Louis Bernacchi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Louis Bernacchi in 1910
signature

Louis Charles Bernacchi (born November 8, 1876 in Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek , Belgium , † April 24, 1942 in London ) was an Australian- British physicist , astronomer and polar explorer of Italian- Belgian origin, who participated in two research trips of the so-called "Golden Age of Antarctic research “ Participated. During the Southern Cross Expedition (1898–1900) he carried out the most scientifically accurate determination of the position of the Antarctic magnetic pole until then . During the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904), he and five other expedition members briefly held the record of closest approach to the geographic South Pole . Bernacchi was the first Australian in Antarctica and the first person to hibernate there three times.

Origin and education

The Bernacchi family estate on Maria Island, Tasmania around 1890

Louis Bernacchi was born as the eldest son of the Italian silk merchant Angelo Giulio Diego Bernacchi (1853-1925) and his Belgian wife Barbe (born Straetmans, 1858-1914) near Brussels . His parents emigrated to Tasmania in 1884 with him and his two siblings Roderick Caesar (1879–1962) and Helena Theresa Amelia (* 1883) . His father leased the island of Maria Island there , had a cement factory built on it , tried his hand at viticulture and founded a settlement with at times up to 250 residents, shops, a school, post office, hospital and a luxury hotel built in 1888. However, the company failed in 1892 due to a lack of profitability . The family, who temporarily lived in Melbourne , returned to London with the younger children in 1897 , while Louis, now of legal age, stayed in Australia.

After initially receiving private tuition at home, Bernacchi completed part of his schooling at The Hutchins School boarding school in Hobart , before studying physics at the University of Melbourne in 1895 and under the guidance of Pietro Baracchi (1851–1926), the chief astronomer in the New South Wales government , conducted practical studies in astronomy and geomagnetism at the Melbourne Observatory . During his studies, he came into contact with the work of various Australian committees for the scientific and economic development of the then almost unknown Antarctic continent . He was particularly fascinated by the report by the future Norwegian polar explorer Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink about his participation in the Antarctic expedition (1894–1895), which was supposed to have successfully set foot on the Antarctic mainland for the first time.

Southern Cross Expedition

Bernacchi as a participant in the Southern Cross Expedition in 1899

→ see main article: Southern Cross Expedition and their crew list

In 1897, Bernacchi and Borchgrevink met in Melbourne when the latter was staying there to raise funds to finance his own Antarctic expedition. Bernacchi was about to take part in the Belgica expedition (1897-1899) led by the Belgian polar explorer Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery . However, this did not happen because the expedition ship on the way to the Antarctic did not call at Melbourne as planned, so that he waited in vain for his pickup. In May 1898, Bernacchi traveled to London to successfully apply to Borchgrevink to participate in his research trip to Antarctica, which was supposed to map the target area and collect general scientific data. Bernacchi's area of ​​responsibility included the implementation of geomagnetic investigations and meteorological observations as well as the photographic documentation of the expedition, which was ultimately financed almost exclusively by the British publisher George Newnes (1851–1910) and whose base camp was at Cape Adare at the far north-eastern end of the Antarctic Victoria .

The expedition faced numerous difficulties, not least of all due to Borchgrevink's lack of leadership skills. Due to the confinement and boredom in the quarters during the Antarctic winter months of 1899, the irritability of the expedition participants had increased so much that Borchgrevink feared a mutiny. Bernacchi was so annoyed by Borchgrevink's careless use of measuring instruments that he asked the expedition leader to relieve him of his responsibility for the meteorological research program. On August 31, Bernacchi and two other members of the expedition narrowly escaped fatal smoke poisoning due to improper use of a coal stove. The death of the Norwegian zoologist Nicolai Hanson in October 1899, when he presumably died of beriberi , aggravated by an intestinal infection, was a severe blow of fate . The inaccessibility of the Admiralty Mountains on Cape Adare also prevented planned excursions from the base camp to the Antarctic hinterland from being undertaken.

