The Terra Nova Hut

Photos © 2006 Seth White

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I'm on a C-17 at the moment, about 3 hours from Christchurch NZ. The first part of my 2006-07 season is over and I'm heading home. I'm going to the AGU conference on the way home, and am looking forward to seeing Paola there, as well as a few other friends from the ice. There also are a couple sessions I want to attend which will be very relevant to my new job at UNAVCO. Today I am flying back with a group of DV's (officially this means Distinguished Visitors, but there are some humorous unofficial meanings, ranging from benign to very unflattering). You know the DV's by the yellow nametags on their red parkas. I suspect one reason the USAP issues yellow nametags is the hope that random people DV's encounter around town will be less surly (I'm completely serious about this). Anyway, before we took off I overheard a member of the flight crew telling the DV's to come up to the cockpit right after takeoff, and the pilot would do a circle around Mt. Erebus. So we took off, climbing like mad. The DV's all headed up, then we banked sharply...my cue to grab my camera. At a window I found this killer view of Erebus. We were higher than I'd ever been in a helicopter, and had a bird's eye view of the crater smoking away. The point of this must be obvious: it's good to be on flights with DV's. It would be nice to be a DV, but sadly I can't think of any ways to Distinguish myself, other than ones that would get me thrown out of the Antarctic Program...

Editor's note: my battery ran out since I didn't have my computer fully charged. The blog henceforth resumes from the Twisted Hop Brewery in Christchurch NZ, purveyors of fine cask-conditioned ales.

I probably won't make many webpages this season, but I figured I had to post more photos of the Terra Nova Hut and the Discovery Hut, both of which I had made webpages for in 2003 but neither of which had I visited since. I always feel self-conscious about the early webpages I made for this site. One reason is that the writing is pretty bad. I sound a bit naive, which I was (am?), but then in the very next sentence I can seem a bit presumptuous, which I was (but am not). There is also a gee-whizzy tone to a lot of it, and a helping of some plain old ignorance. But more importantly, I was pretty new to photography at the time and had a marginal camera. So the photos didn't even begin to do justice. Of course a camera can't really capture the experience of being in such places, but at least I'm getting closer. So this webpage is my attempt to provide a tour of the Terra Nova Hut with is more visually pleasing, and also less painful to read. First pic here is of the hut itself, with good ol' Erebus in the background.
So in case you didn't know, the Terra Nova Hut was built during Scott's British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913. The hut itself is commonly known as the Terra Nova Hut, after the expedition's ship. The hut is located 25 km NNW of McMurdo at Cape Evans, which is named for Lt. Edward Evans, Scott's second-in-command. It was during this expedition that Scott and four others died on their return from South Pole, having been beaten to the Pole by Amundsen. This tragedy was the primary legacy of the expedition, but there are other legendary Terra Nova sagas such as the winter journey to Cape Crozier (read the book "The Worst Journey in the World") and the Northern Party's harrowing experience of spending a winter in an improvised snow cave. It occurs to me that gutty survival and legendary heroism are considered the hallmarks of Scott and Shackleton. But to me it is overlooked that many of these stories are actually misadventures of the first order, with men struggling to survive under circumstances brought on by arrogance, poor planning, and yes, bad luck. But anyway, here is the main room of the hut. It doesn't look like much but it IS the largest historic hut in Antarctica, at 15 x 8 meters.
Another view of the center of the hut. On this trip my friend Kelly and I were official tour guides. To become so required an hour-long visit to the NSF chalet where you are briefed on the do's and dont's, and loaded up with information about the three historic huts on Ross Island. I manned the door for the first part of our visit, telling people a few rules and making sure the number of visitors inside the hut at one time (12) was not exceeded. I waited until people had filtered out of the hut, then grabbed my camera/tripod and headed in. It was fantastic to be inside, with the space to take photos without a dozen people around. There were also a few members of the Antarctic Heritage Trust here, who were on-site doing conservation work and acting as very gracious hosts.

