Carsten Borchgrevink

Carsten Egeborg Borchgrevink
Born	(1864-12-01)December 1, 1864 Oslo, Norway
Died	April 21, 1934(1934-04-21) (aged 69) Oslo, Norway
Education	Gjertsen College, Oslo, and Royal Forestry School, Tharandt, Saxony
Occupation(s)	Forester, surveyor, schoolmaster and Antarctic explorer
Spouse(s)	Constance Prior Borchgrevink, née Standen
Children	2 sons, 2 daughters
Parent(s)	Henrik Christian Borchgrevink and Annie, née Ridley

Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (1 December 1864 – 21 April 1934), was an Anglo-Norwegian polar explorer who in 1898–1900 led the Southern Cross Expedition to the Antarctic, at the beginning of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He was thus the precursor of Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen and all the other great names associated with this age. He had been introduced to the world of exploration when he joined a whaling expedition in 1894, during which he briefly set foot on the Antarctic continent, claiming to be the first to do so.

His own expedition, which was British-financed and sailed under the British flag, was the first to over-winter on the Antarctic continent. Borchgrevink took his ship Southern Cross as far south as the Great Ice Barrier, unvisited since the expedition of Sir James Ross nearly sixty years previously. Here Borchgrevink discovered the inlet which later became known as the Bay of Whales, where he ascended the Barrier and, with two companions, sledged about ten miles south to set a new Farthest South record at 78°50'S. On its return to England the expedition was received with only moderate interest, despite its achievements. Reports suggested chaotic organisation and lack of leadership, and the English edition of Borchgrevink's expedition account, published in 1901, was perceived as boastful, journalistic and unreliable.

After his experiences with the Southern Cross, Borchgrevink abandoned polar exploration. His only subsequent expedition was to the West Indies, in 1902, to study the effects of volcanic activity. Thereafter he settled in Oslo with his British wife and four children, leading a life outside the limelight. During these years his polar work was recognised and honoured in America, Denmark and Austria, and in 1912 he received a handsome tribute to his pioneering activities from Roald Amundsen, conqueror of the South Pole. However, it was not until 1930 that Britain's Royal Geographical Society paid him due recognition through the award of its Patron's Medal, admitting that justice had not been done at the time to the work of the Southern Cross expedition. The year previously the Norwegian Parliament had awarded him an annual pension.

Early life

Carsten Borchgrevink was born in Oslo, the son of a Norwegian lawyer, Henrik Christian Borchgrevink, and an English mother Annie, née Ridley. He was educated at Gjerstsen College, Oslo and later (1885–88) at the Royal Forestry School at Tharandt, Saxony. After completing his forestry training he emigrated to Australia. For four years he worked with government surveying teams in Queensland and New South Wales, before settling in the small New South Wales town of Bowenfels, where he became a teacher in languages and natural sciences at Cooerwull Academy. His character at this time is described as "restless, voluble and flamboyant", with a passion for adventure and exploration. His initial interest in polar exploration may have been sparked by the work of the recently-formed Australian Antarctic Committee, and when an opportunity came, in 1894, to join Henrik Bull's whaling expedition to Antarctic waters, Borchgrevink was quick to seize it.

Voyage of the Antarctic

Henrik Bull was a Norwegian businessman and entrepreneur who, like Borchgrevink, had settled in Australia in the late 1880s. As a business venture he planned to take a sealing and whaling expedition into Antarctic waters, and approached Melbourne's learned societies with a view to sharing costs on a joint commercial and scientific expedition. However, the societies had their own plans, and discussions foundered on differences of aims. Bull returned to Norway to organise his expedition. where he found financial backing which enabled him to acquire a ship, which he named Antarctic, a crew, and an experienced whaling captain, Leonard Kristensen.

The foreshore at Cape Adare, where Borchgrevink participated in the first landing on the Antarctic continent, January 1895

Antarctic sailed from Tønsberg, Norway, on 20 September 1893, and reached Melbourne early in 1894. Borchgrevink, who followed Antarctic news avidly through correspondence with Australia's learned societies, was anxious to join an expedition in any capacity. In Melbourne he persuaded Bull to take him on as a deck-hand and part-time scientist. During the following months the sealing activities around the sub-Antarctic islands proved successful, but whales proved difficult to find. Bull therefore decided to take Antarctic further south, to areas where the presence of whales had been reported by earlier expeditions. Antarctic penetrated the pack ice and sailed into the Ross Sea, but still found whales elusive. In January 1895 the ship was in the vicinity of Cape Adare, at the northern extremity of the Victoria Land coast. Ross's 1841 expedition had discovered this coastline, but had not been able to land. As Antarctic neared the cape, conditions were calm; a boat was lowered, containing Bull, Kristensen, Borchgrevink and others of the crew, and a landing was made on a shingled foreshore below the cape. Exactly who went ashore first became a matter of contention, both Kristensen and Borchgrevink claiming the honour, along with a 17-year-old New Zealand seaman Alexander von Tunzelmann, who said that he had "leapt out to hold the boat steady". . This was the first confirmed landing on the Antarctic continent, although it may have been preceded by that of the American whaling captain John Davis, on the Antarctic Peninsula in 1821.

