#antarctic explorers

[philtrashnumberunus]

top gear as south pole explorers

Jeremy Clarkson as Robert Falcon Scott

exceedingly british

refuses to adapt

somehow the famous one despite his idiotic decisions

doomed

"i will not be beaten by a dog" - actual jeremy clarkson quote

Richard Hammond as Ernest Shackleton

fan favorite

any problem can be fixed with a little elbow grease

plucky and indomitable spirit

allegedly contagious smile

James May as Roald Amundsen

indie fan favorite

happy to adapt to native technology

no-nonsense except when he's being sporting

underdog

[anadequatesir]

I wrote another polar vampire story, woo!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Apsley Cherry-Garrard/Robert Falcon Scott/Edward Adrian Wilson, E, 5952 words

A collection of documents relating to the return of Captain Scott and his companions from the South Pole in the spring of 1912. Something is different about them.

[turnbullephemera]

The cigarette company John Player & Sons issued this cigarette card as one of a set of 25 cards relating to polar exploration. A list of all 25 cards can be seen here. Ernest Shackleton is well-known as an Antarctic explorer, who went on Scott's first Antarctic expedition. He later led the `Nimrod' and `Endurance' expeditions.

John Player & Sons Ltd: Lieut Sir E.H. Shackleton, C.V.O. [1915].

Eph-A-PCC-1915-01-24

[hesokuri-wars]

Dayon and Dekapan from The Thing event

[gwydionmisha]

Frost Bite: When Sub-Zero Temperatures Shattered an Antarctic Explorer's Teeth

“Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised,” he later wrote.

[goldenpolar]

Watch given to marine sergeant William Cunningham by Francis Crozier in recognition of the sergeant's service on HMS Terror during Ross's Antarctic expedition. Crozier had owned the watch for years before giving it away as a token of esteem. Crozier and Ross are two of the few explorers who would see both polar regions. They were unable to land on the Seventh Continent, but had circumnavigated it.

[girlwithlandscape]

Men go out into the void spaces of the world for various reasons. Some are actuated simply by a love of adventure, some have the keen thirst for scientific knowledge, and others again are drawn away from the trodden paths by the ‘lure of little voices,’ the mysterious fascination of the unknown.

Ernest Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic

[goldenpolar]

A rather dashing portrait of Sir James Clark Ross. As indicated by the inclusion of Polaris in the upper right corner and the instrument in the lower right, this painting commemorates his fixing of the North Magnetic Pole as it rested on the Boothia Peninsula in 1831.

I believe most are aware of it, but for those who aren’t the magnetic poles are not fixed points but shift with the Earth’s irregular rotation. Earth doesn’t really rotate smoothly as portrayed on TV and movies, there’s a slight wobble to it, something it will take a geologist or astronomer to explain in further detail. The pull of magnetism at these points is so strong compasses become useless, a fact any reader of polar exploration will come across when looking at the sources. This leads me to that instrument on the bottom of the painting- the dip circle. Though I don’t have the knowledge of geomagnetism to explain exactly how it works, I do know this was the type of instrument Ross used to fix the magnetic pole. Anyone who knows a lot more about geomagnetism feel free to elaborate on it.

I may not know much about it, but Ross was skilled in it. He had worked on terrestrial magnetism since his first arctic voyage with his uncle Sir John Ross in 1818 and throughout his career became a trusted expert on the science. Geomagnetism was important to a seafaring nation like Great Britain since knowledge of it was needed to improve existing compass technology and hence navigation. With this objective in mind, Ross’ Antarctic voyage of 1839 to 1843 in the Erebus and Terror was undertaken with the primary goal of fixing the South Magnetic Pole. This goal was unfortunately not achieved due to difficulty of maneuvering ships powered only by sail through the Antarctic pack ice and making a landing.