Archive for category: News Story

Conservator Ciarán shares his story about coming full circle on his conservation journey with tins of Fry’s Pure Cocoa.

It was during my conservation training at Cardiff University in 2008-9 that I first heard about Antarctic Heritage Trust and the conservation work they were doing on the historic huts of Scott and Shackleton.

However, it was not until the winter of 2010 that I got my hands on an artefact – an artefact that may have been part of that epic journey south undertaken by Scott and his teams. This artefact was a wooden box containing seven pristine tins of Fry’s Pure Cocoa. According to one account of the history of the tins they were part of the provisions for one of Scott’s expeditions, but this could not be verified. Nevertheless it was a breath of possibility that hung around the artefact.

At the time I was a free-lance conservator working to prepare a wide variety of objects for display at the soon-to-be-opened Museum of Bristol. Despite the hundreds of artefacts that passed my hands at that time they stuck in my mind due to the journey they represented. One was also opened so I do have memories of sneaking sniffs of the sweet smell of 100-year-old cocoa (even though I’m not a hot chocolate fan).

Now, almost six years later, I find myself living in Christchurch, New Zealand, working for Antarctic Heritage Trust on the artefacts from the lesser known but vitally important historic hut at Cape Adare.

I have conserved many artefacts (around 650!) during my time here so far but it wasn’t until March that I started conserving seven tins of Fry’s Pure Cocoa, reminding me of my experience at Bristol and creating a sense of things coming full circle.

Now these seven tins of Fry’s Cocoa are conserved and are ready to return to their century-old home in Cape Adare where they will hopefully continue to inspire the imagination of history lovers in the years to come, like they have for me.

While there is certainly nothing ordinary about a job that involves opening and conserving wooden crates of century old Antarctic expedition provisions left on the continent by the ‘heroic era’ explorers, it’s what we’re doing a lot of at the moment as part of our artefacts conservation programme and, to be honest, one day becomes much like the next.

Today it might be tins of Seville orange marmalade or sardines in olive oil, and tomorrow could be tins of self-raising flour and essence of beef – all wrapped, labelled and packed by their suppliers, and all requiring documentation, unwrapping, stabilisation, emptying (in some instances), rewrapping and repacking into their boxes.

But occasionally one comes along with just a little something extra to make the day even more interesting.

The box in question is a plywood box stamped on the outside, like most, with LYTELLTON (the New Zealand port where the provisions were loaded) and SHORE PARTY (to indicate it would be offloaded on arrival in Antarctica).

 

 

It was loaded aboard Captain Scott’s ship ‘Terra Nova’ in 1910, sailing south on the ill-fated expedition from which Scott would not return. The box still has its lid and most of its contents, having been prised open at some time.

Inside are paper-wrapped tins stamped LYLE’S GOLDEN SYRUP, and outside, on close inspection of the plywood wall, is some still-legible pencilled handwriting in a style clearly not from our times reading: ‘Lyle’s Syrup’. That’s it.

Oh, and also that the tins are in amazing condition!

 

 

 

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.

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.