The First Expedition to Antarctica To Winter

[edgitarra]

I have a book in in romanian written by Emil Racovita, the first biologist who had the the chance to visit Antarctica. It is called "Going South". This book is quite interesting because it is the description of the travel to Antarctica and the experiences the group encountered, through the prism of Emil Racovita.
I found the book in online antique books store, and I was impressed at the format of the book, because it also contained maps at the end.
Here is the link to the story, this is from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Antarctic_Expedition

A passage from what happened there:

The expedition encountered several hardships. Between 10 March 1898 and 14 March 1899, Belgica was caught between ice blocks, making it impossible to sail any further. It was a difficult year for the whole team. For instance, the crew had to carve a 75 meter-long canal through a 6 meter-thick layer of ice, in order to generate a waterway by which to sail to a navigable body of water.

Belgica returned to Europe in 1899 without two team-members, who had died during the expedition: a young Belgian mariner and Émile Danco.

Racoviță’s diary, published in 1899, makes mention of the difficulties that the team-members had to endure. Photos of the time show that he was hardly recognisable after returning from the expedition.

The results of his research were published in 1900, under the title La vie des animaux et des plantes dans l'Antarctique ("The life of animals and plants in Antarctica"). A year after his return, Racoviță was appointed director of the Banyuls-sur-Mer resort and editor of the review Archives de zoologie expérimentale et générale.

And I also decided to share with you some photos I took from the book(the book has photos and maps):

1. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition - under the command of captain A. de Gerlache
Temporary map of the Gerlache Strait
made by the Marines Lieutenant
G Lecointe(secondary commander of the expedition)

2. The itinerary of the travel through Patagonia made by
scientist Emil Racovita

3. The main itinerary of the expedition(below I think it is left blank to fill in the dates of departing and arrival)

4. "Belgica" trapped in the ice - photography taken at the moonlight

5. With the sleeping bag on the ice

6. Daylight...after 3 months of night

7. "Belgica" is free!

8. Before leaving/After returning photos: Emil Racovita, Roald Amundsen, Frederik A. Cook

Enjoy!
Ed

EDIT: This is was the first expedition to Antarctica to winter

 

[Voyageur]

@edgitarra, thanks, that is one long long journey (Belgica Expedition) of which there were more, by some such as Amundsen of course. Of Cook, he claimed to also have made an accent on Mt. McKinley, yet discredited by some, which seem likely by photo (1906) evidence suggesting he never past the "Gateway".

One piece did say that:

To prevent scurvy, Cook went hunting in order to keep the crew supplied with fresh meat. When obtained from animals that make their own vitamin C (as most do), this could substitute for gaining the needed vitamin from citrus and other fruits and vegetables.

Think this was the problem for many on North Pole expeditions who died of scurvy, they never improvised and changed their eating habits, relying instead on what they packed with them. The had also used "canning" techniques that incorporated poor lead soldering seals, causing post expedition forensics to point at their lead poisoning that lowered their immune systems.

In your post it is mentioned:

It was a difficult year for the whole team. For instance, the crew had to carve a 75 meter-long canal through a 6 meter-thick layer of ice, in order to generate a waterway by which to sail to a navigable body of water.

I can't imagine how difficult that would be.

 

[edgitarra]

What seems extremely interesting is the attitude of Emil(in this case), returning as a "different" man.
I will try to translate directly from the book the Preface:

On the day of 23rd of February, year 1900, a tall man, with a rough and suntanned face, walked to the chair of the conference hall of the University in Paris, followed in silence by the hundreds of faces directed on him. It was the young scientist Emil Racovita, which was to talk about the results and the adventures of the polar expedition, with which he return from the seas of South.[...]
The newspaper LE MATIN wrote: "Yesterday at Sorbonne, in the Richelieu amphitheater talked Mr. Emil Racovita, the naturalist of the belgian expedition[...]
LA DEPECHE(newspaper) mentions:"For about two hours, the speaker held the audience under the charm of an extremely spiritual and alive conference." L'INDEPENDENCE afirms:"Do not think that this conference was loaded with technical and scientific data. Mr. Racovita filled it with spiritual anecdotes and reflexions, and his romanian accent gave this a special flavor.

And here a part of his speech:

"...One last old saying. How it's said in our place at Moldova, "I lived my life and I ate my food". Like the traditions of my people, you can see that I am not an enemy of good traditions, I prepare earlier, for the eternal rest. Like a master of his house from the Vaslui hills, I arrange in order my business, I gather in silence all my things, and when I don't have any other job, I fix my tools with which I have worked my native land, to have them fixed in good order, especially repaired and clean, exactly how I inherited them from my father, who was a good man. And then I think about my other treasure, which is not big, but it still might be useful for the next generations. I do not talk about that treasure which has this name(money), because mine doesn't count so much(money). I am talking about the other treasure, gathered for 40 years, through 9 countries and 9 seas, from so many creatures(living things, more precisely) which I searched for, followed and observed with so much longing and dearness; the treasure gathered from thousands of books and thousands of happenings heard or lived, this kind of treasure, which can be found in written texts. This is the treasure I would like to have(or I was talking about), I am no more than a student and a teacher, and I don't even want to be something else, it is enough to let/share something(treasure of knowledge) to the upcoming youths.
It's not much wealth(knowledge), but in my life it helped me..!

 

[Voyageur]

What seems extremely interesting is the attitude of Emil (in this case), returning as a "different" man.

Indeed. What a trip like that would mean with the many hardships encountered, with much time to observe things in his path and think upon the many relationships of things. A trip like that could/would be very life-changing.

Thank you for the preface and speech sections.