[Leica] Re: Polar exploration

[ricc at mindspring.com (Ric Carter)]

Thanks for the education. Interesting.

Ric Carter
http://gallery.leica-users.org/Passing-Fancies


On Jun 2, 2006, at 1:25 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:

>
> This is a long post with only minimal photographic relevance but I  
> hope it will correct some misinformation recently posted. I did use  
> a Leica camera to take many pictures in Norway, including many  
> shots of the Fram and Geoa, which I will post shortly. So please  
> forgive me for wasting bandwidth.
>
> During a uncomfortable portion of my obligatory military service  
> stint I was stationed in Ft. Churchill, Canada. Winter temperatures  
> ranged down to 50 below zero and your spit would freeze before it  
> hit the ground. When it was really cold, it would explode with a  
> loud cracking sound before it hit. During the long winter night,  
> our main entertainments were shooing polar bears away from the  
> garbage dump and reading the books in the base library. They had a  
> magnificent collection of books on Artic exploration. All we needed  
> to do to experience the rigors of winter in the north country was  
> to walk from the mess hall to the barracks. Baby, it was cold  
> outside. Fortunately we had mechanized Snow Tracs to get around but  
> some of the locals still used dog sleds. About an hour of sledding  
> in sub zero weather was all I could handle. How the explorers could  
> do it for 12 hours a day is more than I can imagine. The only  
> upside of my experience was that I learned to cross country ski, a  
> sport which I have now practiced for over 40 years. Why Scott  
> didn't ski to the pole is beyond me.
>
> Now about the use of motorized sledges on Scott's Tera Nova  
> expedition, Michael Barne, a veteran of the DISCOVERY EXPEDITION,  
> had designed a new sledge. Although these sledges failed on their  
> initial tryout in Norway, Scott took them with him to the Antartic,  
> hoping to use them to ferry large amounts of supplies to depots. He  
> planned to use ponies to dash for the pole, man hauling the sleds  
> for only the final lap. The first two motor sledges were unloaded  
> and immediately put to work hauling stores to the new camp. As the  
> third, and largest, sledge was unloaded and hauled by twenty men  
> towards the shore, it broke through the ice and sank in sixty  
> fathoms of seawater.
>
> On the initial days of transfering supplies to depots nearer to the  
> pole, one machine gave out just beyond Safety Camp while the other  
> had to be abandoned a mile beyond Corner Camp. Scott's reliance on  
> ponies was also misguided. The ponies would prove an equally weak  
> link. It is true that Shackleton took nineteen ponies with him on  
> his NIMROD EXPEDITION, but only four survived to set out on the  
> journey towards the Pole. Of these, one had to be shot at the  
> second depot; another gave up
> at the third; and by the time they reached the foot of the  
> Beardmore Glacier only one was left. That one fell into a crevace.  
> Had the weather not been unusually mild, Shackleton would had  
> suffered as badly as Scott. He made the right decision to return  
> 100 miles short of the Pole.
>
> Amundsen, a very experienced Arctic explorer despite his character  
> flaws, had lived with the Esquimos and was well acquainted with the  
> rigors of overland Artic travel. His use of dogs and skis was  
> exactly right. The final dash to the Pole was largely without  
> incident. One of the reasons that he was reviled in the English  
> press is that HE ATE HIS DOGS as the load lightened. Or rather he  
> fed them to the remaining dogs. Unlike Indonesians, a proper  
> Englishman would as soon eat a dog as a Hindu would eat a cow. I  
> can testify that letters protesting Amundsen's butchery still come  
> into the London Times on the anniversary of Scott's death.
>
> My wife is Norwegian and comes from a sailing and shipyard family -  
> so every time we visit her home country we get a full rundown on  
> the lives and loves of the various explorers. Seems they were all a  
> pretty raunchy bunch, although gifted in many ways. As far as the  
> Norwegians are concerned, Nansen is at the top of the heap. But not  
> for his exploration. He was Norwegian cross country skiing champion  
> for eight years in a row and as an 18 year old set a speed skating  
> record for the mile. In Norway, ski champions are Tiger Woods, Babe  
> Ruth, Wayne Gretsky and Michael Jordan rolled into one. Nansen  
> trained as a neuro physiologist and published frequently in medical  
> journals. He was the first to cross Greenland on skis. He was a  
> staunch patriot and was instrumental in freeing Norway from Swedish  
> domination. Nansen was Norway's first ambassador to London. Finally  
> he won the Nobel Prize for his work with Russian refugees after  
> WW1. Who cares if he bonked Kathleen Scott, even through, at the  
> time,  he was married and had several children. Certainly not the  
> Norwegians. Unfortunately he never reached either pole.
>
> Amundsen is grudgingly given second place in Norway's pantheon of  
> polar explorers although, objectively speaking, his exploration  
> record is significantly greater than Nansen's. He was the first to  
> complete the Northern Passage, drifting and sailing from the North  
> Sea to the Bering Strait in a boat not much larger than my own  
> Willard motorsailer. The boat, the Geoa is on display outside the  
> Fram Museum. Inside the museum is, of course the Fram. The boat  
> that Nansen had constructed to sail to the North Pole and Amundsen  
> borrowed for his South Pole exploration. Amundsen's expedtion to  
> the South Pole was masterfully planned and executed. More  
> important, he succeeded while the much more elaborate Scott venture  
> failed. Norwegians tend to ignore the fact that he defrauded his  
> backers, violated his promise to Nansen, and had a very abrasive  
> personality that annoyed most of those who befriended him. In 1928  
> he died with his mucklucks on attempting to rescue the ill fated  
> Nobile "Italia" airship expedition to the North Pole. A fitting  
> passing.
>
> Shackleton seems to occupy a unique place in the annals of polar  
> exploration. At least according to the Norwegian scholars I met. He  
> is regarded as a man of unsurpassed courage, great leadership  
> ability but a lousy explorer. He was blessed with amazing luck  
> where it really counted. As a sailor, I am most impressed with his  
> 800 mile voyage though the Southern Ocean in a boat that I would  
> find unsuitable for an afternoon trip in the Irish Sea. On the  
> other hand, many would question the poor planning that led to the  
> loss of the Endurance and made such a sea voyage necessary.  
> Incidentally, Shackleton is not to be credited with the amazing  
> photos of the Endurance expedition. He wanted to abandon the heavy  
> glass plates and movie film. All credit must be given to Australian  
> photographer Frank Hurley who risked his life rescuing the films  
> from the sinking hull of the Endurance. He later convinced  
> Shackleton that the photos would be the only record of the failed  
> voyage.
>
> A few years ago, my birthday gift from my kids was a coffee table  
> book "South with the Endurance", a beautifully printed collection  
> of Frank Hurley's photographs of the voyage. If you don't have it,  
> you should get it.
>
> Scott is now regarded, at least in Norway, as the flip side of  
> Amundsen and Shackleton. A poor planner, an inept explorer, an  
> incompetent leader, and unlucky to boot. He is regarded as a  
> necessary contrast to the better qualities of the other guys. But  
> the Brits still revere him.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Larry Z
>
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