Antarctica’s first burial in the ‘banana belt’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33519, 27 April 1974, Page 12

Antarctica’s first burial in the ‘banana belt’

>By

BADEN N. NORRIS)

Cape Adare, at the north-eastern tip of A ictoria Land with a latitude of 71 decrees 17 minutes south, is in what is commonly referred to as the Antarctic banana belt. The climate there is a little warmer than it is further south, but it has a well-earned reputation as one of the windiest coastal areas of the continent. The cape was named in January. 1841. by Sir James Clark Ross after Viscount Adare. M.P.. who was a strong supporter of his expedition of discovery. Cape Adare guards the entrance to the McMurdo Sound-Ross Island area and, standing 1000 ft sheer from the sea. it can be seen clearly from we!! out in the pack ice. Sir James Ross tried but failed to land there and the continent remained untouched until January 24. 1895. when a party of whalers from the ship Antarctic landed on the pebbly shore. Among the group was a Norwegian schoolteacher turned sailor, Carstens Borchgrevink. who had joined the ship in Melbourne. On his return to Australia he tried to organise a second expedition but there was little response. He went to England, where

he gamed 'he support of the British publisher Sir George Newnes. With this powerful backing, Borchgrevink organised a second expedition, in the ship Southern Cross in 1*99 to Cape Adare. where two huts were erected on Ridley Beach, which was named after the family of the leader’s mother. The 10 members of the partv passed man’s first winter on the polar continent. during which a .Norwegian zoologist. Nicolai Hanson, died of an illness and was buried under a boulder 1000 ft up on Cape Adare. Iron cross This was the first buna! recorded in Antarctica. A small iron cross was driven into the boulder to mark the burial and a brass plate was wired to it. The site had been chosen by Hanson himself. . In January, 1902. Captain Robert Falcon Scott, in his vessel. Discovery, landed at Ridley Beach. His party left a cylinder in the hut there with information of the ship’s movements. This was found the next year by the relief ship Morning and helped its crew locate the ice-bound ship at Hut Point, in McMurdo Sound. The northern party of Captain Scott's 1910 expedition was put ashore at

the Terra Nova, Cape Adare, in February 1911, under Lieutenant V. L. A. Campbell and it erected a third hut alongside the Southern Cross buildings. During the 11 months this party spent there a member, Petty Officer Frank Browning tidied

Nicolai Hanson's grave and added a white cross picked out in quartz. Since the departure of Campbell’s party in 1912 Cape Adare has not received many visitors — just the occasional party from a passing U.S. icebreaker and Scott Base' personnel checking over and restoring where possible the old Borchgrevink hut, the only one which has withstood the fury of the' Robertson Bay gale's. The tourist party in the Linblad Explorer early this year landed there and found the 180-acre beach covered with nesting Adelie penguines. Many had found their way 800 ft up the steep slopes at the back of the huts, while along the shore there was a continuous procession as thousands of birds made their way to and from the sea. Main hut The main hut was dark and smoke-stained, but in almost perfect condition. Stores showed signs of the deterioration expected in the warmer climate, but the Norwegian-built hut, a veteran of 74 Antarctic winters, was quite solid. A plaque outlining the hut’s history was erected on behalf of the Antarctic Division of the D.S.I.R. on the only clear piece of ground near the dwelling by Mr Lars Linblad, Keith Shackleton and myself during our visit to the cape. The next morning Keith Shackleton and I climbed the Cape Adare slopes to visit Hanson’s grave. Finding a way through the thick population of penguins was tough work. We reached the top but it was another three hours of hard work before we found the site. The iron cross is still there but the brass plate had been blown off. We put a note recording our visit under the brass plate, which was relocated several yards away, and left the sleeping Norseman to the urgent calling of our ship’s siren. Few people have seen Hanson's grave. I count myself very fortunate to be one of them.