I wanted to take full advantage of the photo opportunity, but unfortunately I'm not comfortable behind the lens like a pro. I was a bit anxious since I knew that opportunities like this don't come along very often, and unfortunately I wasn't completely happy with the photos I took this time. I was looking forward to going back but unfortunately the sea ice conditions cancelled the second trip I was going to take...and then it was time to leave the ice. It was still a fantastic day though, and I actually did enjoy being a tour guide and talking to people about the place. It is fun to point out things that most visitors might not notice, and often people will know things that I don't know - learning more about what you're seeing always makes the experience better. And there is an infinity of things that I don't know, so it was good to have the Trust people around.
I visited the Canterbury Museum today, as part of my Christchurch ritual. In this museum, they actually have cans of Lunch Tongue and Herrings such as those in this photo. By the way, the Twisted Hop is a new addition to my ritual. As an aside: a few days in Christchurch on your way home from the ice is a very nice perk of the job. After being at McMurdo station, the ability to get up at noon, do whatever you want whenever you want, and just simply be in a place where you don't know anybody is a welcome change. I ran into a fellow ice person when I arrived at the brewery, but didn't make much of an effort to hang out with him. In years past I might have tried to strike up a conversation, but at the moment I am valuing my alone time and the catharsis of sipping good ale while writing this blog more than making small talk and pleasantries with somebody I don't know.

OK - so back to the Canterbury Museum. They have an astonishing Antarctic section which really never gets old. I always find something that takes on a new importance to me every time I visit. And they have a new Hallett Station exhibit which consists of several actual buildings from this joint US-NZ station, which was built during the IGY. I think this is a fantastic display, and cheers to the museum for setting aside so much floor space for it. The station closed in 1973, but it wasn't fully removed until a year or two ago. In fact Thomas, my UNAVCO partner in crime this season, and Chuck, former UNAVCO polar engineer, had actually both visited Cape Hallett before the station was completely removed (the bastards!). Anyway, the exhibit is totally unique in that they have large-type things there, not just small relics like boots, food tins, etc. The kitchen hut is there, along with a berthing hut, a bulldozer, and a geomagnetic dome, which is almost identical to the dome which still sits on one of the warehouse buildings at McMurdo station. As a note, this McMurdo building is the one which houses spare parts for the LC-130 planes. This is staffed by a New Zealand division of Spacemark, an Alaskan Inuit-owned company which is absolutely gigantic. Mark, Stuart, and Tony from Spacemark were frequent players at Karl's weekly game of hearts this year...looking forward to playing more cards with them in January. But back to the exhibit: today I ran into Natalie, the curator of the Antarctic section of the Canterbury Museum. She happened to be standing at the front desk when I arrived at the museum. I thought "Hey I recognize her...but from where?". As we started talking I remembered I had briefly met her at Cape Evans this year while she was doing conservation work on the hut. She actually remembered me too, especially after I mentioned I was the guy who was taking photos until, literally, Kelly came to the door and told me "the bus is leaving...we have to go now". So anyhow, she told me they actually have the entire garage from Hallett, but unfortunately are lacking the floor space to exhibit it. Also, it was really humorous to hear about the smell of the exhibit for the first 8 months they had it. There are lots of penguins (and therefore skuas) at Cape Hallett, and both species had shat on all the buildings for years and years. So the Hallett Room exuded this intense guano odor which filled the building's atmosphere and greeted visitors right when they walked in the doorway. Thankfully this has since dissipated.

I just got an IPA. Mmmm. Good times. I am always amazed at the frequency New Zealanders tell me that American beer sucks. Sure, Coors and Bud DO suck, but for gods sake, do you think that's the best a country of 300 million people can do? New Zealand has a lot less people but still there is a lot of good beer here. Harrington's, the Twisted Hop, and the Dux Deluxe all brew good quaff, and Christchurch is not a gigantic city. Is it really that much of a stretch to imagine that there is better beer to be had in America than Miller Genuine Draft? I think it is easy for Kiwis (and for the rest of the world) to visualize Americans as shitty-beer-swilling, reality-television-watching, George-Bush-loving imbeciles. This is as close to reality as taking New Zealanders to be rugby-obsessed, guff-speaking, Speights-drinking blokey hicks. Which reminds me - I get asked about George Bush a lot too. What do you think of him? Do you like him? It's a polite way that Kiwis have of probing to see if I'm a complete asshole. This reminds me of a story my boss Bjorn told me. He was in an airport line in Australia and out of the blue someone told him that even though he was an American, they didn't hold George Bush against him. Later he said he wished he'd thought quicker and told the Australian that he didn't hold the systematic extermination of the Aboriginal people against her. Now that would have been a terrific comeback.

