News Story Archives

‘Still Life’ Opens at the Korea National Maritime Museum

November 26, 2018 - Media Releases, News Story

Antarctic Heritage Trust is delighted to have their ‘Still Life’, which is a unique audio-visual immersive experience that allows you to ‘step inside’ the historic huts of the British Antarctic explorers, open as part of the Korea National Maritime Museum’s new Antarctic exhibition.

Complementing the experience are Jane Ussher’s large scale photographs. The exhibition runs at the museum in Busan until March 2019.

Jane Ussher

Visitors enjoy the Still Life audio-visual immersive experience

More than 100 years ago famous explorers Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton travelled to Antarctica to explore the continent and carry out scientific experiments. They constructed three simple wooden huts as bases that still stand today, packed full of objects the men left behind. This remarkable legacy is cared for by the Antarctic Heritage Trust who are world leaders in cold-climate conservation.

Jane Ussher

Artefacts on display in the Still Life Exhibition at the Korean National Maritime Museum

A century on, renowned New Zealand photographer Jane Ussher photographed the huts in intimate detail, creating an extraordinary record of the explorers’ lives. Her evocative photographs capture the conditions and isolation the men endured exploring Antarctica.

Still Life was originally developed by Antarctic Heritage Trust and Jane Ussher in conjunction with the Christchurch City Council, New Zealand.

The ribbon cutting ceremony marks the opening of ‘Still Life’

Jane Ussher

The Still Life audio-visual immersive experience includes photographer Jane Ussher’s large-scale photographs

Ardi Barnard – Deputy Head of Mission NZ Embassy Seoul, PHotographer Jane Ussher, Trust Executive Director Nigel Watson, and Scott Davis – Spyglass

Jane Ussher

A visitor enjoys the large-scale ‘Still Life’ photographs

Sugar Sugar

November 22, 2018 - Antarctic Blog

Carbs, fatty protein, sugar, fat, a bit more sugar – sound like a recipe for happiness or hospitalisation? The diet of the sledging man in the early 1900’s revolved around a pretty limited menu. Here’s what Campbell’s Northern Party were eating in 1911:

Food	Oz/per person per day	grams
Biscuit	17	482
Pemmican	8	227
Chocolate	3.14	89
Sugar	2.16	61
Cheese	1.5	43
Raisins	1.5	43
Cocoa	0.7	19.9

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Heritage carpenter Martin conserves a sledge box

That’s only around 960g of food per day. Per day! When you are hauling your share of an 1163lb (1/2 a tonne, or 528kg) sled for at least eight hours a day. To put it another way, your breakfast and lunch and dinner combined is an 8oz wodge of meat with a 25% fat to meat ratio; a couple of chunky sized Cadbury’s chocolate bars, a couple of packets of crackers, a quarter cup of sugar and one of those small boxes of raisins you used to pack in your school lunchbox. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day, over and over again.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Sugar was a particular treat on the Ice in the early 1900’s

Sugar was a highly prized commodity, and it was served out in lumps. For a special treat on your birthday, you might get an extra six lumps of sugar and another serving of chocolate. In the AHT conservation lab this week we have been working on some worn and weathered boxes of Tate sugar, and wondering if they ate the six lumps in one go or saved them up for a morale booster during the long hours of sledging. We know what we’d do, how about you?

An Update from Port Lockroy

November 15, 2018 - Antarctic Blog, Conserve, UKAHT

Trust Programme Manager Al Fastier joined the UKAHT Port Lockroy Conservation Team under the Trust’s partnership to share its conservation knowledge and expertise developed during the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project. The team will spend five weeks at Port Lockroy and will undertake emergency repairs, do a full architectural survey, install solar power and schedule future conservation work.

The historic Base A, also known as Bransfield House, was built at Port Lockroy in 1944 as part of Operation Tabarin, a secret war time operation to establish a permanently occupied British base in Antarctica. The base was first conserved in 1996 and is now a living museum, a post office and a shop selling Antarctic souvenirs, which helps to fund the conservation project.

UKAHT

Base A at Port Lockroy

Challenges include living on a small 3 square acre island, working within a Gentoo penguin colony, snow and, at times, rain. Al said it is a fantastic location to work, with this historic hut being surrounded by snowcapped mountains rising steeply from the sea and with the hut that is rich in artefacts giving the site a real spirit of place and a strong connection to the past.

