Shackleton’s Antarctica in colour, 1915

howtobearetronaut.com ^ | March 6 2011 | Ms. Senior America

[RegulatorCountry]

Gotta love that pose, he’s ready for action in that “space suit.” The Ray-Ban Aviators are a nice touch, too.

All in all, he looks sort of like one of the stray white people you’ll occasionally encounter in B-movie Japanese science fiction. Who knows, maybe he took out Mothra.

[Daffynition]

Yep. If they had to be put down, they were used as food for the other dogs or by the two-legged beasties.

Huskies were used in Antarctica for a little under a hundred years. They were first used for transport during the Southern Cross expedition under Carsten Borchgrevink 1898 -1900.

In the early years, they were the only form of transport other than foot, as the 20th Century progressed, so more effective and more reliable mechanized transport became available. For a long time these motor vehicles were only really trustworthy on relatively flat, smooth surfaces and even then a gifted mechanic nearby was often a necessity.

Dog sleds remained until well into the 1970's as a required transportation solution. They were much more flexible than motor vehicles available at the time, considerably lighter (for travelling across crevassed regions or sea-ice) and could cope with the broken up / fractured terrain often encountered in Antarctica better than the early tracked vehicles.

They were kept, initially as a back-up for mechanized transport and then later when not required for this, for "recreational" purposes. Many generations of Antarctic personnel on scientific bases regarded their experiences in Antarctica as being greatly enhanced by the presence of the dogs and the possibility of sledging trips with them.

In 1991, the fear that distemper from dogs could spread to seals and the impact they could have on wildlife if they escaped led to a new clause in the Antarctic Treaty.

"Dogs shall not be introduced onto land or ice shelves and dogs currently in those areas shall be removed by April 1 1994".

The last dogs were removed from Antarctica on Feb 22nd 1994. All that remains of these most loyal of man's companions in the most extreme place on earth is their history and photographs.

If you think about it, as Amundsen used dog sleds to reach the South Pole and his sled was being pulled by dogs at the time, dogs even reached the South Pole momentarily before the first man did!

The pictures shows dog tracks initially made in soft snow, the dogs paws compressed the snow below the surface. Then along came an Antarctic blizzard and blew away all the previous snowfall except where it had been compressed by the dogs paws - leaving raised prints.

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[RegulatorCountry]

They're not playing just any old game, they're playing Ring Around The Rosie wearing gas masks. Given the sort of eerie meaning of the words and the Black Death era origins of them, it's oddly appropriate.

[Daffynition]

Don't be fooled. It's an early Putin indubitably involved in the Soyuz space race.;D

[Daffynition]

Yes, eerie as it is. There were many strange contraptions invented for use for children and animals to protect against chemical warfare.

[Daffynition]

[nuconvert]

“The Ray-Ban Aviators are a nice touch, too.”

lol. You never know how bright the sun’s gonna be in space.

Maybe Ray-Ban ought to dig up this photo for advertising?

[nuconvert]

I’ve seen the one for horses and even babies, but I hadn’t seen the baby carriage one before.

[Daffynition]

Isthis the scene?

On Oct. 27th, 1915. Sir Ernest Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship, moving the crew and supplies off of the ice bound Endurance. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition would never achieve it's goal of crossing the continent, instead Shackleton would become famous for somethings far greater: his masterful and amazing ability at leadership and survival for himself and his crew of 27 men under the harshest conditions imaginable.

After setting up camp on the ice floe, they would drift until April 9th, 1916, when they decided to launch their three lifeboats in an attempt to reach Elephant Island. 7 days of rowing and sailing later, all ships arrived safely. It was the first time in 497 days they had set foot on land. Eight days later, Shackleton, Captain Frank Worsley, Tom Crean, Ship's Carpenter Harry "Chippy" McNish, Timothy McCarthy and John Vincent would set sail in the 23 foot James Caird, having been retrofitted for the 800 mile voyage over the open ocean to South Georgia, the closest active port and best chance of rescue. The ship survived the 16 days on the open ocean, and delivered all six men to the South Georgia coast.