Back to the Terra Nova Hut. While I was there, I noticed that the snow was a LOT higher than it had been in 2003, the last time I visited. This wasn't my imagination - the level of drifting is worse than anyone can remember in 50 years. There is actually a small glacier forming behind the hut, and many of the artifacts are encased in ice. The freeze-thaw cycles have also allowed water to seep into the walls of the building. This is important because the Terra Nova Hut was built with a layer of insulation between the inner and outer walls. The insulation consists of small bales of this straw-fiber stuff, so water can wick into this insulation and then freeze, pushing the walls apart from the inside - a big problem. Not to fear though. The Antarctic Heritage Trust is in the middle of a multi-year conservation effort on the Ross Island huts. The past couple years, they have been working at Cape Royds. That hut is now in much better condition, and many of the artifacts have been conserved. But there was so much stuff from Royds that needed attention that the Trust brought down its own building to Scott Base. In this building, several conservators will work over the winter on the artifacts. Some of the stuff will be brought back to civilized museums, but most of it will go back to the Royds hut...which is itself one of the most authentic and well-preserved museums in the world. The Trust had about a million bucks for the Royds effort, which is approaching completion. For Cape Evans, which is a much larger job, they have about seven million. They started work at Evans this year, and it'll take a few more before they're done.

Oh, and this is a photo of the laboratory area in a corner of the Terra Nova hut.

So there were these guys shoveling loads of snow while our tour group was at the hut. A few weeks later I was over at Scott Base for dinner with Nic and Aaron, two guys from Land Information New Zealand that Thomas and I were working with on the Cape Roberts systems (more about the fantastic Cape Roberts trip in a future webpage). At dinner this fellow Julian joined us, and it didn't take long for both of us to realize that we had met before at Cape Evans. So we had a lively discussion about Scott and Amundsen and retired for a few beers in the bar (I'm an Amundsen worshipper, he is not). He is the director of an Australian conservation organization which is involved in the work on the Ross Sea Historic Huts, and I learned a lot about this work from him. Along the way he lamented that with all the snow drift at Cape Evans, they are having to pay expensive conservators to shovel snow. And they only have a short field season, so precious days that should be spent doing actual restoration on the hut and artifacts therein are spent picking away at snow and ice drifts. The drifting is such a big issue, so significant that they are planning to install a mechanical fixture upwind of the hut in attempt to mitigate the drifting problem. So I piped up that I would be thrilled to go out there and shovel snow. To my surprise, he was actually surprised at this (!) I am extremely interested in the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, and would be honored to play a small role in the preservation of this incredible place. Furthermore, McMurdo and Scott Base are home to a gigantic labor pool that, by and large, would be tripping over themselves for the chance to shovel snow at Cape Evans. I am sure this would make for a fantastic recreational trip. We exchanged contact information, and hopefully an attempt will be made to utilize the free, enthusiastic, and hard-working labor force at McMurdo...and surely at Scott Base too. And if they do, hopefully I will be on the ice at the same time (I'm lucky in the fact that my job would allow me to deploy early or leave late to do this work). The only concern I could see is that people might go out and not exercise the proper caution when shoveling around the hut. More so than the other two Ross Island huts, Cape Evans is a minefield of artifacts, many of which are just laying on the ground or buried in snow. But if you organized it right, you could gather a select group of people and then give them an hour of training on how to go about the work. Give them a map of known artifacts and have one conservator oversee the shoveling operations. And voila' you will get rid of untold tons of snow and ice in short order.
When you enter the main door to the Terra Nova Hut, you turn left and are greeted by this: an acetylene generator. Then, you turn right. At this point you can turn left again and enter the horse stable area or keep going straight into the main living area of the hut.