While ashore at Cape Adare, Borchgrevink collected specimens of rocks and lichens, the latter the first samples of vegetable life from the Antarctic continent to receive scientific analysis. He also spent time studying the cape's foreshore in detail, assessing its potential as a site where a future expedition might land and establish winter quarters.. A landing was also made at Possession Island, where Bull and Borchgrevink left a message in a canister, as future proof of their presence there.

Southern Cross Expedition

Main article: Southern Cross Expedition

Seeking support

With the idea of an expedition forming in his mind, Borchgrevink hurried to London, where the Sixth International Geographical Congress was being hosted by the Royal Geographical Society. On 1 August 1895 he addressed the conference, giving a detailed account of the Cape Adare landing site, "a place where a scientific expedition might safely stop, even during the winter months". He saw the location as "a safe situation for houses, tents and provisions", hopefully adding that in this place "the unbound forces of the Antarctic Circle do not display the full severity of their powers". He also implied that there was an easy, accessible route from the cape to the interior of South Victoria Land. He ended his speech by declaring his willingness to lead such an expedition himself. Hugh Robert Mill, the Royal Geographical Society's librarian who was present at the Congress, reported reactions to the speech: "His blunt manner and abrupt speech stirred the academic discusions with a fresh breeze of realism [...] He had a dynamic quality [...] that boded well". Congress passed a unanimous broad resolution in support of Antarctic exploration, proposing that "the various scientific societies throughout the world should urge, in whatever way seems to them most effective, that this work be undertaken before the close of the century", without any specific endorsement of Borchgrevink..

For the next two years Borchgrevink travelled in Europe and in Australia, seeking support and backing for his expedition ideas, but without success. He found that the Royal Geographical Society had, since 1893, been harbouring their own plans for Antarctic exploration. Under the influence of its strong-minded president Sir Clements Markham, the RGS project was being envisaged not just as a scientific endeavour, but equally as an attempt to relive the naval glories of a half century previously. It was the RGS plans which attracted the interest of the learned societies, rather than Borchgrevink's more modest proposals for a private expedition. He received, he recorded, "tons of moral support", but financial backing was not forthcoming. "It was up a steep hill that I had to roll my Antarctic boulder", he wrote.

Sir George Newnes

During his travels Borchgrevink met Sir George Newnes, a leading British magazine publisher and cinema pioneer whose portfolio included the Westminster Gazette, Tit-Bits, Country Life and the Strand Magazine. It was not unusual for publishers to support exploration—Newnes's great rival Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) had recently financed Frederick Jackson's expedition to Franz Josef Land, and had pledged financial backing to the RGS's National Antarctic Expedition. Newnes was sufficiently impressed by Borchgrevink to offer to meet the full costs of his proposed expedition—around £40,000 (at least £3 million in 2008 values). This generosity infuriated Sir Clements Markham and the geographical establishment, who saw Borchgrevink as a pennless Norwegian nobody who had secured British money which they believed was theirs by right. Markham denounced Borchgrevink as a "liar and a fraud", and continued to attack him long after his expedition's eventual return.

Newnes stipulated that the expedition should sail under a British flag, and should be styled the "British Antarctic Expedition", even though the great majority of its personnel would be Norwegian. In the event, of the combined ship and shore parties, only two of the 29 were British, with one Australian.

Expedition

Southern Cross, leaving London for the Antarctic in August 1898

With funding assured, Bochgrevink went to Norway where he purchased the 521-ton whaling ship Pollux, renamed her Southern Cross, and had her fitted out for Antarctic service. He paid particular attention to the installation of what in his expedition account he described as "our splendid engines", which were fitted in Norway because "a big strike of mechanics made it impossible to get the work finished up to the time in Britain".. He describes various component parts, all executed to the standards of the Nowegian Veritas, Norway's premier shipping organisation. After the crew and scientific staff had been assembled, Southern Cross sailed from London in August 1898 and, following a stopover in Australia, arrived at Cape Adare on 17 February 1899. Here, on the site which Borchgrevink had described to the Congress, the first shore base on the Antarctic continent was set up, and named "Camp Ridley" in honour of Borchgrevink's mother. On 2 March the ship departed, leaving a shore party of ten, assorted provisions and equipment, and 70 dogs, to spend the winter in their isolated quarters.