Bernacchi doing geomagnetic measurements on the sea ice

The expedition ship Southern Cross returned from Australia to Cape Adare on January 28, 1900 to resume the landing crew. Instead of a direct return to Australia, the expedition carried out a reconnaissance trip through the Ross Sea region . A few new islands were discovered and a new southern record was set after entering the Ross Ice Shelf for the first time with a geographical latitude of 78 ° 50 'S on February 16, 1900 while driving a dog sled . Bernacchi was able to determine the position of the Antarctic magnetic pole at 73 ° 20 ′  S , 146 ° 0 ′  E in northeastern Victoria Land with the help of geomagnetic measurements, particularly on Franklin Island , which completed his annual data collection at Cape Adare . The position was thus about 313 km north-west to that, some 60 years earlier during the Antarctic expedition under James Clark Ross at 75 ° 5 '  S , 154 ° 8'  O had been determined.

After Bernacchi's return from the expedition to England in June 1900, the Royal Geographical Society appointed him a Fellow and awarded him the prize named after the British astronomer Cuthbert Peek (1855-1901). The associated financial support from the learned society enabled him to evaluate the scientific data he collected during the research trip, which he published in 1901 together with his expedition experiences in the book To the South Polar regions . In a review in the London Times , the author praised Bernacchi's work and in return disparaged Borchgrevink's report in his book First on the Antarctic Continent with the remark: “Mr. Bernacchi gives us a much more satisfying idea of ​​navigating the pack ice than Mr. Borchgrevink. In the same way, it gives a more extensive and vivid account of the life that [the] participants in the expedition led on Cape Adare. "

Discovery expedition

Bernacchi (third from right) as a science officer on board the Discovery in Lyttelton, New Zealand in December 1901

→ see main article: Discovery expedition and their crew list

In July 1901, Bernacchi received a joint invitation from the President of the Royal Geographical Society Sir Clements Markham and the designated expedition leader Robert Falcon Scott to participate in the imminent Discovery Expedition to Antarctica. Both had become aware of Bernacchi through his publications and lectures on the Southern Cross Expedition. He took the position of the physicist William Shackleton (1871-1921) originally intended for the research trip, who had been unloaded after he was in the dispute between the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society over the occupation of the expedition leader not for Scott, but for the geologist John Walter Gregory had pronounced. According to another account, medical reasons against Shackleton were decisive. The goals of this expedition were meteorological, oceanographic, geological, biological and physical investigations in the target area. Bernacchi was the only one of the total of 50 expedition participants who had Antarctic experience.

While the other expedition members had been traveling south with the research vessel Discovery since August 6, 1901, Bernacchi first traveled to Potsdam to see the geophysicist Max Eschenhagen . From this he was instructed in the handling of a newly developed magnetometer with automatic data recording, which was carried on the research trip. Bernacchi only joined the team in Lyttelton, New Zealand .

On January 9, 1902, the expedition ship reached Cape Adare. Bernacchi got the opportunity to visit the base camp of the Southern Cross Expedition and the grave of Nicolai Hanson above the cape. On February 4, after anchoring the expedition ship in the Balloon Bight and stepping on the Ross Ice Shelf, he set a new south record as a member of a six-man sled team with a latitude of 79 ° 3 'S, which Scott, Edward Wilson and Ernest Shackleton already did a few months later on December 30, 1902 with 82 ° 17 ′ S.