Wow - the decibel level here at the brewery just decreased sharply. Thank god the group of after-work corporate bozos just cleared out. I guess the spectacle of corporate morons, dressed to kill, hanging out at a local bar after work, and being absurdly loud and obnoxious is not just limited to the USA. The shrill-voiced office girl that took it upon herself to assume "control" of the mob at this function was particularly grating, and she is not missed by yours truly. Ay yi yi.
On with the tour of the hut. Here is something I noticed during my first visit - a plate with a photo of a very attractive woman. I wonder who she was, or if anyone really knows. It's something to see, really - a photo of a beautiful young lady in a place like this. Sure, you expect to see rusted tins of food, stacks of seal blubber (more about this below), and torn pieces of old clothing. But this? I have read a decent amount about polar exploration, and it occurs to me that two things are rarely mentioned. First, religion. For these men to endure what they did and still keep up a positive spirit and perform so many selfless actions, many of them MUST have had a strong religious core. I am not religious myself, but I do recognize the steel that a strong belief instills in people. Why is this so seldomly mentioned in polar literature? Is it that God was such a personal matter for these men that they didn't really write or talk about it, or is it that the erudite and educated biographers and writers choose to ignore this topic in favor of more "intellectual" and "scholarly" pursuits? Probably both. The second thing is women. For these men, nary a woman was to be found for thousands and thousands of miles. They went without for years on end, enjoying only the company of men. Homosexuality is not mentioned anywhere in the literature I've read, and I would suppose that probably wasn't an issue. In amongst the late Victorian English, even if anyone did find another member of his party attractive, he would NOT bring it up. And the stench and grime of life without regular showers would probably squelch any carnal desires one might harbor. But I do wonder about women. What were the innermost thoughts of these guys? For those who wrote diaries, and from those diaries that survive, I'm sure there are insights and windows into their hearts. But I also think that they held back quite a bit, especially considering that it was highly likely that their diaries would be read by their superiors. Anyway, this plate at Cape Evans takes a special significance for me, in large part due to the mystery. Who is she? Who was the owner of the plate? I have seen photos of a drawing on the wall of the Cape Adare Hut, constructed during the Southern Cross expedition, which shows a beautiful woman with flowing hair. It really is quite the masterpiece of improvised polar art. I wonder about that one too. If I ever get the chance to visit Cape Adare, and I most likely will not, my first priority is to see that drawing.
This is kind of a famous spot inside the Terra Nova Hut. This table is right beside Scott's bunk, and there is a stuffed penguin laying here. Surely this penguin was not left in this exact spot by the Terra Nova expedition people, but nonetheless, it is somewhat well-known and well-photographed. Here is my version of the scene. As always, looking at this picture I tell myself I should have shot it from a different angle, framed it differently, and been more aware of the uneven lighting. But then again, it is dark, and the light is kind of silvery...very much like the environment inside the historic huts.
A still-life scene from a shelf in the Terra Nova Hut. I actually liked this photo enough to submit it for the Antarctic Sun's annual photo contest. First time I have entered any pictures...wonder if any will win? Mmmm, probably not. I think my pics are good, but considering the number of excellent photographers on the ice and the sheer volume of photos submitted, it's unlikely. But anyway - I like this one. The lime juice on the right side was brought along as an antiscorbutic, i.e. to ward off scurvy. The world's navies had a pretty good idea of how to prevent scurvy by this time, but the actual cause of the disease, vitamin C deficiency, was not accurately known for years to come...until vitamin C itself was identified. But lime juice, properly packaged and stored, was a great weapon against scurvy. And by the way, this practice was the origin of the slangy term "limeys" for the British.
Shelves, chock full of foodstuffs. Many of these might well be fit for human consumption today...although I am not willing to try them.
A smattering of dinnerware, with some of that good ol' Heinz 57 ketchup on the upper right. USA! USA!
A few cocoa cans in a crate.
This is the bunk of R. W. Richards, key member of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton, aka the Endurance Expdedition. He was one of the youngest members of the Ross Sea Party, whose job it was to lay supply depots for Shackleton between Ross Island and the Pole, but along the way he became one of the hardiest and most trusted people of the crew. He slept in this spot in the Terra Nova Hut. No doubt Scott was rolling over in his frozen grave when Shackleton used HIS hut for the Endurance Expedition. Scott actually had the gall to try to forbid Shackleton from using the McMurdo Sound area as a base for the Nimrod Expedition, claiming that the area was "his" by right of primacy (never mind that Ross was actually the one who, you know, DISCOVERED Ross Island). This guy Scott was kind of an ass when he set his mind to it. Personally speaking, I would not have wanted to work for Scott - or for Byrd. While Scott was freezing to death in his tent on the ice shelf, the last words