One of the harshest environments on Earth, Cape Adare is located 780km north of Scott Base. It was here, in 1894, that humans first set foot on the Antarctic mainland, and who in 1899 built the first Antarctic base.
Before the world had heard of Scott and Shackleton, a group of 10 young men from Norway, England and Australia spent a year at Cape Adare. They paved the way for the more famous explorers who followed, and the 2019 Ross Dependency stamps recount their rarely-told story.
The Cape Adare base centred around two prefabricated wooden huts and was used just twice. After 1912, it was abandoned for more than a century to the harsh extremes of the Antarctic climate and a babble of the penguins. But the original huts stood firm, sheltering the food, clothing and equipment left behind by Antarctica’s earliest residents. This latest Ross Dependency stamp issue tells the story of these huts through five key artefacts recently collected by the Antarctic Heritage Trust (AHT).
The Southern Cross Expedition.
The Southern Cross Expedition, officially known as the British Antarctic Expedition 1898–1900, was the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and the forerunner of the more celebrated journeys of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. The brainchild of the Norwegian-born, half-British explorer and schoolmaster Carsten Borchgrevink, it was the first expedition to over-winter on the Antarctic mainland, the first to visit the Great Ice Barrier since James Clark Ross's expedition of 1839 to 1843, and the first to effect a landing on the Barrier's surface. It also pioneered the use of dogs and sledges in Antarctic travel.
$1.30 Carsten Borchgrevink.
Borchgrevink oversaw the Southern Cross expedition. Despite the expedition being plagued by controversy, in 1930, the British Royal Geographical Society awarded him its Patron’s Medal.
$1.30 Fruitcake: Cape Adare.
This perfectly preserved Huntley & Palmers fruitcake was a surprise find among hundreds of food tins temporarily removed from the huts at Cape Adare.
$2.60 Toothbrush: Cape Adare.
Although soap was somehow omitted from the supplies taken on the Southern Cross, this bone-handled toothbrush found in one of the huts suggests that the men did look after their teeth.
$3.30 Primus: Cape Adare.
Borchgrevink’s team was the first to use a Primus stove in Antarctica. Lightweight and reliable, the Primus became a cornerstone of Antarctic exploration.
$4.00 Watercolour: Cape Adare.
This delicate watercolour of a Northern Hemisphere bird known as a treecreeper was unearthed from a pile of mould-covered papers found on a bunk in the Cape Adare accommodation hut in 2016.
First Day Cover - 18 Sept 2019.
Miniature Sheet.
MS First Day Cover - 18 Sept 2019.
Presentation Pack
In this presentation pack, you’ll learn more about the Southern Cross expedition that saw the first humans to set foot on the Antarctic mainland, Scott’s Northern Party and the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s efforts to preserve the huts and their artefacts. The pack includes a set of five stamps, a miniature sheet and a first-day cover.
Set of Plate Blocks. Set of Value Blocks.
Set of Full Sheets.
Technical Information.
Date of issue: 18 September 2019.
The number of stamps: Five gummed stamps.
Denominations: $1.30 x 2, $2.60, $3.30, $4.00.
Stamps, miniature sheet and first day covers designed: Alan Hollows, New Zealand Post, Wellington, New Zealand.
Printer and process: Southern Colour Print, Dunedin, New Zealand by offset lithography.
The number of colours: Four process colours plus clear overgloss.
Stamp size and format: 50mm x 30mm (horizontal).
Miniature sheet size and format: 170mm x 90mm (horizontal).
First-day cover size and format: 205mm x 120mm (horizontal).
Paper type: Tullis Russell 104gsm red phosphor gummed stamp paper.
The number of stamps per sheet: 25.
Perforation gauge: 14.4 x 14.
Special blocks: Plate/imprint blocks may be obtained by purchasing at least six stamps from a sheet. Barcode blocks are available in A and B formats.
Period of sale: Unless stocks are exhausted earlier, these stamps will remain on sale until 17 September 2020. First-day covers will remain on sale until 17 November 2019.
Some of the images in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ
Information & images for this post came from.
An interesting story. You are right in that this expedition seems to have been overshadowed by other expeditions. It is amazing how well preserved those items were in the abandoned camp.
ReplyDeleteAllan