Bryan - Ordeal by ice: ships of the Antarctic

Endurance in the Mist
(PAINTING BY AUSTIN DWYER, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MARINE ARTISTS)

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2011 BY
Seaforth Publishing,
47 Church Street,
Barnsley,
South Yorkshire,
S70 2AS

Published in Ireland in 2011 by The Collins Press, West Link Park, Doughcloyne, Cork
(978-1-84889-040-4)

Published in the USA in 2011 by Sheridan House, 145 Palisade Street, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
(978-1-57409-312-4)

Rorke Bryan 2011

Rorke Bryan has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved.
The material in this publication is protected by copyright law. Except as may be permitted by
law, no part of the material may be reproduced (including by storage in a retrieval system) or
transmitted in any form or by any means, adapted, rented or lent without the written
permission of the copyright owners. Applications for permissions should be addressed to
the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 8432 116 8

Design and typesetting by Burns Design
Typeset in Bembo

Printed in Singapore by Tien Wah Press Pte Ltd

Jacket photographs

Front: Aurora, after alteration of her rig to a barquentine. (Anonymous photo, courtesy of the
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

Back (clockwise from top left): the Russian oceanographic research vessel Akademik Sergei Vavilov.
(Photo by Paul Goldstein, courtesy of Exodus Travels); Magga Dan off the Terre Adlie coast. (Photo
by Phillip Law, courtesy of the Australian Antarctic Division); RRS James Clark Ross. (Photo by
P. Bucktrout, courtesy of the British Antarctic Survey Archives); SS Burton Island in the Ross Sea.
(Official photo of the United States Navy)

Front and back flaps: Les corvettes sortant de la banquise le 9 fvrier 1838. (Lithograph by Lon Sabatier
and Auguste Mayer after the design of Louis Le Breton, courtesy of La Bibliothque Nationale, Paris)

Spine: Belgica in the Bellingshausen Sea. (Courtesy of the De Gerlache Archives)

W riting this book has been a labour of love, made much more enjoyable by enthusiastic encouragement from people in many parts of the world. I am immensely grateful for all this help, and for the friendships engendered. The prolonged support of Austin Dwyer (American Society of Marine Artists) who contributed several fine paintings of Shackletons Endurance expedition, Ross Hatch (US Navy) who provided material about US icebreakers and his ship, USCGC Glacier, and Jorgen Berg (Berg Shipping Consultancy) who sent information about the Lauritzen Dan ships, and his ship, Kista Dan, is particularly appreciated. My close friend Nikolaus Kuhn (University of Basel) helped with information about the Deutschland and Schwabenland expeditions and arranged for the invaluable assistance of cartographer Leena Baumann who drew all the maps. Jean-Louis de Gerlache and Jonathan Shackleton helped with material about their respective grandfathers expeditions on Belgica and Endurance. Vladimir Ivankiv (Sail Russia), Sergey Kurnosov (Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg) and Igor Nikolaev helped with material on Bellingshausens expedition, while Victor Boyarsky (Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, St Petersburg) provided images from recent Russian expeditions. Anna Appelbergs translation was also vital. Yoichi Yabe arranged for material about the Japanese Antarctic Research Expeditions, and for help from Mr Kumagai and Mr Fukuchi (National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo) and the Museum of Maritime Science (Tokyo). Kjell Kjaers encyclopaedic knowledge of Norwegian sealing and whaling barques was critically important, as was Mike Tarvers insight on Terra Nova and other ships from the Alexander Stephen shipyard in Dundee. John Harland and John MacKay were most generous in allowing me to use drawings from their outstanding book on whale catchers, while Alan Gurney contributed a rare image of Lively and also inspiration through his wonderful books Race to the White Continent and Below the Convergence. Serge Kahn supplied many images from his important biographies of Commandant Jean-Baptiste Charcot. My son, Feargus Bryan, provided expert technical advice, sheer-line drawings of Endurance and material on Scotia, while my son-in-law, Conrad Pilditch, helped in obtaining material from New Zealand. Fellow ex-Fids and Antarctic historians John Killingbeck and Bob Burton provided material from their collections, while Mike Skidmore arranged the use of his painting of the brig Williams of Blythe. Ian Church and Gordon Allfrey (Port Chalmers Maritime Museum, NZ) and Anna Petersen (Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin) provided many images from this last port before Antarctica, while Sally Church (Cambridge University) generously shared information from her research on Admiral Zheng Hes Treasure Fleets.

The help of many people, museums, institutions and publishing houses who arranged for permission to use plans, photos and paintings is greatly appreciated. The book could not have been written without their assistance. They include Joanna Rae (British Antarctic Survey), Heather Lane, Robert Headland, Lucy Martin and Naomi Boneham (Scott Polar Research Institute), Andrew Choong and Melanie Oelgeschlager (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), Jamie Owen (Royal Geographical Society), Paul Johnson, Kathleen Golden and Loetta Vann (Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC), Lisa Benson (Norsk Sjfartsmuseum, Oslo), Anna Rief (Frammuseet, Oslo), Hubert Creusat and Patricia Rubellais (Les Amis du Muse de la Marine, Paris), Christine Bertoni (Peabody Essex Museum, Salem), Kristal Kornegay and Louisa Watrous (Museum of America and the Sea, Mystic, Connecticut), Jane Stephenson (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton), Kevin Howell (Golden Hinde Trust), Hugh Murphy (The Mariners Mirror), Kim Savina (Chasse-Mare), Maike Thomsen (Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremen), Chatto & Windus, Michael Russell Publishers (Norwich), Hinstorff Verlag (Rostock), BONUS-verlag (Selent), Chris Weaver (Eco-Photo Explorers), Diane Jackson (Museum of New South Wales, Sydney), Claus Pavar and Maj Faurholm (J. Lauritzen, Copenhagen), Ris Segall (National Archives of Canada), Christian Bach (National Library of France, Paris), Graham Tapp (CASCO Philatelic), yvind Thuresson (Hvalfangstmuseet, Sandefjord), Rhona Rodgers and Eileen Murison (Dundee City Archives), Margaret Rooney and Jim Watt (Raikura Museum, Stewart Island, NZ), Gwen Morgan (National Science Foundation), Karin Haubold (US Navy Historical Centre), Helmut Hornik (German Geodetic Commission, Munich), Peter Latham (HMS Protector Association), Brian Hendrickson (Princess Cruises), John Mitchell and Fred Smits (National Institute for Water and Atmosphere, NZ), Maria Henke (Nantucket Historical Association), Sophie Forgan (Captain Cook Museum, Whitby), Tom Goulder (Hull Maritime Museum), Jessica Fitzpatrick and Jonothan Davis (Australian Antarctic Division), Kory Penney and Linda White (Memorial University, Newfoundland), Thomas Arnell (Swedish Maritime Administration, Norrkping), Phil Normington (Exodus Travel), Sally Charity ((Royal Institution of Naval Architects, London), and Laura Kissel (Byrd Polar Research Centre, University of Ohio). Many individuals also provided vital help, including Harold Appleyard, Dave Rockwell, Olle Appelberg, Karen Ronne Tupik, Bo Riffenburgh and Michael Finn. All this help has been invaluable and is greatly appreciated, but responsibility for any errors of fact or opinion in the book is, of course, entirely my own.