18 January 1913- Rescued from Antarctica

On 18 January 1913, the ship that had delivered the British Antarctic Expedition in June 1910, The Terra Nova, was finally able to break through the ice outside of Antarctica's McMurdo Sound to pick up the Northern Party, the remaining members of the expedition that had set out to locate the Southern Party that had been led by Robert Falcon Scott.
Scott’s expedition had attempted to be the first to reach the geographical South Pole, but when they reached it on 17 January 1912, they found that a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had beaten them by 33 days.

Breaking news in the New York Times March 8, 1911, “Amundsen reaches the South Pole” source
Scott's entire party died on the return journey from the pole; some of their bodies, journals, and photographs were discovered by a search party eight months later.

Scott's party at the South Pole, 18 January 1912. L to R: (standing) Wilson, Scott, Oates; (seated) Bowers, Edgar Evans  source
Victor  Campbell was Scott’s second in command and head of the  Northern party that had sailed north and  put ashore at Robertson's Bay, near Cape Adare, where they were forced to spend the winter.  In January 1912 the Terra Nova took them 250 miles (400 km) south of Cape Adare and 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Cape Evans.   They spent another miserable winter with limited rations, supplemented by the occasional penguin and seal, as the ship could not reach them because of heavy pack ice. They built an ice cave on Inexpressible Island and finally on 30 September 1912, they set off for Cape Evans, arriving on 7 November after crossing more than 200 miles (320 km) of sea ice.

Evans and Nelson making ice-cave. Jan. 12th 1911.
After learning of the death of Scott and the entire Polar party, as the senior remaining Naval officer, Campbell assumed command of the Terra Nova expedition for its final weeks, after reporting to the  crew that Scott's party had reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, but had all died on the return journey.

The Terra Nova  source
The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was established in 1956-57 for scientific research, and has been staffed ever since by researchers and support personnel. During the Australian summer, from about November to March, about 250 scientists live at the station. That number drops to between 50 and 60 when the winter season descends, with its constant darkness and extreme temperatures.
Antarctica is now a popular tourist destination, during those summer months when the sun never sets, for those willing to spend big. Tourists pay tens of thousands of dollars for the trip, mostly to see penguins and icebergs, but you are able to actually travel to the Geographic South Pole, the southernmost point on the planet,  like the early explorers.  – it’s marked by a small sign and a tall stake driven into the ice, which is moved about 10 meters per year to compensate for the movement of the ice.

The ceremonial south pole is used for photography purposes - the shiny metallic sphere atop a small red-and-white striped pole is located a short distance from the Geographic South Pole, and is surrounded by flags of the Antarctic Treaty countries.
I don’t think it’s in my top five places to visit.  What about you?
Deb xx
as usual, more photos on tumblr and ignore the underlining it won’t turn off

15 January 1913 - Royal Geographical Society

source

 The Royal Geographical Society is a British society founded in 1830 by the learned gentlemen of London mainly as a debating and dining society.  It also aimed to promote geographic awareness and to work out ways of exploring a world that was still largely a mystery.  The Society began as the Geographical Society, but was awarded a Royal Charter in 1859.   In it’s  earlier years the society was concerned mainly with  ‘colonial’ exploration in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the polar regions, and central Asia , with famous names such as Livingstone, Stanley, Scott, Shackleton, Hunt and Hillary.

The Royal Geographical Society map room in 1912.

On this day in 1913 the members  voted overwhelmingly to admit women, after 82 years as an all-male organization.  However, the society did occasionally let women in before 1913.  In 1882 Isabella Lucy Bird (1831–1904), arguably the greatest Victorian lady traveller, was inducted as the first woman Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.  While the British Empire swept across continents, Bird migrated to far-flung places, many of which barely register on a traveller’s radar even today.  She documented her journeys in detailed books with matter-of-fact titles such as Six Months in the Sandwich Islands (1875), A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains(1879), Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880), and Korea and Her Neighbors(1898).

A Mantzu family, Sichuan, China, 1895, by Isabella (Bird) Bishop

Another fellow was  Mary Kingsley (1862-1900), a British explorer who made two pioneering trips to West and Central Africa and was the first European to enter remote parts of Gabon.

Mary Kingsley source

The Royal Research Ship Discovery was commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society in 1900 and built by the Dundee Ship Building Company. Discovery was the first ship built in Britain for scientific research and one of the last wooden three masted sailing ships to be constructed. It was launched on 21 March 1901 at a cost of £44,322.

Discovery

In 1933, the Institute of British Geographers was formed by some Society fellows, as a sister body to the Society.  They merged in January 1995 to create the new Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), and today has 15,000 members, aiming to advance geography through supporting geographical research, education and outdoor learning, public engagement and policy. You can read more about the society here.

Happy exploring,

Deb xxx