Scott's Hut | |
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Location of Scott's Hut in Antarctica | |
Coordinates: 77°38′10″S166°25′04″E / 77.636051°S 166.417646°E | |
Country | New Zealand |
Location in Antarctica | Cape Evans Ross Island Antarctica |
Administered by | Terra Nova Expedition |
Established | 18 January 1918 |
Named for | Captain Robert Falcon Scott |
Population | |
• Total |
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Type | All year-round |
Period | Annual |
Status | Restored and preserved |
Scott's Hut is a building located on the north shore of Cape Evans on Ross Island in Antarctica. It was erected in 1911 by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913 (also known as the Terra Nova Expedition) led by Robert Falcon Scott.
In selecting a base of operations for the 1910–1913 Expedition, Scott rejected the notion of reoccupying the hut he had built by McMurdo Sound during the Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904. This first hut was located at Hut Point, 20 km south of Cape Evans. Two factors influenced this decision. One was that the hut was extremely cold for living quarters and the other was that Scott's ship, the Discovery , had been trapped by sea ice at Hut Point, a problem he hoped to avoid by establishing his new base farther north.
Some confusion arises because Discovery Hut can technically be referred to as Scott's hut, in that his expedition built it, and it was his base ashore during the 1901–1904 expedition, but the title Scott's Hut popularly belongs to the building erected in 1911 at Cape Evans.
Scott's Hut was prefabricated in England before being brought south by ship. It is rectangular, 50 feet (15 m) long and 25 feet (7.6 m) wide. Insulation was provided by seaweed sewn into a quilt, placed between double-planked inner and outer walls. The roof was a sandwich of three layers of plank and two layers of rubber ply enclosing more quilted seaweed. Lighting was provided by acetylene gas, and heating came from the kitchen and a supplementary coal-burning stove.
Apsley Cherry-Garrard wrote that the hut was divided into separate areas for sleeping and working by a bulkhead made of boxes of stores. A stables building (for nineteen Siberian ponies), approximately 50 by 16 feet (15.2 by 4.9 m), was subsequently attached to the north wall of the main building. A utility room, approximately 40 by 12 feet (12.2 by 3.7 m), was also added later, built around the original small porch at the southwest end of the main building.
Considerable effort was made to insulate the building, and to extract the maximum amount of heat from the flues from the stove and the heater, based on lessons learned from the Discovery Hut. Terra Nova expeditioners described the hut as being warm to the point of being uncomfortable.[ citation needed ]
A cross is erected on a hill behind Scott's Hut at Cape Evans, but this is not connected to Captain Scott, having been erected in memory of the three members of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party, who died nearby. The cross erected in memory of Captain Scott and his polar companions is to be found atop Observation Hill.[ citation needed ]
During the winter of 1911, 25 men of the Terra Nova shore party lived in the hut. From here Scott and his men set out on the ultimately fatal trek to the South Pole. Following the failure of Scott's southern party to return, several men remained behind for a further winter (1912) in order to search for the bodies the next spring. In 1913, with the Terra Nova expedition over, it was left well supplied with stores in the way of food and oil, and a certain amount of coal.
The hut was reused from 1915 to 1917 by several of Shackleton's Ross Sea party after the Aurora, which was to have been the permanent winter quarters, broke adrift in May 1915, and went north with the ice, unable to return. The hut became the permanent living quarters for the ten marooned men, and thanks to the stores, they were able to sustain life in comparative comfort, supplementing these stores from Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds. In January 1917, after Shackleton had rescued the survivors, he had the hut put in order and locked up. [1]
Although abandoned from 1917, the hut and its contents are remarkably well preserved today due to the consistently sub-freezing conditions.
