Artefacts Repatriated to Scott’s Terra Nova hut

The team repatriated several items to Scott’s Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans this season including an improvised sledge distance meter wheel once owned by George Murray Levick.

Levick was the surgeon, zoologist and a photographer on Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition 1910 – 1913. He was part of the Northern Party who built a hut and wintered at Cape Adare in 1911.

Following that winter, the Northern Party were collected by the Terra Nova and taken south down the coast to complete further geological work and surveys. On route to Evans Cove, where they were dropped off on 8 January 1912, they realised one of their standard sledging mileage recorders had been left behind, so the ship’s carpenter Davies made a replacement sledge meter wheel using part of a Venesta case and some hardwood. The Northern Party took this improvised sledge meter wheel with them for use on one of the two very over-loaded sledges they had with them during the extensive surveying work they carried out. On the other sledge they used a standard sledge meter wheel issued to them before leaving Cape Evans for Cape Adare.

The Northern Party were supposed to be collected a month later. However, because of the ice conditions, the ship was not able to pick them up as planned, and the party spent a miserable winter in a snow cave at Inexpressible Island, Terra Nova Bay; subsisting on seal meat.

The improvised sledge meter wheel was also likely attached to one of their sledges during the Northern Party’s self-rescue, a long trek south on meagre rations. They travelled some 200 miles (320km) along the coastline of McMurdo Sound in the spring of 1912, finally reaching the safety of the hut at Cape Evans on 7 November 1912, almost two years after their initial arrival at Cape Adare.

When the surviving members of Scott’s expedition left Antarctica on the Terra Nova in January 1913, Levick took the improvised sledge meter wheel with him. Over the years, the wheel has been passed down through Levick’s extended family and has been donated to the Trust by Ross and Bruce Bailey.

Collections Conservation Manager Lizzie Meek said, “We are very grateful to the donors we’ve worked with this season for the care they’ve taken of these artefacts over the years, and their willingness to assist us in returning them to the sites.

“We received the sledge distance meter wheel in excellent condition. Some historical damage to the timber construction required minimal stabilisation treatment, this was essentially surface cleaning and minor corrosion removal,” said Lizzie.

The Trust’s On-Ice conservation team placed the wheel in the mess-deck area of Scott’s Terra Nova hut, adjacent to other sledging equipment.

Also returned were a box of cocoa tins, which were placed in the Galley, and a Shell motor spirits box, donated by former United States naval Captain Dave Baker.