1911
Mawson’s Antarctic sledge
The epic journey
This sledge was made by L H Hagen & Co. of Oslo, Norway in 1911 and was one of 20 commissioned by Sir Douglas Mawson for his 1911 expedition to the South Pole. The sledge carries Mawson’s name, although it was not the one he personally used on his heroic trek.
The design of sledges at the time allowed for two boxes: one for supplies, a portable gas stove and cooking and heating equipment, and the other for scientific instruments. The rations were mostly powdered dried beef for making thick soup, and chocolate, biscuits and butter. The sledge was around 3 metres in length, and made of American ash and hickory.
Mawson was the most famous Australian Antarctic scientist. He joined Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition (1907–09), during which he became one of the first people to climb Mount Erebus and to reach the South Magnetic Pole. This involved Mawson in the longest (to date) Antarctic man-hauling sledge journey, 122 days, with his mentor Edgeworth David.
Mawson put together his own expedition under the name ‘Australasian Antarctic Expedition’. It departed Hobart in December 1911 with the objective of carrying out geographical exploration and scientific studies, including a visit to the South Magnetic Pole. The AAE charted Antarctic coastline, investigated the ocean between Australia and Antarctica, and examined the sector of the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which was until that time entirely unexplored.
On 10 November 1912 Mawson and two others, Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz, set out by sledge to chart the area east of their base. On 14 December, Ninnis and the sledge he was walking beside broke through the snow lid of a crevasse and were lost. The six best dogs, most of the party’s rations, their tent, the sledge and other essential supplies disappeared into the massive crevasse. Mawson and Mertz turned back immediately. It was 500 kilometres to Main Base across at least two glaciers. They knew that their supply ship would have to leave Antarctica before the end of January or be trapped by pack ice.
As they slowly made progress, they sustained themselves by slaughtering the sled dogs. ‘Their meat was stringy, tough and without a vestige of fat,’ Mawson recalled in The Home of the Blizzard. ‘We were exceedingly hungry, but there was nothing to satisfy our appetites. Only a few ounces were used of the stock of ordinary food, to which was added a portion of dog’s meat, never large, for each animal yielded so very little, and the major part was fed to the surviving dogs. They crunched the bones and ate the skin, until nothing remained.’
Mertz was overtaken by fever and hallucinations and at one point had to be physically restrained. On one occasion he refused to believe he was suffering from frostbite and bit off the tip of his own little finger. Tending to Mertz cost Mawson valuable time. Eventually the Swiss skier died. Recent research suggests that his death could have been caused by hypervitaminosis A – an overdose of vitamin A from the livers of the sled dogs.
Mawson cut down his sled and divested himself of everything he could do without except his geological specimens, then trudged the final 161 kilometres alone in 30 days. Just under 10 kilometres from Main Base he came to a forward supply depot that was stocked with food – but the pleasure of this find was deflated by a blizzard that trapped him there for a week. When the weather cleared he pushed on, reaching Main Base on 8 February only hours after the supply ship, SY Aurora, had sailed.
Six members of the expedition had stayed to wait for Mawson, and they conducted scientific experiments for the year until a relief ship arrived. Mawson’s 1600-kilometre journey remains one of the most inspiring acts of endurance, courage and initiative in recorded history.
Knighted in 1914, Mawson returned to the University of Adelaide after World War I. He revisited the Antarctic over two summers from 1929 to 1931: these were largely scientific trips, but Mawson also claimed British sovereignty over Antarctic territory, including Cape Denison, where his previous expedition had been based.
As a consequence of Mawson’s efforts, Australia has the largest territorial claim on the Antarctic.