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| Le Commandant Charcot - wow what a monster! |
Tomorrow we continue our ‘exploration’ of Antarctica this time on board
Le Commandant Charcot. This new rather luxurious French icebreaker is named for one of Antarctica’s legendary French, explorers Jean-Baptiste Charcot. From historian Nina Gallo’s lectures on our last voyage, we had learnt a little about Jean-Baptiste and his scientific explorations particularly around the Antarctic Peninsula aboard his ship
Pourquoi pas? (‘Why not?’ I love that name). His discoveries were significant. From one of his expeditions he produced 8 volumes of scientific writings.
As we discovered on our Antarctic Peninsular expedition, as well as on our voyage to the Ross Sea with historian David Harrowfield ‘In the wake of Scott and Shackleton’ in 2020, Antarctic exploration cannot be separated from the brave/crazy/daring souls who uncovered swathes of this last and vast mysterious continent, the land at the bottom of the world. Their experiences were epic. People like Charcot, Bellingshausen, Ross, Amundsen, a number of Australians, and others left their names everywhere – islands, seas, glaciers, ice shelfs - and their expeditions generated legends that told of their courage and amazing feats. Feats which continue to excite the curious, like me! Over the last few weeks, we had followed Shackleton’s incredible journey to rescue himself and the crew of his ship, the ‘Endurance’, after it became locked in an icefloe in the Weddell Sea. In fact, we sailed almost in his wake from the Weddell Sea via Elephant Island to South Georgia where he recruited assistance from whalers at Stromness to rescue his crew on Elephant Island and on the northern coast of South Georgia.
Shackleton's was an epic journey which is well documented, but it is a story of survival rather than discovery per se. His expedition, the Trans-Antarctic Expedition, failed and the Ross Sea party, an essential part of the expedition whose task it was to lay, and succeeded in laying, a series of supply depots from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier - proved ultimately without purpose.
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| The ill-fated Trans-Antarctic Expedition |
The Ross Sea party’s journey was also a tragic episode and fraught with mishap. The final horror was that their ship, the Aurora, became locked in an icefloe which broke off from the main ice sheet, and was torn from its moorings. The ocean currents then took the ship further away from the sledging parties marooned on shore and drifted for over six months before breaking free of the ice. The Aurora's damaged rudder forced her to return to New Zealand rather than returning for the poor stranded shore party. The remaining Ross Sea shore party survived many challenges including extreme weather, illness, and the deaths of three of its members, but managed to carry out its mission during its second Antarctic season – sadly to no avail. The entire expedition was a tragic failure. In spite of the hardship of travelling to the Antarctic, explorers have continued to tackle the wild seas and weather that circle the continent.
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| Unexplored Antarctica: between two continents |
But enough! I am at risk of becoming lost in a half-baked micro-historic treatise so I will get back to the purpose of this chat, our upcoming expedition aboard the icebreaker, Le Commandant Charcot. We are setting off in the ‘footsteps’ (perhaps ‘wake’ is the better word) of some great Antarctic explorers on a rather exciting semi-circumnavigation of Antarctica. We will sail from Ushuaia at the far southern end of the South American continent west to New Zealand which is part of the (submerged) continent of Zealandia. We will be at sea for 4 weeks sailing via many mighty seas and ice-bound islands.
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