THE SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE.
The Story
of Antarctic Exploration
Excerpt from Chapter XX: Early Expeditions of the Twentieth Century
by Hugh Robert Mill (1905)
 |
 |
[cropped from plate facing
p.418]
Professor
Dr. von Drygalski
Photograph
by Messrs Thomson, London
Click to enlarge
|
|
[p.420] The work of
organising the German expedition by Professor von Drygalski was greatly
helped by the active participation of Admiral Count Baudissin of the
German Admiralty, and by the enlightened action of Count Posadowsky,
the Imperial Home Secretary, who secured in April, 1899, a government
grant to cover the whole expense. The plans provided for one ship with
a supplementary station in Kerguelen Land where a scientific party was
to remain during the sojourn of the main body in the ice. The ship was
built at Kiel, entirely of timber, was modelled somewhat on the lines
of Nansen's famous vessel, the Fram, and rigged as a barquentine. She
received the appropriate and inspiring name of Gauss in memory of the
great German mathematician who had done so much to promote the theory
of terrestrial magnetism, and indirectly to foster the international
rivalry in south polar exploration sixty years before. The scientific
staff included as naturalist, Professor Vanhöffen, who had
been with Drygalski on his Greenland expedition and also on the
Valdivia; as surgeon, Dr. Hans Gazert; as geologist, Dr. Emil Philippi,
who had spent some time with Sir John Murray in the study of deep-sea
deposits; and as magnetician and meteorologist, Dr. Friedrich
Bidlingmaier. The captain of the ship was under the instructions of
Professor von Drygalski, as leader of the expedition; he was Captain
Hans Ruser of the Hamburg-American line, and had accompanied the
Valdivia as first officer on her short but brilliant cruise. The
subordinate officers and crew were carefully chosen, and ultimately
there were on board five members of the scientific staff, five
officers, and twenty-two men.
[p.421]
Although there were no naval officers or men in the party the Gauss was
privileged to sail under the Imperial ensign. She left Kiel on August
11th, 1901, and made a slow voyage to Cape Town, carrying out much
valuable oceanographical work on the way. It was not until December 7th
that the expedition left the Cape and, calling at Possession Islands in
the Crozets, by the way, anchored in Royal Sound, Kerguelen Land, on
the 31st. Rabbits, descended from ancestors which came over with the
Challenger, came hopping down to the beach to welcome the strangers of
whom they had no fear, and the small party of German scientific men
which had been landed some months previously by a steamer chartered in
Australia were found completing their observatory. The Gauss remained
for a month and then, after calling at Heard Island, she steered
south-eastward to investigate the region about 90º E., between
Knox Land, the most westerly reported with any confidence by Wilkes,
and Kemp Land. The parallel of 60° S. was crossed on February
12th, 1902, in 92° E., and icebergs were met with in
considerable numbers. On the 14th a sounding was obtained in 1730
fathoms within 60 miles of the position assigned by Wilkes to
Termination Land, but a close pack made it necessary to change the
course to southwest, and for two days progress was very slow, and no
land was seen. On the 19th soundings were suddenly struck in only 132
fathoms and the sea was clear of ice, except large bergs drifting
before a strong southeasterly wind.
|
 |
|
[reduced from plate facing
p.420]
The "Gauss" Under Sail
Photograph
supplied by
Professor E. von Drygalski
Click to enlarge |
Early on the morning of February 2lst,
1902, land was sighted, entirely covered with ice or snow and situated
almost on the Antarctic circle. It lay in the direction of Wilkes's
Termination Land, but Drygalski [p.422]
seemed doubtful whether it could have been visible from the most
westerly point reached by the Vincennes, and gives it no name on his
map. A severe storm came on; ice drifted round the Gauss and held her
fast; great icebergs came up and ringed her round and it was impossible
to get forward or to go back. Preparations had to be made for wintering
in the floe. A house was built out of solid blocks of ice to serve as a
magnetic observatory; an astronomical observatory was also built, and
meteorological instruments set up on the ice. After the middle of March
when the position of the ship seemed unlikely to alter, sledging
parties were sent out, and one of these travelling southward over the
ice reached the land in three days and a half, and discovered a hill
rising black and steep above the ice fifty miles from the ship. The
height of this hill was estimated at about 1,000 feet, and it was named
the Gaussberg. March 29th was a beautiful day, calm and clear. The
captive balloon was inflated, and Drygalski ascended to a height
exceeding 1,500 feet. He remained aloft for two hours photographing the
ice and examining the horizon. The high land to the east was seen to be
entirely ice-covered, and to the south the black cone of the Gaussberg
stood up from the margin of an ice-clad land which rose behind it to a
greater elevation and extended far to east and west. This was named
Kaiser Wilhelm II. Land.
Before winter set in a band of emperor
penguins appeared, floundering clumsily over the ice to examine the
strange creatures who had invaded their domain. Other sledging parties
went out and crossed the floe in various directions to the land, just
entering the Antarctic region proper which the Gauss, sealed in the
floe north of the circle, never penetrated. The winter was passed in
diligent [p.423]observations
of all the phenomena that could be studied. The days were short, but
the party were on the sunward side of the circle, and there was no
week-long darkness to contend with. The weather however was very bad;
tempestuous winds raged for a week at a time, whirling the copious
snowfall in fierce blizzards, and often threatening to tear the ship to
pieces, though the sea-ice was never cracked or even thrown into
dangerous pressure-ridges.
When spring came sledge-journeys were
resumed, but they were not for exploration so much as for research, and
the results have an importance which cannot be stated at once. No bare
land was seen except the solitary nunatak of the Gaussberg, and when
summer came all thoughts turned to the freeing of the ship. The ice was
from 15 to 20 feet thick, and blasting made no impression on it. A deep
trough was melted in the ice to the depth of six feet or more by the
heat of the sun beating down upon the black surface of a path of
cinders that had been spread from the ship to the edge of the floe for
that purpose, and after many days a storm came which first freed the
floe and set it adrift, then cracked it along the sun-wrought line of
weakness and the Gauss was free.
Burning the oily bodies of penguins as
fuel, the ship began to move on February 8th, 1903. For two months she
struggled in the ice, trying to work her way to the westward through
the drifting bergs and floes, and at length in longitude 80º
E. she gave up the attempt and struck northward into the open sea.
Oceanographical work was continued and Cape Town was not reached until
June 9th. Drygalski was anxious to spend another season in the
Antarctic in order to investigate the conditions between the newly
discovered Kaiser Wilhelm II. [p.424]
Land and Kemp Land; but an appeal to the authorities at home brought in
reply definite instructions to return, and the Gauss anchored in the
Elbe on November 24th, 1903. The Kerguelen party had suffered severely
on account of an outbreak of beri-beri, one of the scientific observers
died in the Isle of Desolation, and the life of another was saved with
difficulty. But the expeditions had amply fulfilled their primary
object of accumulating collections and observations which it will take
many years to work out fully.
From:
The
Siege of the South Pole: the Story of Antarctic Exploration, by Hugh
Robert Mill, publ. A. Rivers, Ltd. (1905) (source:
Digitized by Google)
See also:
