Carsten Borchgrevink
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Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (1 December 1864 – 21 April 1934) was a Norwegian polar explorer and a pioneer of Antarctic travel. He inspired Sir Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and others associated with the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.[1]
Borchgrevink was born and raised in
The expedition's successes were received with only moderate interest by the public – and by the British geographical establishment, whose attention was by then focused on Scott's upcoming
From 1898 to 1900, Borchgrevink led the British-financed
In 1930, the
Early life
Carsten Borchgrevink was born in Christiania on 1 December 1864, the son of a Norwegian lawyer, Henrik Christian Borchgrevink, and an English-born mother Annie, née Ridley.[2] The Borchgrevink family has distant Dutch roots and immigrated to Denmark in the 16th century and Norway in the late 17th century.[3] The family lived in the Uranienborg neighbourhood, where Roald Amundsen, an occasional childhood playmate, also grew up.[4] Borchgrevink was educated at Gjertsen College, Oslo, and later (1885–1888) at the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry at Tharandt, Saxony, in Germany.[5]
According to the historian Roland Huntford, Borchgrevink had a restless nature, with a passion for adventure which took him, after his forestry training, to Australia.[6] For four years he worked with government surveying teams in Queensland and New South Wales before settling in the small town of Bowenfels, where he became a teacher in languages and natural sciences at Cooerwull Academy.[2] His initial interest in polar exploration developed from reading press reports about the work of local scientists on the first Australian Antarctic Exploration Committee.[2] This organisation, founded in 1886, was investigating the possibility of establishing permanent scientific research stations in the Antarctic regions. These plans were not realised; it was a revival of interest in commercial whaling in the early 1890s that gave Borchgrevink the opportunity, in 1894, to sign up for a Norwegian expedition to Antarctica.[7]
Whaling voyage
The expedition that Borchgrevink joined was organised by
During the following months, Antarctic's sealing activities around the
On 24 January, the ship reached the vicinity of Cape Adare, at the northern extremity of the Victoria Land coastline of the Antarctic mainland.[15] Ross's 1841 expedition been unable to land here, but as Antarctic neared the cape, conditions were calm enough for a boat to be lowered. A party including Bull, Kristensen, Borchgrevink and others then headed for a shingled foreshore below the cape. Exactly who went ashore first was disputed, between Kristensen, Borchgrevink,[13] and a 17-year-old New Zealand seaman, Alexander von Tunzelmann, who said that he had "leapt out to hold the boat steady".[10] The party claimed this was the first landing on the Antarctic mainland, although they may have been preceded by the Anglo-American sealing captain John Davis, on the Antarctic Peninsula on 7 February 1821, or by other whaling expeditions.[10][16]
While ashore at Cape Adare, Borchgrevink collected further specimens of rocks and lichens, the latter of which were of great interest to the scientific community, which had doubted the ability of vegetation to survive so far south.[17] He also made a careful study of the foreshore, assessing its potential as a site where a future expedition might land and establish winter quarters.[18] When Antarctic reached Melbourne, Bull and Borchgrevink left the ship. Each hoped to raise funds for a further Antarctic expedition, but their efforts were unsuccessful.[14] An animosity developed between them, possibly because of their differing accounts of the voyage on the Antarctic; each emphasised his own role without fully acknowledging that of the other.[19]
Making plans
International Geographical Congress 1895
To promote his developing ideas for an expedition that would overwinter on the Antarctic continent at Cape Adare, Borchgrevink hurried to London, where the Royal Geographical Society was hosting the Sixth International Geographical Congress. On 1 August 1895 he addressed the conference, giving an account of the Cape Adare foreshore as a place where a scientific expedition might establish itself for the Antarctic winter.[18] He described the site as "a safe situation for houses, tents and provisions", and said there were indications that in this place "the unbound forces of the Antarctic Circle do not display the full severity of their powers".[18] He also suggested that the interior of the continent might be accessible from the foreshore by an easy route – a "gentle slope". He ended his speech by declaring his willingness to lead an expedition there himself.[18]
Hugh Robert Mill, the Royal Geographical Society's librarian, who was present at the Congress, reported reactions to the speech: "His blunt manner and abrupt speech stirred the academic discussions with a fresh breeze of realism. Nobody liked Borchgrevink very much at that time, but he had a dynamic quality and a set purpose to get out again to the unknown South that struck some of us as boding well for exploration".[14] The Congress did not, however, endorse Borchgrevink's ideas. Instead, it passed a general resolution in support of Antarctic exploration, to the effect that "the various scientific societies throughout the world should urge, in whatever way seems to them most effective, that this work be undertaken before the close of the century".[20]
Seeking support
For the next two years Borchgrevink travelled in Europe and in Australia, seeking support and backing for his expedition ideas without success.[12] One of those with whom he sought to join forces was William Speirs Bruce, who was planning his own Antarctic expedition. Their joint plans foundered when Borchgrevink, who had severed relations with Henryk Bull, learned that Bruce was in discussions with him; "I regret therefore that we cannot collaborate," wrote Borchgrevink to Bruce.[19] He also discovered that the Royal Geographical Society had been planning its own Antarctic expedition since 1893.[citation needed]
Under the influence of its president, Sir
Sir George Newnes
During his search for backers, Borchgrevink met Sir
Newnes stipulated that the expedition should sail under a British flag, and should be styled the "British Antarctic Expedition".
Southern Cross Expedition
Winter in Antarctica
With funding assured, Borchgrevink purchased the whaling ship Pollux, renamed her Southern Cross, and had her fitted out for Antarctic service.[14] Southern Cross sailed from London on 22 August 1898, and after a three-week pause in Hobart, Tasmania, reached Cape Adare on 17 February 1899.[15] Here, on the site which Borchgrevink had described to the Congress, the expedition set up the first shore base on the Antarctic continent, in the midst of a penguin colony. It was named "Camp Ridley" in honour of Borchgrevink's mother.[29]
In 1901, Borchgrevink published the book First on the Antarctic Continent. He wrote in a chapter dedicated to
Louis Bernacchi, the party's Australian physicist, was later to write: "In many respects, Borchgrevink was not a good leader".[33] Borchgrevink was evidently no autocrat but, Bernacchi said, without the framework of an accepted hierarchy a state of "democratic anarchy" prevailed, with "dirt, disorder and inactivity the order of the day".[34] Furthermore, as winter developed, Borchgrevink's hopes that Cape Adare would escape the worst Antarctic weather proved false; he had chosen a site which was particularly exposed to the freezing winds blown northwards from the inland ice.[35] As time progressed, tempers wore thin; the party became irritable and boredom set in.[36]
On January 23rd, the anniversary of my first landing on the Antarctic continent in 1894, I found that the season in regard to climate and ice conditions was not as favorable as in that year [...] It was insufferable inside now, as the smell of the guano deposits was very strong. The wet loose snow which settles in drifts during the recent long gale melted rapidly, and the vapour there-from made the air muggy inside the huts. Besides, our humour always fell with the barometer, and did not always rise as quickly, especially now that, while waiting for the vessel, the time hung heavily on our hands, although there were so many matters to be considered and talked over.[37]
There were accidents: a candle left burning caused extensive fire damage, and on another occasion several members of the party were almost asphyxiated by fumes from the stove.[14] Borchgrevink attempted to establish a routine, and scientific work was carried on throughout, but as he wrote himself, referring to the general lack of fellowship: "The silence roars in one's ears".[27] Further lowering the group's spirits, their Norwegian zoologist, Nicolai Hanson, fell ill, failed to respond to treatment, and died on 14 October 1899.[38]
When the southern winter ended and sledging activity became possible, Borchgrevink's assumptions about an easy route to the interior were shattered; the glaciated mountain ranges adjoining Cape Adare precluded any travel inland, restricting exploration to the immediate area around the cape.[27][33] Borchgrevink's basic expedition plan – to overwinter on the Antarctic continent and carry out scientific observations there – had been achieved. When Southern Cross returned at the end of January 1900, Borchgrevink decided to abandon the camp, although there were sufficient fuel and provisions left to last another year.[39]
Instead of returning home directly, Southern Cross sailed south until it reached the
Return and reception
The reception afforded to the expedition on its return to England was lukewarm. Public interest and attention was fixed on the forthcoming national expedition of which Robert Falcon Scott had just been appointed commander,[42] rather than on a venture which was considered British only in name.[citation needed]
In spite of the Southern Cross expedition's achievements, there was still resentment in geographical circles – harboured especially by Sir Clements Markham – about Borchgrevink's acceptance of Newnes's gift.[14] Also, Bruce complained that Borchgrevink had appropriated plans that he had developed but been forced to abandon.[19] Borchgrevink's credibility was not helped by the boastful tone sounded in various articles which were published in Newnes's magazines,[25] nor by the journalistic style of his rapidly written expedition account, First on the Antarctic Continent, the English edition of which appeared in 1901.[2]
In hailing his expedition as a great success, Borchgrevink spoke of "another Klondyke", an abundance of fish, seals and birds, and of "quartz, in which metals are to be seen".[43] In his book, he listed the expedition's main achievements: proof that an expedition could live on Victoria Land over winter; a year's continuous magnetic and meteorological observations; an estimate of the current position of the south magnetic pole; discoveries of new species of insects and shallow-water fauna; coastal mapping and the discovery of new islands; the first landing on Ross Island and, finally, scaling the Great Ice Barrier and sledging to "the furthest south ever reached by man".[44]
Other commentators have observed that the choice of the winter site at Cape Adare had ruled out any serious geographical exploration of the Antarctic interior.[21] The scientific results of the expedition were less than had been anticipated, due in part to the loss of some of Nicolai Hanson's natural history notes;[45] Borchgrevink may have been responsible for this loss;[46] He was later involved in a dispute with Hanson's former employers, Natural History Museum, London, over these missing notes and other specimens collected by Hanson.[47]
Following his return Borchgrevink was honoured by the
Post-expedition life
Mount Pelée disaster
In 1902, Borchgrevink was one of three geographers invited by the
Retirement
On his return from Washington, Borchgrevink retired into private life. On 7 September 1896, he had married an English woman, Constance Prior Standen, with whom he settled in Slemdal, in Oslo, where two sons and two daughters were born.[15] Borchgrevink devoted himself mainly to sporting and literary activities, producing a book entitled The Game of Norway.[14][47] On two occasions he apparently considered returning to the Antarctic; in August 1902 he stated his intention to lead a new Antarctic expedition for the NGS, but nothing came of this, and a later venture, announced in Berlin in 1909, was likewise unfulfilled.[47]
Although he remained out of the limelight, Borchgrevink retained his interest in Antarctic matters, visiting Scott shortly before the Terra Nova sailed on Scott's last expedition in June 1910. When news of Scott's death reached the outside world, Borchgrevink paid tribute: "He was the first in the field with a finely organised expedition and the first who did systematic work on the great south polar continent."[54] In a letter of condolence to John Scott Keltie, the Royal Geographical Society's secretary, Borchgrevink said of Scott: "He was a man!"[55]
In Norway differing assessments of Borchgrevink were made by the country's polar elite: Roald Amundsen was a long-time friend and supporter,[27] whereas Fridtjof Nansen, according to Scott, spoke of him as a "tremendous fraud".[56] When Amundsen returned from his South Pole conquest in 1912, he paid full tribute to Borchgrevink's pioneering work: "We must acknowledge that in ascending the Barrier, Borchgrevink opened the way to the south and threw aside the greatest obstacle to the expeditions that followed."[57]
During his later years Borchgrevink lived quietly. In 1929 the
Death and commemoration
Carsten Borchgrevink died in Oslo on 21 April 1934. Despite what one biographer describes as his obsessive desire to be first, and his limited formal scientific training, he has been acknowledged as a pioneer in Antarctic work and as a forerunner of later, more elaborate expeditions.
References
- ^ Swan, R. A., "Borchgrevink, Carsten Egeberg (1864–1934)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 30 June 2022
- ^ a b c d e Swan, R.A. Borchgrevink, Carsten Egeberg (1864–1934). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
- Store norske leksikon. 15 September 2021.
- ^ Huntford (Last Place on Earth), p. 28
- ^ "Southern Cross Expedition Members". Antarctic Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on 24 June 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2008.
- ^ Huntford (Shackleton), p. 27
- ^ "The scientific era begins". Australian Government: Department of the Environment. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
- ^ McConville (In search of the Last Continent) pp. 137-140
- S2CID 129255252. (subscription required)
- ^ a b c d e f Burton, pp. 677–678
- ^ McConville(In search of the Last Continent) p. 140
- ^ a b c d "Norway's Forgotten Explorer". Antarctic Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on 20 November 2009. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
- ^ a b "The First Landing on the Antarctic Mainland". Antarctic Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Carsten Borchgrevink (1864–1934)". South-pole.com. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
- ^ a b c d Barr, Susan (1999). "Carsten Borchgrevink". In Helle, Knut (ed.). Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
- ^ "An Antarctic Timeline". South-pole.com. Retrieved 29 August 2008.
- ^ Borchgrevink, p. iii
- ^ a b c d Borchgrevink, pp. 4–5
- ^ a b c Speak, pp. 38–40
- ^ a b Borchgrevink, pp. 9–10
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- ^ a b c Jones, p. 59
- ^ "Measuringworth". The Institute for the Measurement of Worth. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
- ^ a b c Huxley, p. 25
- ^ Jones, p. 60
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- ^ Harrowfield, David. "The Southern Cross Expedition". University of Canterbury. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2008.
- ^ a b c "The Forgotten Expedition". Antarctic Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on 20 November 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2008.
- ^ Carsten Borchgrevink (1901). First on the Antarctic continent: Being an account of the British Antarctic expedition, 1898–1900. p. 210.
- ^ Harrowfield, David. "The Southern Cross Expedition: Arrival at Cape Adare". University of Canterbury. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2008.
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- ^ a b c Crane, pp. 74–75.
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- ^ Crane, p. 153.
- ^ Carsten Borchgrevink (1901). First on the Antarctic continent: Being an account of the British Antarctic expedition, 1898–1900. p. 247.
- ^ Harrowfield, David. "The Southern Cross Expedition: First Burial on the Continent". University of Canterbury. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2008.
- ^ Harrowfield, David. "The Southern Cross Expedition: Departure of the Expedition". University of Canterbury. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2008.
- ^ Mill. p. 402.
- ^ Coleman, p. 243.
- ^ Crane, p. 89.
- ^ Harrowfield, David. "The Southern Cross Expedition: Results of the Expedition". University of Canterbury. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2008.
- ^ Borchgrevink, p. 7.
- ^ a b Mill, p. 403.
- ^ Coleman, p. 240.
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- ^ Fellows, Rev. Samuel (Introduction) (1906). "Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror, by the Survivors and Rescuers". New York: Herbert D Russell. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2009. (Chapter XXIII by Trumbull White)
- ^ "Mt Pelée Eruption (1902)". San Diego State University. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
- ^ "The Structural Effects of Pyroclastic Flow". University of Virginia. Archived from the original on 19 June 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
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- ^ Borchgrevink (1902)
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- ^ "List of Past Gold Medal Winners" (PDF). Royal Geographical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
- ^ "ITIS Report: Pagothenia Borchgrevinki". Integrated Taxonomic Information Systems. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
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- Borchgrevink, Carsten (1901). First on the Antarctic Continent. George Newnes Ltd. ISBN 978-0-905838-41-0. Retrieved 11 August 2008.
- Borchgrevink, Carsten (July 1902). "History's Greatest Disaster". Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. 54 (3, Martinique Supplement): 3–16. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
- Burton, Robert (2006). Norwegian (Tonsberg) Whaling Expedition 1893–95 in Encyclopedia of the Antarctic, ed. Beau Riffenburgh. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97024-5.
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- "Untitled news report". The New York Times. 12 February 1913. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
External links
- Works by Carsten Borchgrevink at Biodiversity Heritage Library
- "Geology Collection". Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2008. (The first scientific specimens recovered from mainland Antarctica)