Antarctic artefacts return home after 60 years in the USA

Two historic Antarctic artefacts are on their way home after more than 60 years and a trip around the globe.

The box of cocoa tins and a Shell motor spirits box is an unlikely pairing but one of Antarctic significance.

The items, which were both crucial supplies on the expeditions during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, are now in the hands of Antarctic Heritage Trust in Christchurch New Zealand, thanks to former United States naval Captain Dave Baker.

“With the Antarctic Treaty now in place and the excellent work of the Trust caring for these expedition bases, I was comfortable in returning the items knowing that they will be preserved for posterity,” says Dave.

Trust Conservation Collections Manager Lizzie Meek says it is always an exciting day when items are returned to the organisation.

“We know there are still some artefacts out there that were collected from Antarctica during some of the early 1940s-60s missions to Antarctica. We always welcome their return, and have a careful process for ensuring they are conserved and then located back to the expedition bases,” says Lizzie.

The Trust cares for five expedition bases in Antarctica, including those of famous explorers Sir Ernest Shackleton and Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

It was when trapped outside in a storm in Antarctica during his voluntary service in 1956, that Navy Ensign Dave Baker’s story crossed paths with those of Shackleton and Scott.

Dave had volunteered to become a member of a rescue team (Naval parachutists, 30 dogs and three dog handlers) to be stationed at McMurdo Base from December 1955 – 1957.

“Our team made a trip across the sea ice from McMurdo to Cape Evans. It was intended to be an overnight trip, returning to the Navy’s base at Hut Point the following day,” says Dave.

However, the wind picked up, forcing the team to hunker down in their tents. On day three, Baker and his teammates decided to investigate the interior of Scott’s Hut ‘partly out of curiosity and because they might have to shelter there if the storm continued much longer.’

They pried open a window to catch a glimpse into a moment frozen in time.

“Below and in front of me was a long table. It appeared to have been recently used, as there were cups, some with frozen cocoa in them. Someone unfamiliar with the hut’s history might have assumed that the occupants had stepped out to return any minute,” says Dave.

The moment Dave refers to was the rescue of Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party in 1917, who boarded their ship the Aurora, leaving everything as it was found almost 40 years later.

Baker and his rescue team, deeming the hut a ‘sacred space’, left the scene as they found it. However, while looking for food stores outside the hut, Baker found the case of Fry’s cocoa and a wooden box, labelled “Shell Motor Spirits & Scott’s Antarctic Expedition 1910”.

Dave was inspired to return the artefacts to the Antarctic Heritage Trust.

“They belong to Captain Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and polar history, so they needed to go home,” says Dave.

Over the last sixty years he has used them as exhibits in lectures, speaking to tens of thousands of people, sharing his Antarctic experience with people often completely unfamiliar with polar history and unlikely to ever travel to Antarctica.

The United States and New Zealand Antarctic programmes have provided invaluable help with the logistics.

The artefacts will travel back to Scott’s Antarctic hut at Cape Evans with the Trust’s conservation team who return this season for their annual monitoring and maintenance programme.

Lizzie has a message for anyone else with Antarctic artefacts souvenired from the sites: “Get in touch. We’d love to hear from you and discuss how we can work together to add these important pieces of history back to the sites”.

ENDS

For more information, interviews or images please contact:

Clare Cummings
Great Scott Communications
0272468544
clare@greatpr.co.nz