After 1917, the hut remained untouched until 1956, when US expeditioners dug it out of the snow and ice. It was found to be in a remarkable state of preservation, and included many artifacts from both the earlier expeditions. While some artifacts were taken as souvenirs at the time (and since), this hut has remained largely as it was in 1917. [2]
New Zealand and the UK have undertaken responsibility at various times since the 1970s to restore (largely by removing snow and ice) both Scott's hut and Discovery Hut. [3] [4]
While the preservation of food in the freezing temperatures and dry climate has been noted, bacterial decay still occurs. Visitors describe the seal meat preserved at the Discovery Hut as smelling 'quite rancid', and some have expressed concerns that the fabric of these huts are being affected by fungal decay. [5] [6]
In 2016 there was a preservation project, by photographic and laser measurements for the entire house and the surrounding area. Then this data became a 3D model, and open for public virtual tour. [7] [8]
Both Scott's Hut and Shackleton's Hut have been included on the World Monuments Watch. Shackleton's was included in 2004 and 2006, and Scott's in 2008. [9]
The hut has been designated an Antarctic Historic Site or Monument (HSM 16), following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. [10]
Ross Island is an island in Antarctica lying on the east side of McMurdo Sound and extending 43 nautical miles from Cape Bird on the north to Cape Armitage on the south, and a like distance from Cape Royds on the west to Cape Crozier on the east. The island is entirely volcanic. Mount Erebus, 3,795 metres (12,451 ft), near the center, is an active volcano. Mount Terror, 3,230 metres (10,600 ft), about 20 nautical miles eastward, is an extinct volcano. Mount Bird rises to 1,765 metres (5,791 ft) just south of Cape Bird. Ross Island lies within the boundary of Ross Dependency, an area of Antarctica claimed by New Zealand.
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Admiral Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, was a Royal Navy officer and Antarctic explorer.
The DiscoveryExpedition of 1901–1904, known officially as the British National Antarctic Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since the voyage of James Clark Ross sixty years earlier (1839–1843). Organized on a large scale under a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), the new expedition carried out scientific research and geographical exploration in what was then largely an untouched continent. It launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Robert Falcon Scott who led the expedition, Ernest Shackleton, Edward Wilson, Frank Wild, Tom Crean and William Lashly.
The NimrodExpedition of 1907–1909, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton and his second time to the Continent. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to reach the South Pole. This was not attained, but the expedition's southern march reached a Farthest South latitude of 88° 23' S, just 97.5 nautical miles from the pole. This was by far the longest southern polar journey to that date and a record convergence on either Pole. A separate group led by Welsh Australian geology professor Edgeworth David reached the estimated location of the South Magnetic Pole, and the expedition also achieved the first ascent of Mount Erebus, Antarctica's second highest volcano.
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The Terra NovaExpedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objectives. Scott wished to continue the scientific work that he had begun when leading the Discovery Expedition from 1901 to 1904, and wanted to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole.
Victor Lindsey Arbuthnot Campbell was an English Royal Navy officer and Antarctic explorer.
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Cape Evans is a rocky cape on the west side of Ross Island, Antarctica, forming the north side of the entrance to Erebus Bay.
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Cape Royds is a dark rock cape forming the western extremity of Ross Island, facing on McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (BrNAE) (1901–1904) and named for Lieutenant Charles Royds, Royal Navy, who acted as meteorologist on the expedition. Royds subsequently rose to become an Admiral and was later Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, London. The cape is the site of Shackleton's Hut, the expedition camp of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–09.
Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh was a British Merchant Navy officer and Antarctic explorer who commanded the Ross Sea party as part of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917. The Ross Sea party's mission was to support Shackleton's proposed transcontinental march by laying supply depots along the latter stages of the march's intended route. In the face of persistent setbacks and practical difficulties, Mackintosh's party fulfilled its task, although he and two others died in the course of their duties. Mackintosh's first Antarctic experience was as second officer on Shackleton's Nimrod expedition, 1907–1909. Shortly after his arrival in the Antarctic, a shipboard accident destroyed his right eye, and he was sent back to New Zealand. He returned in 1909 to participate in the later stages of the expedition; his will and determination in adversity impressed Shackleton, and led to his Ross Sea party appointment in 1914.
Ernest Edward Mills Joyce AM was a Royal Naval seaman and explorer who participated in four Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, in the early 20th century. He served under both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. As a member of the Ross Sea party in Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Joyce earned an Albert Medal for his actions in bringing the stricken party to safety, after a traumatic journey on the Great Ice Barrier. He was awarded the Polar Medal with four bars, one of only two men to be so honoured, the other being his contemporary, Frank Wild.
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Commander Joseph Russell Stenhouse, DSO, OBE, DSC, RD, RNR (1887–1941) was a Scottish-born seaman, Royal Navy Officer and Antarctic navigator, who commanded the expedition vessel SY Aurora during her 283-day drift in the ice while on service with the Ross Sea Party component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914–17. After Aurora's escape from the ice he brought her safely to New Zealand, but was thereafter replaced as the vessel's commander. He later served with distinction in the Royal Navy during both World Wars.
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