Louis Bernacchi, the party's Australian physicist, was later to write; "In many respects, Borchgrevink was not a good leader" He was no autocrat, but as polar historian Ranulph Fiennes recorded, in the absence of a framework of hierarchy a state of "democratic anarchy" prevailed, with "dirt, discord and inactivity" the order of the day. As time progressed, tempers wore thin; there was nervous irritation, and boredom. There were accidents: a candle left burning caused extensive fire damage, and on another occasion several members of the party were almost asphyxiated by fumes from the stove. Borchgrevink did attempt to establish some sort of routine, and scientific work was carried on throughout, but as he wrote himself, in reference to the general lack of fellowship: "The silence roars in one's ears". Moreover, Borchgrevink was not a trained scientist, and his inability to handle apparatus or make observations was a concern to his scientific staff.To further dampen morale the group's zoologist, Nikolai Hansen, fell ill, failed to respond to treatment, and died on 14 October. When winter finally ended and sledging activity became possible, Borchgrevink's assumptions about the ease of passage into the South Victoria Land interior proved false; the glaciated mountain ranges around Cape Adare precluded any inland exploration, confining the party to a restricted area around the cape and Robertson Bay.

Ross Ice shelf. Borchgrevink made his landing in tis vicinity, now known as the Bay of Whales

With the return of the Southern Cross at the end of January 1900, Borchgrevink was anxious to get away from Cape Adare, so the camp was abandoned. According to Borchgrevink, sufficient fuel and provisions was left that could have lasted another year. Southern Cross sailed southward, following the Victoria Land coastline and finally reaching the Great Ice Barrier discovered by Sir James Clark Ross during his 1839–43 voyage. Borchgrevink noted that the Barrier had receded southwards by some 30 miles (48 km) from the location reported by Ross. An inlet in the Barrier edge was discovered, which in later years was to become known as the Bay of Whales. Here, on 16 February 1900 Borchgrevink, the Englishman William Colbeck and the Sami dog-handler Per Savio ascended the Barrier (the first such ascent) with dogs and sledges, and travelled ten miles (16 km) south, to create a new Farthest South record at 78°50'S. Southern Cross visited other Ross Sea islands before turning northwards, reaching New Zealand on 1 April, and arriving back in England on 6 June 1900.

Return and reception

Southern Cross's reception, on its return to England, was lukewarm. There was residual resentment in geographical circles, harboured especially by Sir Clements Markham, that Borchgrevink was an unwelcome competitor for public funds. His acceptance of Newnes's gift, it was argued, had deprived the National Antarctic Expedition of money that would have "got it on its legs". In any event, public attention in England was firmly firmly fixed on the forthcoming national expedition, to which Robert Falcon Scott had just been appointed commander, rather than on a venture which appeared British only in name. Borchgrevink's credentials were not helped by the "bragging note" sounded in various articles which were published in Newnes's magazines, nor by the journalistic style of his rapidly-written expedition account, First on the Antarctic Continent, the English edition of which appeared in 1901.

Borchgrevink continued to lecture in England and in Scotland, where he was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He claimed that his expedition had been a great success, stating that the Antarctic regions could be "another Klondyke", rich with fish, birds, seals and minerals. He listed his expedition's achievements: proof that an expedition could live on Victoria Land over winter; a year's continuous magenetic and meteorological observations; an estimate of the current position of the South Magnetic Pole; discoveries of new species of insect and shallow-water fauna; coastal mapping of Robertson Bay and the discovery of a new island which he named after the Duke of York; the first landings on various Ross Sea islands, including on Ross Island at the foot of Mount Terror; finally, the scaling of the Great Ice Barrier and the sledging to 78°50'S, "the furthest south ever reached by man". Against these results could be set the fact that Borchgrevink's choice of site had ruled out any serious geographical exploration of the interior, and that the scientific results were less than had been anticipated, due in part to the unexplained loss of many of Nikolai Hanson's natural history notes.

During the years following his return Borchgrevink was honoured by the American Geographical Society, and was made a Knight of St Olaf by his own sovereign, King Oscar II of Sweden. Later he received equivalent honours from Denmark and Austria, although in England his work was for many years largely disregarded, acknowledged only by an honorary fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society. Historian David Crane suggests that much of the negative reception in England followed from the hostility and contempt of Markham, and that if Borchgrevink had been a British naval officer he would have been treated differently. In any event, after leading one brief expedition to the West Indies in 1902, to study the effects of recent volcanic activity, Borchgrevink settled permanently in Norway. He never returned to the Antarctic.

