The heroic era of Antarctic exploration which ran from
1899 to the middle of the First War is
the period which most captures our
imagination, through the extraordinary exploits of, in particular, Captain
Scott and Ernest Shackleton. There was
then a lull in exploration proceedings, with only one expedition between the
wars, the British Graham Land Expedition 1934-37. On that was a young Cambridge graduate, Lancelot Fleming, who after a stellar Antarctic career including becoming
director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, turned his collar round (as my father would
say) eventually becoming Dean of St George's Windsor and knighted by the
Queen. I met him in his latter years, a
distinguished tall and charming man who bothered to engage with a scruffy
teenager (me).
Fleming was highly influential in encouraging Vivian
Fuchs, better known as Bunny Fuchs, to lead the first major post war expedition, the British Commonwealth
Trans-Antarctic Expedition in
1957-58. Forty years after Shackleton
had tried to cross Antarctica and failed when the Endurance broke up in the
Weddell Sea, the expedition's idea was to travel the 2000 miles across the
continent via the South Pole.
As Fuchs needed a base on the far side of the continent
from which food and fuel depots could be laid for him, he approached the New
Zealand government for help. As
that year was also the International
Geophysical Year which brought together countries from around the world to
carry out coordinated research in a number of the physical sciences, New
Zealand warmed to the idea and appointed Sir Edmund Hillary, he of recent
Everest conquest, to lead their part of the expedition.
The story of that expedition, its highs and lows, its
risks and personality clashes is beautifully told in Stephen Haddelsey's 'Shackleton's Dream: Fuchs, Hillary and the Crossing of Antarctica'. It's a great
yarn, the two different styles of leadership illustrated by the form of
transport used, Fuchs with his snow cats and Hillary with his converted
Ferguson farm tractors. Visit the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch New Zealand if you
want to see surviving examples of both.
Anyway, this is all a preamble to an event which I was
lucky enough to attend in Parliament House, Wellington last week at which the Antarctic Heritage Trust's Conservation Plan for the surviving hut that was built as part of that
expedition was launched by the Prime Minister, John Key. Known variously as
Hillary's Hut, the TAE (Trans Antarctic Expedition) Hut and the IGY
(International Geophysical Year) Hut, it was the first building at Scott
Base. The Plan was authored by Chris Cochrane, and I have been
part of a peer review, so it was very special to talk to key men in the
original construction, including Randall Heke who physically built it, Bill
Cranfield who was on the expedition, and Hillary's widow, June. The hut marked the beginning of New Zealand's
major contribution to Antarctic exploration and science, of which they are very
justifiably proud.
Hillary's Hut at Scott Base
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