(Redirected from Carsten Borchgrevink)
Borchgrevink's Cape Adare Hut
'Carstens Egeberg Borchgrevink' (
December 1 1864 in
Kristiania,
Norway —
1934 in
Slemdal, Oslo,
Norway), was a teacher and explorer. He led the first expedition to winter on the
Antarctic continent. Although of Norwegian birth, Borchgrevink emigrated to
Australia, where he was a lecturer in geography and natural history at the
University of Sydney. Subsequently he returned to Norway.
Borchgrevink was a member of a whaling expedition to the Ross Sea in 1894-1895. The expedition was funded by Norwegian whaler
Svend Foyn and organised and managed by
Henrik Bull. Bull was a Norwegian resident in Melbourne from 1886-1892. He accompanied the voyage. The ship used had been renamed ''Antarctic'' and was subsequently used on the
Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904 (where it sunk in the Weddell Sea). The expedition landed at
Cape Adare, at the northern end of
Victoria Land, Antarctica. The ship's captain,
Leonard Kristensen, the manager Henrik Bull, Borchgrevink and five other crew members were the first party to make a confirmed landing on the Antarctic continent in January
1895, although subsequent research suggests crews of early sealers may have made landings on the Antarctic Peninsula in the 1820s. The landing at Cape Adare created some controversy with both Kristensen and Borchgrevink conducting a heated debate through letters to ''
The Times'' both claiming to have been the first to leap onto land at Cape Adare. Geological specimens recovered during this landing were the very first scientific samples recovered from the Antarctic mainland. Today, they are in the collections of
Glasgow University's
Hunterian Museum. Several geological specimens were also donated to the
Warrnambool Museum, a coastal city in
Victoria, Australia, though their current location is unknown.
After returning to Australia Borchgrevink lectured on his trip with Henrik Bull in both
Melbourne and
Sydney, but his overbearing nature led to a falling out with Bull. Borchgrevink travelled to London and addressed the
International Geographical Congress regarding the Antarctic landing.
Borchgrevink wished to return to the Antarctic leading a scientific expedition. The result was the
Southern Cross Expedition using the ship ''Southern Cross'' financed by Sir
George Newnes, a newspaper owner in
London. Members of the expedition were 7 Norwegians, among them 2
Sami (Lapps), who had the responsibility of the dogs, 2 British, and one Australian,
meteorologist Louis Bernachi, who subsequently joined Scott's 1901-1904 expedition. In February
1899, Borchgrevink's party landed at Cape Adare, where they built a prefabricated hut (the first human structure ever built on the Antarctic continent) and wintered. The ship returned to
New Zealand.
In January
1900, the ''Southern Cross'' returned to pick up the survivors. The expedition's
zoologist,
Nicolai Hanson, was the only member of the expedition team not to survive. The exact cause of his death is unknown but he is suspected to have suffered from
beriberi. The expedition continued south setting the record for the most southern point reached (an estimated 78°50´S). Borchgrevink also surveyed the extent of the northern edge of the
Ross Ice Shelf, then termed ''The Barrier''. They were able to ascend the Barrier at
The Bay of Whales, a feat that
Roald Amundsen acknowledged as of the greatest importance in the early exploration of the continent. They used dogs for penetrating south. The expedition returned to Australia in March,
1900. He was heavily criticised by the several members of the expedition for poor leadership, and got only one more expedition to lead – to
Martinique.
In 1930 he was awarded the
Patron's Medal from the
Royal Geographic Society. He however did receive honours from the
United States and Norway; with Norway dubbing him first as a
Knight of St. Olaf and later a
Knight of Danebrog.
Borchgrevink's Cape Adare hut still existed as of
2003, but was being destroyed by the effects of
penguin guano.
External links
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Borchgrevink bio
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The very first scientific specimens recovered from mainland Antarctica