#polar stuff

[thehutpoint]

You know the heroic age of polar exploration lives rent free in your brain, when reading about a medieval Hussey Tower in Boston, Lincolnshire, UK, you immediately imagine that it is haunted by a very jolly ghost with freckles and contagious smile, who plays banjo and exclaims "Hooray!" a lot.

[worstjourney]

Polar STEAM views our differences with curiosity and seeks to broaden the reach of polar sciences.

If you are a writer/artist, and a US citizen, who wants to visit a polar region and tell the world about it, the National Science Foundation's program for getting you there has just opened for applications and will remain so until July 15th, 2025: https://polarsteam.info/application/

Applications from people who have a shovel-ready project and plan tend to be prioritised!

[sastrugie]

Top 5 expeditions and top 5 doomed expeditions :)

omg heidi WHY

ok i don't know enough explorations to the depth of mentioning here so I will just do 5 doomed explorations because lets be honest .. they were all doomed lol.

I am someone who gets into a polar expedition and then will stock to it, but hey I know everything about them lmao

OK first the ultimate love of my life. TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION 1910-1913

I don't have to tell you why I guess, but yeah the tragedy!? THE ANGST THE HOPELESSNESS THE FRIENDSHIP THE LOVE!?

i will never be over this tbh... OK MOVING ON

2. THE BELGICA 1897 - 1899 MY BELOVED AKA THE ONE WHERE THEY ALL TURNED MAD, also not really doomed in the sense of the word because everyone survived except for Danco :((( who died of sth not related to being in the antarctic ...

what I love about them is that they were literally ALL crazy even before going to the South Pole and pls read the book "Madhouse at the end of the World" its sublime comedy but you will also cry.

3. ENDURANCE 1914 - 1917

HONESTLY the probably most doomed on on paper, but with Shackleton as a leader they somehow managed to have not one single person dead eventhough their ship literally sank in the middle of the packice, which made them have to MANHAUL all their belongings to safety and then build a ship out of driftwood and sail ACROSS THE DRACE PASSAGE IN A LIFEBOAT AND CLIMB A VOLCANO TO GET TO SOME FISHERS HUT AND CALL FOR HELP. I did not make this up.

4. EREBUS AND TERROR 1845 AKA FRANKLINS LOST EXPEDITION AKA the most doomed one and also the most famous one I guess because they all died and their ships are now on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, also scientists reconstructed that they probably cannibalised the ones who died first that's how desperate and doomed they were.

if you are interested din this one please watch the TERROR its a miniseries and its amazing and there's a very wholesome and active fandom on this website :)

5. honestly I can't think of a specific one so I will just mention some

Metelitsa a soviet female cross arctic skiing expedition in the 70s ICONIC (Not doomed but needed to mention it because FEMALE POWER)

1596: Barentsz expedition to Novaya Zemlya (arctic Russia) this is an insane story, the men were forced to overwinter TWICE on this island because they wanted to find the north east passage and yeah it was the fucking 16th century... they had never seen a polar bear before and the diaries are insane.

The Denmark expedition (1906): basically Denmark needed to prove that Greenland is an island to claim the land and make it independent form the USA and so they mapped the country ONLY 2 MEN ALONE OF WHICH ONE OF THEM HAD NEVER BEEN TO THE ARCTIC BEFORE and they survived but they were forgotten by their crew or rather left behind (twice) and had to overwinter on the coast TWO YEARS and almost killed each other. Before and after picture of Eijnar Mikkelsen:

OK I CANT THINK OF MORE BUT I KNOW THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE ON THIS WEBSITE WHO KNOW SO MUCH MORE SO PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD <3 and thanks for asking!!!

[evonannoredars]

Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd (The Flight of the Eagle) - 1982, dir. Jan Troell

[madeofmorninglight]

i'm much happier than i look here, i got a job taking pictures of people at Dollywood. i'm just tranquil. (yesterday) 🐛🐛

[thehutpoint]

I have a bad habit of reading while eating. During today's dinner I opened a page about cryptid whales.

Thar she blows! (allegedly)

I am somewhat a fan of mysteries and cryptids, so it looked like a nice read. And obviously not connected to polar exploration, especially not to Terra Nova, right? Right?

Right?

Well, wrong. First article on the page, and what do I see?

So, ladies, gentlemen, gentlepersons and scientists, that Scott, the vicepresident and chairman of WWF, the man who wrote a foreword for the book in question is not just a Scott. He is THE Scott, Sir Peter Markham Scott, the only son of Robert Falcon Scott and his wife Kathleen. Terra Nova can find me anywhwhere, it seems and is like the Spanish Inquisition from the Monty Python skit: it appears when nobody expects it.