he penned included an attack on Edgar Evans, who was the first of the party to die. Scott lashed out at this guy and in part blamed his "failure" for the fate that had befallen the rest of them. Never mind that Scott, being rash as he was prone to be, decided after reaching the Polar Plateau to take five men to the Pole instead of the original four he had planned for. Also, never mind that Evans really wasn't the best choice of men for a thousand miles of man-hauling sledges (i.e. pure torture)...and of course it was Scott himself that selected Evans, based on little more than his impressive physical stature. Evans no doubt did his utmost best, and having survived as long as he did under the terrible strain of man-hauling (man-hauling!) is more than you or I would have endured. Sure, Scotts words were the thoughts of a man about to die under horrible circumstances, and who knows what state his mind was really in. But Scott had demonstrated the ability to blame others for his shortcomings before...this wasn't the first time, just the last time. But anyway, on the set of planks, set vertically at the foot of this bed, is a penciled message left by Richards. It reads: "RW Richards August 14, 1916 Losses to date: Haywood Mack Smyth Shak (?)". An incredibly brief but powerful message left by young Mr. Richards, considering that he had risked his life and struggled mightily to get Mackintosh and Hayward back to Hut Point, where they recovered just enough to walk to their deaths across thin ice on the way to Cape Evans...against the strong advice of everyone else.
These little colored glass bottles are lying on a shelf above Wilson's bunk. They are very eye-catching as you walk around, as they represent some of the very small bits of blue, green, and yellow you see. The Terra Nova Hut is chock-full of artifacts: lots of little things that you can easily damage or destroy if you have a careless misstep or turn the wrong way. I actually get the willies being around this stuff. More than anything else, the main thing I tell people as a tour guide is to be very deliberate and aware when you are moving around in the huts.
Here is the bunk in which Scott slept. The sock hanging above the bed reminds me - there is a sock on Apsley Cherry-Garrard's bed which had the words Cherry-Garrard (or was it just Garrard - I can't remember) sewn into it. There is a book written by Sarah Wheeler called "Cherry", which describes the life of this complex and sensitive (and tough as nails) guy. For the rest of his life after this expedition, he was wracked by guilt at having the chance to save Scott and failing. At least this was the way he saw it, although if you consider the circumstances at the time it really does seem the odds of him finding Scott's party were extremely low, and the odds of him saving anyone were even lower. But anyway, this is a book that I do intend to read at some point.
Back outside the main room, on the way to the horse stables, lies this stack of seal blubber with some sled runners hung above. To the left are the horse stables, which I did not have the chance to tour this time. Literally, right after I took this picture Kelly appeared at the door and told me the Delta was leaving. Time to go, evidently. But in the horse stables are horse snowshoes, and the names of each horse still visible on the stalls. I am told there is also a hockey stick hanging up there, which was used by the crew for recreation. And on the wall to the right of this photo is the rusted-out bicycle used by Griffith Taylor, Antarctica's first bicyclist. I wish I would have gotten a good photo of that, but I guess I have to save something for next time...whenever that will be.
One last pic here - a loop of rope hanging outside, just near the main entrance. Today is Saturday 12/9/06. I went over to Lyttelton today to visit the museum there. Thomas and I went over to Lyttelton on our way down and along the way stopped at this museum to see the Antarctic section. Unfortunately it was closed then, so I made it a point to get the hours and make a visit on my trip home. While there I met Baden Norris, the current curator of the museum and former curator at the Canterbury Museum. His name keeps popping in articles about Antarctic conservation in the Ross Sea, and as you walk around Lyttelton you keep seeing his name...it seems like he is the de facto mayor of Lyttelton, as everyone there knows him. I even have one of his books. I admit that I still haven't read it, since for every polar book I read I end up buying two or three more. Thus, the backlog of reading continues to increase. I did make headway on Ejnar Mikkelsen's "Two Against the Ice" this evening, over a few more pints at the Twisted Hop. This book is about his arduous traverses around northeast Greenland with Iver Iversen looking for traces of the doomed mapping expedition led by Mylius-Erichsen. Anyway, he was at the museum today and I couldn't help but ask a few questions. In particular, how did he know that two broken bottles on display were actually from Cook's expedition? His answer was convincing - and I really did not expect to see something from Cook in this museum! Besides this, his collection of artifacts was really impressive. It wasn't as large a collection as the Canterbury museum, but for its size I thought there was a lot of good stuff there. In particular the scraps of wood and nails from Amundsen's ship Maud were unique, as were the shoulder epaulettes which belonged to Scott. There were also a few tidbits from Borchgrevink's Southern Cross expedition which were interesting to me. Borchgrevink was not the greatest of leaders or explorers, but his hut at Cape Adare is the first building erected on the continent...and it is a place I will probably never see.