MUSEUM OF NATURE

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 12

MUSEUM OF NATURE

Antarctic letters discovered

(Contributed by the Canterbury Museum)

A valuable letter, written by Ernest Shackleton in 1908 to a resident of Christchurch, has been presented to the Canterbury Museum.

The donor was Mrs Gerald Fitzgerald, of 12 Idris Road. The letter had been written to her grandfather, Alex Boyle, of Riccarton, by Shackleton while at sea in the Nimrod, and is dated January 2, 1908.

Written on official expedition paper, it is headed "British Antarctic Expedition, 1907. S. Y. Nimrod, Ross Sea, Latitude 748 40 S; Longitude 179.30 W.” The letter thanks Mr Boyle in very warm terms for arranging the gift of 20 live sheep to the expedition from Canterbury farmers. These animals were carried from Lyttelton on the deck of the Union Steam Ship Company’s Koonya, which undertook the towing of the tiny Nimrod 1510 miles to the ice. The Koonya became the first steel vessel to cross the Antarctic Circle and the only ship to carry the flag of the Union Steam Ship Company to the Antarctic. Just before the towline was cut the sheep were slaughtered and tied to a line from the Nimrod. Unfortunately 10 were lost when a line parted but Shackleton states in the letter; "However the 10 that we did get will be a very welcome addition to our larder during the winter and I think it was more than

good of you to take all the trouble you have done in the matter.”

Quest for letters

He goes on to say he has written to all the persons named by Mr Boyle who had supplied the sheep. I wonder if any of these letters have survived the 64 years? The museum is interested in tracing them.

A description of the foul weather which plagued the 200-ton Nimrod followed, and a promise to spend more time with Mr and Mrs Boyle on his return, closed this letter. The letter was brought back to Lyttelton by the Nimrod after the shore party had been landed at Cape Royds, McMurdo Sound. The museum is very grateful to be entrusted with its keeping by Mrs Fitzgerald. A second letter to be brought to my attention recently is one in the possession of Mr H. B. C-. Parkin, and addressed to a relative, Mrs Cole, of Cashmere, who was prominent in women’s groups at the turn of the century and who had entertained members of the National Antarctic Expedition at her home in 1901 while their ship, the Discovery, was being prepared for the Antarctic voyage in Lyttelton. The letter is a thumb-nail sketch of all the important events which took place during this expedition’s first year with Discovery imprisoned in the ice at Hut Point, McMurdo Sound. Headed “S.S. Discovery, Winter Quarters,

South Victoria Land 24/2/1903" the letter conveys the thanks of Thomas Whitfield, leading stoker, R.N. to Mrs Cole for a letter received by the relief ship Morning.

“No bears”

Perhaps the most fascinating portion of the letter is Stoker Whitfield’s statement that “no bears have as yet been seen." A very live issue in scientific circles at the turn of the century was the possibility of finding polar bears in Antarctica. With the Antarctic Continent he is disenchanted, calling it “dreary, deserted and God forgotten;" not perhaps an unpredictable impression from one who had spent one year in the world’s most inhospitable land and was facing yet another. Such personal observations are very valuable and previously overlooked letters from the lower deck provide a very enlightening insight into the moods of the time. The Canterbury Museum strives to preserve such letters for future historians and the general public alike, and appeals with confidence to the public to help bring into being the greatest Antarctic reference library in the Southern Hemisphere. — B.N.N.

The photograph shows the line, with sheep carcases attached to it, running from the Koonya to the Nimrod. It was taken just before the ships parted company in the Antarctic Circle.