Bernacchi leaving one of the two observation huts at Hut Point in 1902

Bernacchi tried in vain to convince Scott to set up the base camp for the Discovery expedition in Wood Bay and thus within reach of the then position of the Antarctic magnetic pole. Instead, Scott chose a sheltered bay not far from the cape at the southern end of the Hut Point Peninsula , which he later named Cape Armitage ( 77 ° 51 ′  S , 166 ° 40 ′  E ) after the deputy expedition leader Albert Armitage . Together with Armitage and the carpenter's assistant James Duncan (1870 - unknown), Bernacchi built two prefabricated observation huts in Germany for astronomical, meteorological and geomagnetic investigations after arriving on February 8, 1902. His area of ​​responsibility also included the operation of the electrometer , seismological and gravimetric measurements and investigations into aurora activity . The particular challenge for Bernacchi's work was to ensure constant moderate temperatures in the huts because of the sensitivity of the measuring instruments, which, to Scott's chagrin, was associated with a high consumption of fuel. During one of his daily explorations from the expedition ship, which was moored in front of the Hut Point Peninsula and served as accommodation enclosed in the sea ​​ice , to the observation huts, Bernacchi suffered frostbite on May 16, 1902 in a snow storm .

Bernacchi was part of the expedition team that spent a second year in Antarctica. During this time he continued his scientific investigations and took over the editorial responsibility for the expedition magazine The South Polar Times from Ernest Shackleton, who returned in March 1903 . In addition, Bernacchi took part between November and December 1903 as a member of a six-person team led by the geologist Charles Royds (1876-1931) on a 30-day exploratory march in a south-easterly direction over the Ross Ice Shelf, during which he was undisturbed by land masses or ferromagnetic magnetic declines carried out geomagnetic measurements. According to an agreement made at the Seventh International Geographical Congress in Berlin in 1899 , Bernacchi undertook all of his geomagnetic investigations in coordination with Erich von Drygalski's data collection during his Gaussian expedition (1901-1903), which took place at the same time .

After the expedition returned to England in September 1904, Bernacchi began an extensive evaluation of his measurement results. A first scientific article of this work appeared in December 1905 in the Geographical Journal . In 1906, King Edward VII awarded him the Antarctic Medal and the Royal Geographical Society the Silver Polar Medal for his services to the expedition . In addition, he was made Knight of the Legion of Honor in France that same year .

Next life

The Brookwood Cemetery , where the grave of Louis Bernacchi is

After the end of the Discovery expedition, Bernacchi finally settled in England. After a trip through German South West Africa and Namaqualand , he married Winifred Edith Harris (1884–1972) on February 10, 1906 in the parish church of East Preston, Sussex . Robert Falcon Scott was his best man. The marriage resulted in two sons and two daughters. His eldest son Michael Louis (1911-1983), who was Resident Commissioner of the then British Protectorate of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands from 1952 to 1961 , named Bernacchi after Michael Barne (1877-1961), another participant in Scott's Discovery Expedition . Also in 1906 he went on a research trip to the headwaters of the Amazon in Peru . Scott wanted to win him as a participant in the Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913), but Bernacchi refused for family reasons. A political career failed after he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Liberal Party in Widnes and in Chatham in the elections to the House of Commons in January and December 1910 . He earned his living mainly from investment income from investments in rubber plantations in Malaysia , Java and Borneo .

At the beginning of the First World War , Bernacchi volunteered and served with the rank of lieutenant commander first in the reserve forces of the Royal Navy ( Royal Naval Reserve ), later in the British Admiralty as an employee in the anti-submarine department . In 1919 he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire and the United States Navy Cross for his military service.

In the post-war years, Bernacchi returned to his rubber business and scientific activities at the British Science Guild , the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was a council member from 1928 to 1932. During this time he personally campaigned for Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink to be awarded the Patronage Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He had given up plans for his own Antarctic expedition in 1925 due to a lack of financial support. In 1930 he helped organize an exhibition in London on the history of British polar research, and was involved in the organization of the Second International Polar Year in 1931/32 . He published several books on polar exploration, including the 1933 biography A Very Gallant Gentleman about the polar explorer Lawrence Oates .

