Aurora and the Otago Museum: the boundary between Antarctic science and seamanship

ABSTRACT Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition famously did not succeed in traversing the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. It was, nevertheless, an enterprise that engaged the interest of New Zealanders and the rest of the British Empire even as Wo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Record
Main Author: White, Moira
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2017
Subjects:
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Ecology
Geography, Planning and Development
Antarctic
The Antarctic
Weddell Sea
Ross Sea
McMurdo Sound
Weddell
Chalmers
Antarc*
Polar Record
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247416000851
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247416000851
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition famously did not succeed in traversing the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. It was, nevertheless, an enterprise that engaged the interest of New Zealanders and the rest of the British Empire even as World War I was being fought. When one of the expedition ships, Aurora , broke from her moorings soon after arrival in McMurdo Sound and drifted trapped in pack ice for months, the construction of a temporary jury rudder while still at sea enabled her crew to make their way to Port Chalmers, Dunedin for more extensive repairs in 1916. This paper discusses interactions between the Otago Museum staff and the crew of Aurora while she was in port, the offer of the replaced jury rudder to the museum, and reflects on the concerns and interests that might have contributed to the offer and its rejection.

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