Mawson's Adventure

Douglas Mawson in the Antarctic in 1911

Mawson sailed from Hobart on 2 December 1911 ~ and returned to Australia three years later. His expedition planned to map part of King George V Land ~ the nearest Antarctic coastline to Australia. The expedition made numerous discoveries which were subsequently recognized by the award of medals from various national agencies.

The Australian Antarcic Expedition is best known for the adventure of Mawson and his small team of two other men ~ Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz.

On a lengthy journey away from the expedition's main base (mapping ~ taking geological samples ~ discovering stuff) Mawson's team ~ of three ~ suffered several tragedies. These are retold at length in a variety of other sources (eg Wikipedia) ~ and abridged here.

• Lt Ninnis fell into a concealed crevasse ~ together with the dogs and sledge. Peering down anto the abyss Mawson could see a dead dog on a ledge some 50 metres deep. There was no sign of Ninnis ~ nor of the other dogs which made up the best husky team they had ~ nor of the sledge ~ loaded with their tent and main supply of food. After a simple ceremony Mawson and Xavier Mertz continued with whatever they had.


• Some time later, as a result of shooting and eating their remaining dogs, Mertz lost control of himself with 'hypervitaminosis A'. Unknown to them dog's liver contains dangerous amounts of vitamin A. Mertz fell into a coma, and died shortly after. Mawson was also affected by this ailment, but not so badly. They had both also suffered numerous other severe complications of inadequate diet.


• As he struggled on ~ alone ~ and still 100 miles away from base ~ Mawson fell through the snow bridge concealing a crevasse. His harness and tow rope saved him as the sledge caught ~ and remained ~ on the lip of the precipice. Dangling from this rope he hauled himself to safety ~ with little strength in his body ~ and with no skin left on his hands.

Mawson trekked on ~ knowing that ~ with the onset of gales and sea ice ~ the Aurora was scheduled to return to Australia very soon. Fortunately arrangements were made to leave a shore party behind to overwinter, and to search for the party who had not returned. The Aurora delayed sailing for as long as possible before leaving. Mawson staggered back to camp ~ almost unrecognizable ~ just a few hours after the Aurora had left.

The base radio station was able to ask for a recall of the ship ~ but the high winds and seas of the approaching Antarctic Winter meant the Aurora could not manage to return to the shore. So the party remained ~ to be rescued months later when the season allowed.

Born in Yorkshire, Mawson was brought up for all his life in Australia. He later served for the British forces during the Great War, and lead another expedition south from 1929-1930. Latterly he worked as Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Adelaide. Numerous streets and buildings are named after him, as is a suburb of Canberra.

Web services by ~ http://www.highview.co.uk/www

or contact ~ mail@highview.co.uk

End of file http://www.busybusy.co/page/12/75/54.htm

Last updated 2022~1030~1404