At the outbreak of World War II , Bernacchi returned to active duty with the Royal Naval Reserve to coordinate the use of submarine traps . His health deteriorated noticeably, however, and finally he died at the age of 65 on April 24, 1942 of complications from bleeding caused by a stomach ulcer in his house at No. 55 on Porchester Terrace in the London borough of Bayswater not far from Kensington Gardens . His grave is in the Brookwood, Surrey Cemetery .

aftermath

Statue in the image of Louis Bernacchi in Sullivan's Cove, Hobart, Tasmania

Cape Bernacchi ( 77 ° 29 ′  S , 163 ° 51 ′  E ) and Bernacchi Bay ( 77 ° 28 ′  S , 163 ° 27 ′  E ) are named after Louis Bernacchi, both of which are adjacent to the McMurdo Sound Coast of the Antarctic Victoria Land, as well as the Bernacchi Head ( 76 ° 8 ′  S , 168 ° 20 ′  E ), a cliff at the south end of the Antarctic Franklin Island . In addition, Bernacchi is the namesake of the Antarctic cod Trematomus bernacchii described by George Albert Boulenger .

Bernacchi's granddaughter Janet Crawford published her grandfather's diary of the Southern Cross Expedition in 1999 under the title That first Antarctic Winter .

The Australian Post issued a 5- cent postage stamp with the image of Louis Bernacchi in the series Australians in the Antarctic in 2001 .

In the harbor of Sullivans Cove near Hobart, the Prime Minister of the Australian state of Tasmania Jim Bacon unveiled a statue made by the sculptor Stephen Walker (1927-2014) that is modeled after Louis Bernacchi on September 10, 2002 . The statue is part of an installation entitled Walker The Bernacchi Tribute Sculptures , which also includes the bronze image of the sled dog Joe , who accompanied Bernacchi on the Southern Cross expedition. In his left hand, Bernacchi's statue is holding a flagpole with its stylized sleigh pennant on the Discovery Expedition, on which the Southern Cross was depicted next to the English Cross of St. George as a coat of arms and which in Maori language from the Gospel according to Matthew (chapter 7, verse 7 ) borrowed biblical saying carried "Rapua, Rapua Ka Kitea" (German: "Suchet, searchet and you will find" ).

literature

  • Louis Bernacchi: The Saga of the Discovery . Rooster Books, Royston 2001, ISBN 978-1-871510-22-5 (new edition).
  • Carsten E. Borchgrevink: First on the Antarctic Continent . George Newnes, London 1901 (English, accessible from the Internet Archive).
  • Robert Falcon Scott: The Voyage of the Discovery , Vol. I and Vol. II . Macmillan, London, 1905 (English, accessible from the Internet Archive).
  • Robert Arthur Swan: Louis Charles Bernacchi. In: The Victorian Historical Magazine , Vol. 33, Issue 131 (1963), pp. 379-400 (English, access via the database of the State Library of Victoria , Melbourne, Australia).

