“Priceless” artefacts linked to Antarctic explorers Ernest Shackleton and Capt Robert Falcon Scott have been unearthed in a surprise discovery within the dark storage room of New Zealand’s meterological service.
Metservice staff came across a set of logbooks from some of the most famous Antarctic expeditions while preparing to move buildings in Wellington.
The 1916-17 logbook from the famed sailing vessel Aurora records the conditions during the rescue mission to save members of Shackleton’s 1914-16 Trans-Antarctic Expedition from Ross Island in Antarctica.
Other finds include two logbooks dated 1910 and 1911 from Terra Nova, the ship that carried Scott and team on the tragic attempt to be the first people to reach the south pole. Inventories and letters from Sir Douglas Mawson, a famous Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer, were also discovered.
Kevin Alder, MetService’s manager for meteorological data services, was handed the documents by a colleague and asked if they were something worth holding on to. When Alder opened one and saw the words Terra Nova inside he was astounded.
“No one had any idea that they even existed. I mean, it’s long forgotten, they’ve probably been sitting on the same shelf for 50 years,” Alder said.
Alder says the documents not only detail the weather conditions and the ship positions, but also make observations about penguins, orca, the Mt Erebus volcano smoking, and the status of the sea-ice.
“It’s a little snapshot in time of what the conditions were on particular days.
“Shackleton’s ship – you can see the weather on the day that his ship actually arrived down to rescue the stranded party. The documents from Scott’s ship – one of them is the transit across the Indian Ocean. So it’s not Antarctic but it’s still the Terra Nova with Scott on board on his way to Antarctica and that is just incredible.”
“It’s such an amazing story that has come to light now, 110 years later … I get quite emotional when I think about it, and talk about it,” Alder said.
The artefacts were in excellent condition, he said, because they had been housed in a cool dark room. “There’s almost no deterioration whatsoever. It’s amazing, because they have been written in old ink with quill pens.”
Metservice chief executive, Stephen Hunt, said it was an important discovery.
“The documents certainly have meteorological value but more significantly, they are priceless historical artefacts from an era of extreme courage and sacrifice.
“Those expeditions included scientific discovery and research, including meticulous recording of geographical, weather and ocean conditions. Scott, Shackleton, and Mawson faced extreme polar conditions and went to great lengths to record observed and measured data in hand-written logs,” he said.
Metservice is now talking with New Zealand institutions, including the government and the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, about where the documents should be kept.