Archive for category: Antarctic Blog

The tins are from a box that was found under a bed at Cape Adare and came from Borchgrevink’s expedition.

Before we opened the wooden box the label on the top and the stenciled information on the sides told us much of what we needed to know about the history of the case and what it contained – six dozen tins of jam.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

The box had been found under a bed at Cape Adare and came from Borchgrevink’s 1898-1900 British Antarctic Expedition. Borchgrevink is named on the lid in bold stenciling, as is Sir George Newnes, the wealthy magazine publisher who donated funds for the expedition.

The box had never been opened but as it was oozing sticky, sugary syrup conservator Martin took the lid off and we were astonished to see that it looked as if the tins had been wrapped and packed in sawdust only the week before! Even the sawdust smelt fresh and piney.

Underneath their wrappers many of the tins were in very good condition, almost like new, and have a beautiful iridescent, blue hand-painted lacquer coating contrasting with the decorative red and gold labels – we all wished we still had tins like this.

Unpacking and counting the tins we noted the eight flavours  – raspberry, gooseberry, cherry and currant, plum, apricot, raspberry and currant, strawberry and my favourite, black currant. Just visible on the paper label on the box lid was a hand-written record of the contents including 9 raspberry and 12 gooseberry, and indeed the tins inside tallied exactly with the list.

We opened those that were leaking and emptied out the jam, keeping samples for future research, before treating the tins. All the jams looked new, smelt sweet and delicious, and were gorgeous colours. The strawberry and black currant even had little berries in them. But no, however tempting they looked, we didn’t try them!

All the Heroic Era Antarctic expeditions had to take huge quantities of food supplies with them, and we know that Borchgrevink took enough to last him three years including a ton of marmalade, a ton of Irish butter, and five tons of bread. Their daily menus appear to have been quite repetitive and in his diary Borchgrevink notes that every day their lunch would include cocoa, cabin biscuits, jam and marmalade.

As with much of Borchgrevink’s supplies the jam came from The Military Equipment Stores and Tortoise Tents Company but unfortunately the company no longer exists.

Likewise, the manufacturer of the jam tins, C&E Morton, who specialized in preserved foods closed its last factory in Lowestoft in 1988. But in 1897 it had factories in Aberdeen, Falmouth and Millwall; and left a sporting legacy as it was the Morton’s tinsmiths who, in 1885, established the Millwall Football Club.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Jams from Cape Adare hut – there are seven varieties.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Jams in their original packaging found in the Cape Adare hut artefacts.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Examples of the jams found at Cape Adare hut.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Conserved box of jams.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Lid of the box.

Among the snow melters and assorted polar paraphernalia, several tins of baking powder have lent an unusual touch of domesticity. The tins are handsome, wrapped in pale green paper with printed representations of prize medals won at different world exhibitions and detailed instructions on how to make several baked goods.

And for anyone interested in turn-of-the-century baking, the instructions are very polite, if not always too helpful. Bakers are recommended to use, for bread: ‘…a tea-spoonful heaped of the powder and the usual amount of salt’. How much the ‘usual amount’ actually is, it doesn’t say.

Further, the bread should be mixed dry before adding about half a pint of cold water, kneaded as little as possible and put into a previously warmed tin. ‘It is desirable that it should be put into the oven with as little delay as possible, but should the time exceed twenty minutes it is most important that the oven should be sufficiently hot. It is recommended that parties should not try large loaves until they have first accustomed themselves to small ones or tea cakes.’

Have you lost your grandmammy’s recipe for Norfolk Dumplings, or perhaps like me have never heard of them? Never fear, C & E Morton Baking Powder is here to help. According to the label : ‘Prepare as for bread, put into boiling water immediately, and boil twenty minutes without taking the lid off.’

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Baking powder

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Baking powder

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Baking powder

And for anyone who thought self-raising flour was some sort of modern new- fangled thing to be viewed with deep suspicion, we have a crate of Limmer’s Self-Raising Flour tins from depots at Butter Point, left there in 1910 by Scott’s Northern Party.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

As with the baking powder there are recipes for several baked goods on the back, from Fine Bread to Scones and Boiled Dumpling. Sadly as the tins have been stored in a crate, outside, in one of the harshest environments on the earth, they are somewhat difficult to read; but a recipe for plum cake can be made out by the eagle eyed: ‘To 1 lb. Self-Raising Flour and ¼ lb. best Butter, ¼ Sugar, ½ lb Currants, 1 oz. Candied Peel, ¼ oz. Mixed Spice together, mix lightly with a half-a-pint of Cold Water: add two eggs and bake at once in a moderate oven. For a superior Cake use Milk instead or water.’

Sound tempting? We recommend trying it with tinned Fry’s Cocoa powder, C & E Mortons Essence of Vanilla or Lemon and tinned Bird’s Egg Powder (not actually made from eggs).

Preparations for all polar explorations must be meticulous and there are a very few things that you can forget to pack for a major expedition to Antarctica and think: “Oh well, I’m sure we will get on without it.”

Soap, while not necessary for survival, is still not one of them; but it was in fact what happened to the Borchgrevink Southern Cross expedition.

According to Hugh Blackwell Evans’ account the expedition found, once installed in Cape Adare and when the Southern Cross had departed, that apart from a few bars for washing and shaving that the expedition members had packed privately, there was no soap to be found. Ten men were to live together in a space measuring 15ft x 15ft for a year without soap.

Canterbury Museum

Borchgrevink’s Southern Cross Expedition 1898-1900 The expedition members pictured just before spending the first winter on the Antarctic continent, 1899.

Apart from the obvious discomfort this might seem trivial but judging by the amount of personal grooming objects, beard comb, tooth brush and hair brush, which were found in the hut, personal hygiene was not something taken lightly and cleanliness was considered an aspect of moral character. During Scott’s Terra Nova expedition cleanliness was considered, however erroneously, as a cure against scurvy.

It was not until spring that a cake of dog soap was discovered, to great joy of the hut’s by now smelly inhabitants.  “… without this important necessity you can imagine what a frightful state the house and clothing generally got.” They had coped with the lack of soap by only washing once a week on Sundays, and then with as little soap as possible. Evans also mentions that they could not wash their clothes, both for lack of soap and water. This may or may not be connected to Borchgrevink’s cryptic comment in his account about turning their shirts in celebration of the New Year.

The dog soap mentioned is likely to be carbolic soap, derived from coal tar and intended for killing fleas as previously dogs had been washed with household lye soap.

However, in spite of forgetting the basic necessity of soap there are a few simply delightful bottles of Norwegian Eau de Cologne, which someone did have the foresight to bring along.

The bottles are in transparent glass with a long thin neck and a geometric shaped body, and what remains of the labels shows printed text on a decorative background of flowers.  Only one of the bottles has a stopper, bulbous cork which appears to have been whittled by knife. It is not known if they were packed as part of the expedition by an individual member, but five bottles of cologne is a plentiful supply for just one person. Although surrounded by penguins and unwashed men it might just have come in handy.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Eau de Cologne bottle produced by Frode Lieungh in Oslo.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Note the elaborately decorated label.