Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition

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Coordinates: 71 ° 3 ′ 0 ″  S , 10 ° 55 ′ 0 ″  W.

Relief Map: Antarctica
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Maudheim​
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Antarctic

The Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition (also known as NBSX or NBSAE ) (1949–1952) was the first Antarctic expedition to be organized on a multinational basis. The team members came from Norway , Sweden and the Commonwealth . The organization of the expedition later served as a model for a number of others.

course

Encouraged by the Swedish geographer Hans Wilhelmsson Ahlmann (1889–1974) and coordinated by Harald Ulrik Sverdrup , the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute , the expeditions particularly served to clarify questions about the glacier budget depending on the meteorological conditions. Norway was responsible for meteorology and national surveying , Great Britain for geology and Sweden for glaciology . In addition, Norway wanted to underpin its claim to this sector of the Antarctic.

The journey took place with the 600-ton seal-catching ship Norsel and the 23,000-ton whale catcher Thorshøvdi , on which 62 sled dogs were carried, of which only 44 survived the trip. In addition, two light aircraft of the type " Auster " of the Royal Air Force were carried for reconnaissance purposes. On land, a type of snowmobile was used to bring tons of material from the unloading station to the base camp. They took turns with the dogs on excursions inland. In January 1951 the Swedish Air Force made two aircraft available.

For the entire duration of the expedition, the base camp Maudheim 71 ° 3 ′  S , 10 ° 55 ′  W was set up north-east of Cape Norvegia for the 15-person wintering group under the direction of John Giæver (1901–1970). Two station houses, which were used for living and working, a generator hut, a workshop, a drilling machine hut and a radio hut were built here. The sled dogs were housed in a snow tunnel. The Advance Base 72 ° 17 ′  S , 3 ° 48 ′  W was set up about 320 kilometers inland . This was not always manned and was mainly used to support the excursion teams. A network of depots was also set up. The expedition's 450 t heavy equipment allowed a stay of up to three years.

Numerous trips were made from the bases, the longest of which lasted 80 days. Glaciological and geological investigations were carried out on these excursions, but a triangulation network was also measured, which should serve to evaluate the aerial photographs. The reconnaissance flights were not very successful because of the bad weather and had to be canceled after one of the Swedish planes crash-landed.

The expedition produced some surprising results. Seismic ice thickness measurements showed that under the uniform ice surface lies a rugged mountainous region with numerous fjords . A fjord 700 m deep was found 250 km away from the coast. The ice cover had a thickness of 2,400 m in places. Ahlmann's assumption that the thickness of the glaciers has decreased compared to the past was confirmed.

Over a period of almost 23 months, meteorological data were recorded regularly, especially in the free atmosphere through the ascent of a total of 650  radiosondes . In addition, the reaction of the human organism to the Antarctic climate was examined medically.

On February 24, 1951, there was a tragic accident. In thick fog, Bertil Ekström, Leslie Quar, Stig Hallgren and John Jelbart drove their snowmobile over the edge of the ice and fell into Norsel Bay. Hallgren managed to save himself on an ice floe 200 m away while the others drowned. He was saved 13 hours later.

staff

  • John Schjelderup Giæver (1901–1970) - Norwegian, head of the winter team
  • Stig Valter Schytt (1919–1985) - Swede, chief glaciologist, second officer
  • Gordon de Quetteville Robin (1921–2004) - Australian, geophysicist, third officer
  • Nils Jørgen Schumacher (* 1919) - Norwegian, chief meteorologist
  • Gösta Hjalmar Liljequist (1914–1995) - Swede, assistant meteorologist
  • Ernest Frederick Roots (1923-2016) - Canadian, chief geologist
  • Alan Reece (1921–1960) - British, assistant geologist
  • Charles Winthrop Molesworth Swithinbank (1926-2014) - British, assistant glaciologist
  • Nils Roer (* 1914) - Norwegian, surveyor
  • Ove Wilson (1921-1981) - Swede, medic
  • Bertil Ekström (1919–1951) - Swede, mechanical engineer, died in an accident on February 24, 1951
  • Egil Rogstad (1908–1987) - Norwegian, radio officer
  • Peter Melleby (* 1917) - Norwegian, responsible for the dogs
  • Leslie Quar (1923–1951) - British, radio operator, fatal accident on February 24, 1951
  • John Snarby (born 1922) - Norwegian, steward, left in January 1951

Additional members who joined the team in January 1951:

  • Stig Hallgren (1925-2014) - Swede, photographer
  • John Jelbart (1926–1951) - Australian physicist, died in an accident on February 24, 1951
  • Bjarne Lorentzen (* 1900) - Norwegian, steward

See also

literature

  • John Giæver: Station in the ice. Two years in Antarctica. The Norwegian-British-Swedish Scientific Antarctic Expedition 1949–1952 . 2nd Edition. VEB Hermann Haack, Gotha 1957 (Norwegian: Maudheim. To år i Antarktis . Translated by H. Reiher).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kurt Hassert : The polar research. History of voyages of discovery to the North and South Poles . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1956, p. 257 f .
  2. ↑ a b c d John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 2, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , pp. 1123 f. (English)
  3. ^ A b William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 260–263 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ a b Gangbing Song, Ramesh B. Malla: Earth and Space 2010: Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments , ASCE Publications, 2010, ISBN 0-7844-1096-8 , pp. 957 f.
  5. ^ John Giæver: Station in the ice. Two years in Antarctica . S. 99 .
  6. ^ Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1949–1952 on the Scott Polar Institute website, accessed on June 4, 2013 (English)
  7. ^ John Giæver: Station in the ice. Two years in Antarctica . S. 213-219 .
  8. ↑ Ernest Frederick Roots. July 5, 1923 - October 18, 2016. In: The Globe and Mail , October 25, 2016 (accessed May 12, 2017).
  9. ↑ Charles Smithinbank - Obituary. In: The Daily Telegraph , May 29, 2014 (accessed March 14, 2016).
  10. ^ Stig Hallgren in Svensk Filmdatabas (Swedish, accessed January 4, 2019).