Ross Sea Party – 8 May 1916 – Mackintosh and Hayward are lost forever

On 8 May 1916, the Ross Sea Party lost two members: Mackintosh and Hayward. Ernest Shackleton planned his Endurance expedition (1914 – 1917) with two ships. The vessel Endurance in the Weddell Sea and the Ship Aurora, Douglas Mawson’s ship, for the Ross Sea Party. Mackintosh was the expedition leader and had not precise instructions from Shackleton and had to deal with many unpleasant surprises (but that is another story). However, the expedition for the Ross Sea came together and their journey began; they arrived on 16 January 1915 at McMurdo Sound.

A long story short: the Aurora was drifting away in a storm and 10 men, already started depot laying for Shackleton’s party which had the plan to cross the Antarctic via the South Pole. Unfortunately, the ship had hardly anything off loaded and when the 10 men came back, there was almost nothing left for them. The hard times just started and they had to improvise to survive and fulfill their obligations.

After a dramatic series of depot laying parties one of the members died. It was the young priest and photographer Spencer-Smith who died of starvation and exhaustion. Hayward and Mackintosh were on the brink of death, but the other expedition members nursed them back to health in the Discovery hut. Both men departed Discovery hut for Cape Evans, not listening to the other members’ concerns and warnings. A blizzard closed in and both men were lost. Maybe they drifted away on an ice floe or broke through thin ice; their bodies were never found. The last time they were seen alive was the 8 May 1916. It is a sad day to commemorate the dedicated men focusing on their task to keep Shackleton’s party alive when crossing the Antarctic, that eventually never materialised because the Endurance was trapped in the ice and sank. The rest of the Endurance Party is well known, but the Ross Sea Party is still treated like a stepchild of Shackleton’s endeavour.

More about this expedition one can read in this book by Richard McElrea and David Harrowfield. I myself did some research on the Ross Sea Party and reading the diaries of the expedition members about their disparate attempts to adjust with the little they had is at some point astonishing but also heartbreaking. Their endurance is breath taking – and still, with all their suffering and frugal being during these desperate months, they did good science! But this is another story.

PoleSTAH Conference in Christchurch

From 10 – 12 April 2024, Gateway Antarctica hosted the PoleSTAH conference in Christchurch. It is the polar heritage organisation including Science, Technology, Arts and History (PoleSTAH). We had 3 days of high quality presentations, and we covered the Arctic and Antarctic and the challenges heritage faces in times of climate change. Another aspect of the conference was the inclusion of indigenous people in the North and South.

Gordon MacDonald (Canada) and Bryan Lintott (Norway) were the driving forces to bring this conference on its way and Wolfgang Rack and I were the co-convenors on the ground. Without the help of our administrator Mary Botting, it would have not been possible to organise everything to make this conference a success.

Next to the presentations, we were 19 people in the room and 60 online participants, there was a field trip to the Scott Statue in the inner city of Christchurch and to Ferrymead, the open air museum that holds many artefacts, especially an airplane that the US Americans gifted the City of Christchurch. Gabriela Roldan from the Antarctic Heritage Trust gave the conference participants a chance to experience a virtual visit in Hillary’s hut. A visit at the University of Canterbury wind-tunnel lab was for many a great experience. A project in conjunction with the Antarctic Heritage Trust worked on ways of how to keep the moisture out of the preserved Antarctic huts.

A lucky coincidence was that an Aerospace event was held in town. On 10 April, 3 presenter from Gateway Antarctica have shown their work in the Antarctic with help from the air – satellites. Many of the conference participants attended this even. It fitted perfectly into the topic of the conference.

It was a very intense experience during the preparation phase with all the time differences to communicate how the conference will take shape, but we did it and the feedback was that the participants were satisfied with the course of the event.

The preserved hut on Horseshoe Island in the Antarctic. P 2icture credit: Ursula Rack, December 2023