Historic relics at Antarctica in need of restoration

Press, 22 February 1978, Page 19

Historic relics at Antarctica in need of restoration

Concern for the preservation of three historic huts on Ross Island, in the Antarctic, has prompted Mr David Harrowfield, the curator of the Canterbury Museum’s Antarctic Centre, to make an inventory, illustrated by photographs of the contents of the huts. Mr Harrowfield recently spent five weeks as a caretaker of the huts with

Mr Chris Buckley. They are both members of the New Zealand Antarctic Society. In 1969, the D.S.I.R. Antarctic division set up the job for caretakers at Ross Island because of the growth of tourism and the need for maintenance of the buildings, which were showing serious signs of disrepair. The Ross Island huts

are all situated within an area of 30 miles. Scott’s hut at Cape Evans is the biggest of the three, measuring about 30m in length. It was built in 1911. Shackleton’s hut was built in 1908 at Cape Royds, and an earlier one of Scott’s huts, built in 1902, is situated at Hut Point, near McMurdo Station. Accumulation of snow,

and ice inside and outside the buildings is causing dampness and ruining many of the contents left there by expedition parties.

Mr Harrowfield cites the example of a shirt left by a member of the Ross Sea party at Cape Evans. It had come in contact with a rusty bed wire and they had now become bound together. “Iron objects kept outside are corroding after coming in contact with snow and salt off the sea ice,” he adds. “Leather items, such as footwear and pony harnesses, are also cracking badly.”

Messrs Harrowfield and Buckley moved much material inside, especially from the food depot where tins of food were rusting and old labels were disintegrating. Mr Harrowfield recalls finding a tin of Brand and Co. “essence of beef,” manufactured in 1907, at Shackleton’s hut.

The label reads: “In cases of extreme exhaustion or urgent danger, a teaspoonful may be administered as often as the patient can take it. In less urgent cases it may be taken as required with a biscuit or a small piece of butter. Once open it will only keep good for two days. It is best kept cold and it should be kept previous to use, if possible, on ice. Caution, beware of imitations.”

At Cape Evans, they found a carton af sugar cubs with the words “Absolutely pure British” written on it.

Mr Harrowfield would like several of the items needing restoration brought to New Zealand for repair. But under the Antarctic Treaty, the contents of the two huts used by Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton cannot be removed. “There are valuable old manuscripts and papers which the dampness is

ruining,” he says. “The Alexander Turnbull Library would be able to preserve these papers and send them back.

“The museum would be able to restore clothing and wooden articles, like the two skis from Shackleton’s motor car which they found in Pony Lake. They were 70 years old and had never really dried out.” They have expanded and ice crystal growth had caused them to split.”

Many people think that the Antarctic — a natural freezer — is the ideal place to preserve articles, but there are deterimental effects, too. Each year caretakers of the huts excavate the build-up of snow and ice that filters in from the outside.

“At. the Annexe, at Cape Evans, we shovelled more than 100 cubic metres of ice out of the building and then sealed it up,” Mr Harrowfield says. “When the ice is removed from the inside that alters the temperature, and temperature change is one of the reasons for the deterioration.”

In Scot’s hut at Cape Evans he found in the darkroom roles of unexposed 35mm film, dated 1910, and packets of film for colour processing. Making detailed accounts of all the items in the huts was often messy for Mr Harrowfield. Some of his notebooks were covered in black smudges. In Scott’s hut at Cape Evans the walls were covered in black soot — the result of burning seal blubber.

As well as carrying out routine repairs at the huts, Mr Harrowfield spent about 100 hours making detailed descriptions of the articles there. And at Cape Evans he made an accurate interior plan of the building. His entries filled more than

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“I am proposing to draw up a catalogue for publication in the form of a monograph,” he says. He would like to make this available for reference by organisations like the Scott Polar Research Institute and the D.S.I.R. Antaractic division.

“By doing this log I came to appreciate more the recorded history of the place, but I found it limited,” he says.

Messrs Harrowfield and Buckley also examined the area surrounding the huts, and Mr Harrowfield did paintings of the landscape as well.

“The first time I set out to do a painting I found my sketch board iced over, so that I ended up doing most of the work inside after taking details of the colours. Because the sun never went down, I found myself up at 2 a.m. still taking advantage of the light.” The Historic Places Trust is interested in the huts which are under New Zealand juristriction. “Visitors are usually aware of the value of their contents and do not touch them. And they must get permission to go In. There are precautions, too, against fire.” It was Mr Harrowfield’s second trip to the Antarctic. He made his first three years ago when he was a field assistant on a coastline study. If he were given the chance he would go down to the Antarctic again. His most memorable time he says, was a dog-sledge ride from Scott Base to Cape Royds. “I owe a lot to the Scott Base personnel and the D.S.I.R. Antarctic division, who helped me in my research work and enabled it to go so well.”

DENISE McNABB

five notebooks and he took about 1000 photographs for his inventory.