Web links

Commons : Louis Bernacchi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ RA Swan: Louis Charles Bernacchi. In: The Victorian Historical Magazine , Vol. 33 Issue 131 , pp. 382, ​​398: Bernacchi's brother Diego Maria Tasman and his sisters Blanche and Vega were born in Australia.
  2. ^ Gianfranco Cresciani: Italiens in Australia . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-521-53778-9 , p. 45 (accessed from Google Books on March 5, 2015).
  3. ↑ Margaret Weidenhofer: Bernacchi, Angelo Giulio Diego (1853-1925) . Entry in the online edition of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (accessed February 27, 2013).
  4. ^ A. Atkin: Louis Charles Bernacchi, Pioneer Antarctic Scientist and Explorer. ( Memento of April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) In: Records of the Canterbury Museum (2011), Vol. 25, p. 2.
  5. ^ CE Borchgrevink: First on the Antarctic Continent , 1901, pp. 15-16.
  6. ↑ [No Name]: Antarctic Exploration . In: Launceston Examiner, November 8, 1898, p. 6 (accessed February 28, 2013).
  7. ↑ Criss Turney: 1912 - The Year the World Discovered Antarctica . Counterpoint, Berkeley 2012, ISBN 1-58243-789-0 , p. 28.
  8. ^ TH Baughman: Before the Heroes Came: Antarctica in the 1890s . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1999, ISBN 0-8032-6163-2 , p. 95.
  9. ^ LC Bernacchi: To the South Polar regions , 1901, p. 172.
  10. ^ LC Bernacchi: To the South Polar regions , 1901, pp. 184-190.
  11. ↑ HR Guly: 'Polar anemia': cardiac failure during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration (PDF; 131 kB). In: Polar Record 48, 2012, pp. 157-164. doi: 10.1017 / S0032247411000222 (English)
  12. ^ CE Borchgrevink: First on the Antarctic Continent , 1901, p. 6.
  13. ^ LC Bernacchi: To the South Polar regions , 1901, pp. 308-312.
  14. ↑ James Clark Ross: A voyage of discovery and research in the southern and Antarctic regions, during the years 1839–43 , Vol II, John Murray, London 1847, pp. 446–447 (English, accessed in the Internet Archive on November 8th 2013).
  15. ^ Royal Geographical Society: A list of the honorary members, fellows and associate members. RGS, London 1921, p. 10 (accessed March 4, 2013).
  16. ^ [No name]: Antarctic Research . In: The Mercury (Hobart), May 22, 1901, p. 3 (English, accessed March 4, 2013).
  17. ^ [Untitled]: Reviews of Books - Antarctic Exploration . In: The Times of September 26, 1901, issue 36570, p. 2: “ Mr Bernacchi gives us a much more satisfactory idea of ​​navigation through the ice pack than did Mr Borchgrevink. In the same way he conveys a much fuller and clearer conception of the life led by members of the expedition on Cape Adare. ”
  18. ^ [No name]: Scientific Staff - Change on the Discovery . In: Kalgoorlie Miner, July 31, 1901, p. 5 (English, accessed February 28, 2013).
  19. ^ Edward J. Larson : An Empire of Ice . Yale University Press, New Haven 2011, ISBN 0-300-15408-9 , p. 114.
  20. ^ RF Scott: The Voyage of the Discovery , Vol I, 1905, p. 5.
  21. ^ A. Atkin: The Quest for the Magnetic Pole: navigation and research into polar terrestrial magnetism. (PDF) University of Canterbury , Christchurch 2008 (accessed March 1, 2013).
  22. ^ RF Scott: The Voyage of the Discovery , Vol I, 1905, pp. 100-102.
  23. ^ JV Skelton, DM Wilson: Discovery Illustrated . Reardon Publishing, Cheltenham 2001, ISBN 1-873877-48-X , p. 54.
  24. ↑ RF Scott: The Voyage of the Discovery , Vol II, p. 59. Supplement: New calculations based on Shackleton's photographs and Wilson's drawings indicated that they may have only reached 82 ° 11 ′ S.
  25. ↑ Cape Armitage , entry on geographic.org (accessed March 1, 2013).
  26. ^ RF Scott: The Voyage of the Discovery , Vol I, 1905, p. 172 , pp. 208-209 and p. 231.
  27. ^ RF Scott: The Voyage of the Discovery , Vol I, 1905, p. 240.
  28. ^ William J. Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers , Vol. I. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , p. 585.
  29. ^ RF Scott: The Voyage of the Discovery , Vol II, 1905, pp. 222-223.
