Report on the Collections of Natural History Made in the Antarctic Regions during the Voyage of the ‘Southern Cross’

1902

Expedition Reports Q115 S685 1898

London: British Museum

English publisher Sir George Newnes gave Norwegian explorer, Carsten Borchgrevink, £40,000 (almost four million in today’s money) to fund the 1898 voyage of the three-masted barque, Southern Cross. It was an expedition of ‘firsts’ in Antarctica: the first to use dogs; the first to erect buildings; the first expedition party to ‘overwinter’ on the continental mainland; and unfortunately (after the death of zoologist Nicolai Hanson from beriberi) the first to bury a body there. Despite no support from the British scientific establishment and only returning with ‘meagre scientific results’, the expedition proved that overwintering on the continent was a possibility. Specimens, like the Weddell Seal, pictured here, were sent back to England in brine.