Post-expedition life

Roald Amundsen, who paid a special tribute to Borchgrevink's polar work

In 1902 Borchgrevink embarked on his only other expedition of substance, to the West Indies on behalf of the National Geographic Society, to study the effects of recent volcanic activity in the region. On his return he virtually retired into private life. In September 1896 he had married an English bride, Constance Prior Standen, with whom he now settled in Slemdal, near Oslo, where two sons and two daughters were born, and where Borchgrevink devoted himself to sporting and literary activities. In Norway he divided opinion; Roald Amundsen was a long-time friend and supporter, whereas Fridtjof Nansen, according to Scott, spoke of him as a "tremendous fraud". When Amundsen returned from his South Pole conquest in 1912 he paid full tribute to Borchgrevink's pioneering work: "We must acknowledge that in ascending the Barrier, Borchgrevink opened the way to the south and threw aside the greatest obstacle to the expeditions that followed".. When news of Scott's tragedy reached him in 1913, Borchgrevink wrote a letter of condolence to RGS Secretary John Scott Keltie which summed up Scott thus: "He was a man!"

During the remaining years of the "Heroic Age" he was rarely consulted, and felt resentment over the lack of regard for his Antarctic expertise. His poor financial circumstances came to the attention of the Norwegian parliament, which in 1929, when he was 65 years of age, awarded him a life pension of NOK3,000. In 1934 came belated recognition from London—the Royal Geographical Society awarded him its Patron's Medal, proclaiming that the magnitude of the difficulties overcome by Borchgrevink had been underestimated. "It was only after the work of Scott's Northern Party [...] that we were able to realise the improbability that any explorer could do more in the Cape Adare district than Mr Borchgrevink had accomplished. It appeared, then, that justice had not been done at the time to the pioneer work of the Southern Cross expedition".

Death and commemoration

Carsten Borchgrevink died in Oslo on 21 April 1934. Despite his "somewhat obsessive desire to be first", and his lack of formal scientific training, he has been acknowledged as a pioneer in Antarctic work and as a forerunner for later, more elaborate expeditions. A number of geographical features in Antarctica commemorate his name, including the Borchgrevink Coast of Victoria Land, between Cape Adare and Cape Washington, the Borchgrevink Glacier and Glacier Tongue in Victoria Land, and the Borchgrevinkisen glacier in Queen Maud Land. His name is also carried by the small Arctic fish Pagothenia borchgrevinki. His most vivid memorial, however, is probably the expedition "living hut" which still stands at Cape Adare. The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust acts as guardian to this hut and to those of Scott and Shackleton elsewhere on the continent.

Sources

• Amundsen, Roald (1976). The South Pole: Vol. I. London: C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 0-903983-47-8.
• Borchgrevink, Carsten (1901). "First on the Antarctic Continent". George Newnes Ltd. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• Borchgrevink, Christopher Hawkins. "Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (1864-1934) - Polar Explorer" (PDF). Slekten Borchgrevink Anno 2004. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• Crane, David (2005). Scott of the Antarctic. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-715068-7.
• Fiennes, Ranulph (2003). Captain Scott. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-82697-5.
• Huntford, Roland (1985). Shackleton. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-25007-0.
• Huxley, Elspeth (1977). Scott of the Antarctic. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-77433-6.
• Jones, Max (2003). The Last Great Quest. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280483-9.
• McConville, Andrew. "Henrik Bull, the Antarctic Exploration Committee and the first confirmed landing on the Antarctic continent". Cambridge University Press. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• Preston, Diana (1997). A First Rate Tragedy. London: Constable & Co. ISBN 0-09-479530-4.
• Swan, R.A. "Borchgrevink, Carsten Egeberg (1864–1934)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "An Antarctic Timeline". www.south-pole.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Answers: Norwegian Krone". www.answers.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Antarctic History". www.antarctica.org.nz. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Carsten Borchgrevink (1864-1934)". www.south-pole.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "First Landing on the Antarctic Mainland". Antarctic Heritage Trust. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "The Forgotten Expedition". Antarctic Heritage Trust. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Measuringworth". The Institute for the Measurement of Worth. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Norway's Forgotten Explorer". Antarctic Heritage Trust. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Southern Cross Expedition Members". Antarctic Heritage Trust. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "The Southern Cross Expedition". www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) (Arrival at Cape Adare)

External links

• "Geology Collection". Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) (The first scientific specimens recovered from mainland Antarctica)