Feel warned, dearies. Entering the polar fandom is like entering the ice pack: it's easy to get into it, but you might not be able to exit.

[thehutpoint]

Pictured above: A group of gentlemen on the Quail Island (from left: Teddy Evans, Cecil Meares, Titus Oates, Robert Scott and Herbert Ponting) looking at the ponies, Kathleen Scott, trying to direct their attention on herself and two ponies one ow which is clearly pondering if he should smash Kathleen with his hind legs.

Titus started to butt heads with Scott pretty early on, namely when it came to buying the food for the ponies. Titus knew ponies need to eat well to be able to work well, in any climate, let alone in such harsh one as in Antarctic. Terra Nova, that lovely, rusty bathtub, had limited load space and in that space they had to fit not only the forage, but also coal, lots of equipment, food for humans and for dogs, scientific instruments and three motosledges. Scott decided arbitrarily they could take 30 tons of forage, Oates demanded forty five. They argued for an hour, before Scott decided to sacrifice some coal sacks to fit the forage Titus demanded. Yes, my man was at times pigheaded more than Tolkien's dwarf, especially when it was about his animals. He wrote to his momma about The Forage Debate (all quotes from Smith's "I am just going outside"):

I have had a great struggle with Scott about the horse forage. He told me I was a 'something' nuisance. He has given way which shows he is open to reason, but they will have to leave some coal behind to get the extra forage in. I have told him that we shall have all our ponies by the time we start laying depots. I had to say this to get my argument about the forage, but it has increased my anxiety.

On the left Titus Oates anxieting intensely over the ponies that were being loaded onto the ship. Yes, Mr. Stoic seemed to have an awful lot of anxieties, which I completely understand.

That was not the only clash with Scott over the pony food. Scott tried to cheapskate a bit by buying some cheapo compressed fodder, but Titus wanted linseed meal. It was more expensive, but also more calorical and so he wasn't budging. Probably in order to avoid another hour long argument Oates suggested asking Birdie Bowers for his opinion on the matter. Scott who liked Birdie a lot, agreed to it. Birdie wrote to his momma about it this way:

When my opinion was asked (knowing nothing of horse fodder) I got a wink from Oates and I said I was sure nothing could equal the linseed meal and to O's great delight the motion was carried on the spot.

But, ladies, gentlemen and scientists, it's not the end of Birdie's help in the matters of horse food. Titus, still unsatisfied with the amount of forage bought two tons out of his pocket. It needed to be loaded onto Terra Nova, in secret from Scott, so Birdie, insanely talented when it came to playing Tetris with supplies in Terra Nova's holds made a little miracle and managed to stuff these extra tons of forage inside the ship.

Miracle maker and his pony.

[thehutpoint]

So I had absolutely insane dream. I was in the US in Ye Olde Times, maybe 1950s, maybe 1930s, not sure. After running away from the mafia shooting in some public building, I bumped into Scott on the street. Yes, Robert Falcon Scott, but not the historical version of him. It was the Martin Shaw's TLPOTE version of him, with this porcelain skin and insane lashes.

So we somehow ended in a cheap hotel room, talking. Scott was complaining a lot, about his fame of a polar explorer being gone, about financial hardships (I think he was touring with lectures to earn some money), about press being unfair. Then he mentioned that everyone else from Terra Nova was in way better situation than him, and Billy actually refused to reply to his letters, choosing instead to reignite his old friendship with Shackles.

That's when I decided to touch the most interesting topic for me. Because, my dearies, I was of course looking for Titus Oates, who after returning from the expedition, vanished from the face of the Earth. So I asked Scott, who sat slumped on the bed, reliving being dumped by dr Wilson, if he knew anything about Titus. Did he maybe contact Oates after expedition...? Oh, dearies... Scott immediately got furious, tomato red in the face, yelling at me "Why would I want any contact with that bloody nuisance of a man?!" A bit miffed that I was not getting any close to finding Titus, I managed to calm him down.

Then Scott started to complain again, this time about Kathleen, being so cold, not letting him into her bed anymore, about himself feeling so, so lonely... All of it while fondling me. "All right" I thought "dude is not my type, but he is not exactly ugly, I haven't shagged for so long, let's give him some nice pity banging, maybe that will get him in a better mood and make him more willing to talk about Titus?"

Ah, but misery was following Scott relentlessly. He jizzed in his pants while trying to unbuckle his belt, before I managed to pull my undies down. Ouch.