  30. ^ RA Swan: Louis Charles Bernacchi. In: The Victorian Historical Magazine , Vol. 33 Issue 131 , p. 393.
  31. ↑ LC Bernacchi: Preliminary Report on the Physical Observations Conducted on the National Antarctic Expedition, from 1902 to 1904 (PDF) In: Geographical Journal (1905), Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 642-656 (accessed March 4, 2013).
  32. ↑ Bernacchi, Louis Charles (1876-1942) , entry in the Encyclopedia of Australian Science (English, accessed March 4, 2013).
  33. ^ Royal Geographical Society: Year Book and Record 1907 . William Clowes & Sons, London 1907, p. 213. (accessed from the Internet Archive on March 4, 2013).
  34. ↑ a b c Lot 151 / Sale 5587 , information about Louis Bernacchi on the website of the Christie’s auction house (English, accessed on February 26, 2013).
  35. ↑ Kiribati , entry on worldstatesmen.org (accessed February 27, 2013).
  36. ↑ a b Louis Bernacchi ( Memento of February 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), short biography of on the homepage of the Australian Antarctic Division of the DSEWPaC (English, accessed on February 27, 2013).
  37. ↑ Arthur GM Hesilrige (ed.): Debrett's House of Commons . Dean & Son, London 1918, p. 200 and p. 242 (English, accessed from the Internet Archive on March 2, 2013). Bernacchi lost in January 1910 in Widnes with 4666 to 5768 votes against William Hall Walker, 1st Baron Wavertree (1856-1933) and in December 1910 in Chatham with 4302 to 6989 votes against Gerald Fitzroy Hohler (1862-1934), both for the Conservative Party .
  38. ^ [No name]: The British Polar Exhibition (PDF) In Nature (1930), No. 126, p. 80 (English, accessed on February 26, 2013).
  39. ^ Louis Charles Bernacchi: A Very Gallant Gentleman. Thornton Butterworth, London 1933.
  40. ^ A. Atkin: Louis Charles Bernacchi, Pioneer Antarctic Scientist and Explorer. ( Memento of April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) In: Records of the Canterbury Museum (2011), Vol. 25, p. 10.
  41. ^ [Without name]: Orbituary, Lieut.-Commander Bernacchi . In: The Mercury (Hobart), April 27, 1942, p. 4 (accessed February 27, 2013).
  42. ↑ London Gazette . No. 36817, HMSO, London, November 28, 1944, p. 5488 ( PDF , accessed March 6, 2013, English).
  43. ^ Louis Charles Bernacchi , entry in the Find a Grave database (accessed February 27, 2013).
  44. ^ Cape Bernacchi , entry on geographic.org (accessed February 27, 2013).
  45. ↑ Cape Bernacchi ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved October 28, 2013.
  46. ^ Bernacchi Bay , entry on geographic.org (accessed February 27, 2013).
  47. ↑ Bernacchi Bay ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved October 28, 2013.
  48. ^ Bernacchi Head , entry on geographic.org (accessed February 28, 2013).
  49. ↑ Bernacchi Head ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved October 28, 2013.
  50. ↑ Trematomus bernacchii . Entry in the FishBase online database (accessed March 9, 2015).
  51. ↑ Janet Crawford: That first Antarctic Winter . South Latitude Research, Christchurch 1999. ISBN 0-473-04966-X .
  52. ^ Postage stamp: Louis Bernacchi , photo and information on the postage stamp at colnect.com/de (accessed on March 6, 2013).
  53. ^ A new Hutchins Lion ( Memento of April 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), information on the Hutchins School homepage of November 29, 2012 (English, accessed on February 27, 2013).
  54. ^ LC Bernacchi: To the South Polar regions , 1901, p. 278 (photo).
  55. ↑ Sledging flags , Figure S0025093 on the Scott Polar Research Institute website (accessed March 4, 2013).

additions

  1. ↑ From left to right: Edward Wilson , Ernest Shackleton , Albert Armitage , Michael Barne (1877–1961), Dr. Reginald Koettlitz , Reginald Skelton (1872–1965), Robert Falcon Scott , Charles Royds , Louis Bernacchi, Hartley Ferrar and Thomas Hodgson (1864–1926)
personal data
SURNAME Bernacchi, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernacchi, Louis Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian-British physicist, astronomer and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1942
Place of death London