Antarctic Field Training for Beginners

November 14, 2018 - Antarctic Blog

This has been a busy second week, with a lot of the work focussed around the TAE/IGY Hut. However, the highlight for me this week was attending Antarctica New Zealand’s Antarctic Field Training (AFT). This is a course which all event members participate in and is designed to equip people with the basic skills required for overnight camping in the Antarctic.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Conservation Ambassador Mike Gillies in front of Mount Erebus

We began by setting off under the leadership of Chris, our resident West Coast ANTNZ field trainer, in a Hagglund along the Ross Ice Shelf. After about half an hour of putting along we reached the AFT camping site. There were seven other participants on the course, all from a range of backgrounds and nationalities: scientists studying seals, a member of the Antarctic Society, and a new ANTNZ staff member.

Mike Gillies

Field training camp

Our first task was to erect the Scott Polar tents; a tent design which hasn’t changed a whole lot in a hundred years. The next task was building a camp kitchen, which would also allow the group to get out of the wind and weather. We decided upon the ‘spa pool’ design. In other words, dig a round pit with a bench seat big enough to sit a dozen people, and then cut blocks of snow to build a wall surrounding the pit to keep the wind away. The group ‘dug into it’ and after an hour we had our home-away-from-home!

Mike Gillies

Having a well deserved rest after building the camp kitchen

Dinner was cooked on Primus stoves; all manner of dehydrated backcountry packet meals were on offer – Sweet and Sour Lamb, Beef Curry, Chicken Tikka Masala – yum, yum! The cloud cleared during dinner and provided a great opportunity for taking photos of Mt Erebus and the surrounding landscape.

Mike Gillies

Camping out in front of Mount Erebus

Then it was time for bed. Now for the million dollar question…? Was I warm enough while camping at -15C on the ice. Yep, absolutely. ANTNZ has a sleeping bag arrangement which is second to none, and if anything, I was too hot and wouldn’t have minded if the temperature dropped a little more during the night!

Mike Gillies

Time out in the camp kitchen

The next day it was up for a quick cuppa and porridge. After breakfast we packed up camp and headed back to Scott Base. What a great experience.

Conservation Assessment – Context and Aims

March 4, 2020 - Antarctic Blog, Share, UKAHT

‘What on earth are you doing here?’ asked a surprised friend of mine who arrived at Port Lockroy as a tourship safety guide, and bumped into me in the hallway of Bransfield House.

Antarctic Twitching

February 24, 2020 - Antarctic Blog, Share, UKAHT

It seems like the more time you spend observing wildlife, the more there is to observe and the more interesting you find them.

Working in the Field

February 17, 2020 - Antarctic Blog, Share, UKAHT

Working for hours at a time in sub-zero temperatures when you are cataloguing means you move very little.

Tutti Frutti

February 12, 2020 - Antarctic Blog, Share, UKAHT

My experience of the Antarctic Expedition ships we travelled on, is that they go to great lengths to keep their guests happy and healthy. The hospitality on board from the crew is often exceptional, and I was struck by the enjoyment and creativity they brought to their work.

Logistics and Delays

February 6, 2020 - Antarctic Blog, Share, UKAHT

Sometimes getting to Antarctica is as simple as getting on a plane in New Zealand and stepping off 5 hours later into sub zero temperatures. This year’s work expedition to Port Lockroy, (the British base on the Antarctic Peninsula managed by the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust) was a whole other story.

Antarctic Conservation Season Update June 2022

June 7, 2022 - Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project News, Conserve, News Story, Uncategorized

The 2021-22 summer Antarctic season saw a seven-person conservation team spend nearly two months working on an extended monitoring and maintenance programme at the Ross Island explorer bases of Robert Falcon Scott at Cape Evans and Hut Point, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s base at Cape Royds, and Sir Edmund Hillary’s hut at Pram Point.

‘Still Life’ Opens at the Korea National Maritime Museum

Sugar Sugar

An Update from Port Lockroy

Antarctic Field Training for Beginners

Antarctic Conservation Season Update June 2022

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