes of direction to the helmsman. [T. H. Orde-Lees Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, N.Z.]
“Had my usual evening walk & smoke, as I am better of the piles but I have been thinking of my loved ones all day I hope there is nothing wrong & that You will enjoy Yourselves tomorrow X Mass.”
— McNeish’s Christmas note, 1914 [from his journal; not sent]
[Antarctic Radiolaria from the Southeast Pacific Basin, Deep Sea Drilling Project, Leg 35; F. M. Weaver. 1976]
Adelies on Paulet Island by Allan Hansen, 2009
Robert Clark, Biologist
The quaint little penguins found the ship a cause of much apparent excitement and provided a lot of amusement aboard. One of the standing jokes was that all the adelies on the floe seemed to know Clark, and when he was at the wheel rushed along as fast as their legs could carry them, yelling out “Clark! Clark!” and apparently very indignant and perturbed that he never waited for them or even answered them.
— Ernest Shackleton, South
“During afternoon indulged in a short game of football on the large floe to which the ship is moored.”
— Frank Hurley
Leonard Hussey, Meteorologist
During the afternoon three adelie penguins approached the ship across the floe while Hussey was discoursing sweet music on the banjo. The solemn-looking little birds appeared to appreciate It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, but they fled in horror when Hussey treated them to a little of the music that comes from Scotland.
— Ernest Shackleton, South
photo, Frank Hurley: First Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
[It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, sung by Tom Yorke, 1914; as played on a 78]
“Very slow progress, having re-entered fields of enormous floes. Many over a square mile in area, and with very little open water. All day we have been utilising the ship as a battering-ram. Backing and then full speed ahead at the barring floes. We admire our sturdy little ship which seems to take a delight in combating our common enemy, shattering the floes in grand style. When the ship comes in contact with the ice, she stops dead, shivering from truck to kelson; then almost immediately a long crack starts from our bows into which we steam, and like a wedge, slowly force the crack sufficiently to enable a passage to be made; and so it has been all day, and I suppose shall be for many days to come. Secure an Emperor Penguin for the larder.”
— Frank Hurley, Diaries
Shackleton. 