However, it was the wrong end of the island. The Caird, having suffered damage while landing, was unfit for an attempt to travel around to the whaling station at Fortuna Bay. Instead, Shackleton, Worseley and Crean, decided to cross the uncharted glacial mountain range that separated them from the Stromness whaling station. Using a carpenters adz, screws from the Caird fastened through their boots, and a length of rope, they managed to cross the 22 miles in 36 hours. For reference, modern climbers can do the trip in three days, using maps and the latest in climbing gear (here is a clip of one such trip).

Arriving at Stromness on May 20th, it was not until August 30, after two previously failed rescue attempts, was Shackleton able to rescue the rest of his crew 24 months and 22 days after leaving South Georgia on the start of the expedition. Not a single member of his crew of 27 men were lost, and only one crew member lost a foot to frostbite (which was amputated at the Elephant Island camp while they waited for rescue).

This quote, by Sir Raymond Priestley, a member of Shackleton's earlier 1907-09 Nimrod Expedition, captures the abilities of the man:

"For scientific leadership, give me Scott, for swift and efficient travel give me Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton. Incomparable in adversity, he was the miracle worker who would save your life against all the odds and long after your number was up. The greatest leader that ever came on God's earth, bar none."

[Daffynition]

Strange, sobering stuff.

[RegulatorCountry]

He is throwing off a sort of Yul Brynner Westworld vibe there, isn't he?

[nuconvert]

“Strange, sobering stuff.”

Indeed

[Hardraade]

Funny thing, history. The latest Norwegian to try an expedition in the Antarctic is finding himself facing charges for “illegal travel”.

[nuconvert]

“They’re not playing just any old game, they’re playing Ring Around The Rosie wearing gas masks. Given the sort of eerie meaning of the words and the Black Death era origins of them, it’s oddly appropriate.”

yes, it is.

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In other expeditions we have this:

The Greely Expedition

In 1881, 25 men led by Adolphus Greely set sail from Newfoundland to Lady Franklin Bay in the high Arctic, where they planned to collect a wealth of scientific data from a vast area of the world’s surface that had been described as a "sheer blank."

Three years later, only six survivors returned, with a daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism.

[Daffynition]

There are times when he would make a good “look-alike” photo comparison w/ Brenner. ;D

[Daffynition]

Buried In Ice: A Time Quest Book by Owen Beattie (a forensic anthropologist) began to look into the expedition's fate and the causes of its failure, he not only uncovered evidence of cannibalism but--by temporarily opening the graves to take tissue samples--proved that some or all of the crew had ingested debilitating levels of lead from poorly tinned food. This book is a digest of Beattie and Geiger's book for adults, Frozen in Time (1987), combined with a dramatized historical reconstruction plus plenty of paintings and color photos-- including macabre photo portraits of three exhumed, startlingly well-preserved corpses.

Dr. Robert Ballard [of Titanic fame] was supposed to explore the Northwest Passage and explore for the "Erebus" and "Terror". He had put a lot of effort and time in getting the funding [NatGeo, Smithsonian, et al], scientists, supplies and scheduling the Polar Icebreaker based in Seattle... He told us at the very last moment, plans had to be canceled b/c the passage was freezing fast. He was stuck on the west coast with all the plans stalled, flew to Washington DC and met with the Smithsonian people and took the crew and 2002 supplies across the Pacific to the Solomon Islands, where subsequently found JFK's PT-109 [gack!]

[Daffynition]

with the tin/lead problem in the canned goods. Amazing stuff!

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Damn. Lead poisoning from the food you brought with you.

The Greely expedition was hopeless. They left their camp to meet the supply ship that didn't come.

[Daffynition]

Makes me wonder if today, we have any hearty souls, like these men, who risk everything for the adventure. With the demise of Steve Fossett, it doesn’t seem like it. Dr. Robert Ballard is quite a unique, modern explorer but his risks are very calculated and someone who serves his many talents and answers the call to something bigger than himself.