Reprinted from Polar Post (Volume 36, No.3 [Whole No. 202] September 2004, pp. 91-94)

LETTER FROM DOWN UNDER by Peter D Cranwell

In this my first letter to Polar Post I want to tell you about four matters. The first is to do with the issue of AAT stamps to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of Mawson station, the oldest continuously operating station inside the Antarctic circle. The second is the unveiling of the bronze statue of "Mrs Chippy", the cat on the , the third is the visit of the James Caird to New Zealand and the fourth is the unveiling of the tribute to in Akaroa, New Zealand.

50th Anniversary of the establishment of Mawson station: The Australian Antarctic Territory stamps issued to commemorate this anniversary are described elsewhere in this issue of Polar Post. The stamps were issued in Australia on 13th February 2004, exactly 50 years after the Mawson station naming ceremony took place on Saturday 13th February 1954 on the rocky shore of Horseshoe Harbour. The venue for the launch of these stamps was the Postmaster Gallery in Melbourne, where the Exhibition entitled "Philately on Ice - Stamps of the Australian Antarctic Territory 1957-2003", ran from 6th December 2003 to 29th February 2004.

Figure 1: Nine members of the Mawson pioneer party, who attended the launch. From left to right they are: Arthur Gwyn, Fred Elliott, Ray Seaver, Dick Thompson, Bill Storer, Ken Dufell, Jim Brooks, Bill Pedersen and Phillip Law. Bill Storer was a member of the first wintering party at Mawson station in 1954.

The following account of the arrival and the naming ceremony at Mawson station is taken from The Silence Calling: Australians in 1947-97 by Tim Bowden. The Kista Dan nosed her way between the encircling arms of the 'horseshoe' late on Thursday 11th February and into Horseshoe Harbour still covered with fast ice. Unloading of the ship began sometime on Friday 12th February and was well underway on the following day when by late afternoon Phillip Law decided it was time for the official naming ceremony. A flagpole was rigged on one of the barge caravans (depicted in one of the 50¢ stamps) that served as living quarters while the huts were being built. In the presence of all the ANARE men Phillip Law raised the flag and made the following declaration: "In the name of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Government of Australia I raise this Australian flag on Australian Antarctic Territory; I name this new ANARE station 'Mawson' in honour of the great Australian Antarctic explorer and scientist, Sir Douglas Mawson". They then sang the national anthem and gave three hearty cheers.

It was reported in the Australia Post Philatelic Bulletin (No. 6, June 1954) that the first batch of philatelic mail for Mawson, comprising 20,152 ordinary and 2,848 registered articles, was received at the Philatelic Bureau Melbourne and was taken in the Kista Dan, which left Melbourne on 4th January 1954 and arrived back in Melbourne on 31 st March 1954. The first postmaster at Mawson station was Bill Storer, who had been postmaster at the Macquarie Island station during the 1951/52 expedition. Bill Storer, who now lives in Sydney, has provided me with some interesting insights into the arrival at Mawson and about the cancellation of the philatelic mail as follows:

'Briefly, when the Kista Dan arrived at the Horseshoe Harbour, which was to be named ‘MAWSON’ the thought of postmarking many letters etc was the last thing on the itinerary to be done. Of course if the ship had not found an ideal place there would not have been any First Day cancellations for the voyage. The main object of this pioneering party was to establish a station and maintain it for year/s to come. This probably was in the minds of Australia Post (PMG) at the time and they did not issue a commemorative stamp for the establishment of a base. Everyone was treated as equal including the scientific staff and work was done during daylight hours, which was about 20 hours a day during the summer months; erection of the base was the first priority. Actually the base was not declared operational till April 1st 1954 when power and all equipment was switched on. It was decided by the Director of the Antarctic Division, Dr Phillip Law, (Dept. of External Affairs) to use the 15th February as the official day of the opening of the post office. It would not have been practical to have had more than one date for cancellation of postal letters etc.'

Thus the Post Office at Mawson was officially declared open on 15th February 1954 and all mail, including the philatelic articles, was cancelled with a single canceller [C1a (Milner)/APM1070 (Wooley & Eury)], and all have the same cancellation date (15 FE 54). However, cancellation of this large volume of mail, in excess of 23,000 articles, was carried out over a number of days. Cancellation of the mail, which took place either on board ship or at a Post Office set up outside one of the barge caravans, was completed by 22nd February. The Kista Dan departed from Mawson on 23rd February 1954. Bill Storer was assisted by one of the French observers, Dr André Migot, with the cancellation of the mail.

In his book, The Lonely , Dr Migot records the following: 'On February 22 the base was far enough advanced for us to leave the winter party to their own devices. Our departure was fixed for the next day, everyone was feverishly busy with final arrangements, but the most overworked man in the station was the officer in charge of the post office. For several days the poor fellow had spent his days and part of his nights in stamping masses of letters and stowing them in bags in the saloon. I would never have believed twenty men capable of writing so many letters and post cards. I afterwards discovered that there were more than thirty thousand of them.' (Bill Storer says that the Australia Post figure of 23,000 articles is the correct one) Dr Migot continued: 'This immense spate of correspondence was due to the fact that an official Post Office had been opened at Mawson and that the first stamped mail from this new station would be of great interest and value to stamp-collectors, although the stamps were only ordinary Australian stamps, overprinted "Mawson Antarctica". (No stamps were overprinted; the author probably confused cancelling with overprinting). Next year the station would have stamps of its own. While I was helping Bill Storer, the good-natured meteorologist (he was in fact the radio operator) who had assumed the duties of postmaster, I noticed that packets containing several hundreds of stamped cards, some of them specially printed for the occasion, were addressed to the same address, generally that of a stamp dealer. I must say I was shocked to see the way the mission was being commercially exploited. On the other hand, I was delighted and rather touched to see that Registered Letter No. 1, signed by all the Australian members of the expedition, was addressed to Her Majesty the Queen, Buckingham Palace, London.' Now to some matters regarding the commemorative stamp issue. The layout of the sheets of se- tenant pairs of 50¢ stamps differs from the previous issue of AAT stamps, i.e., Antarctic Ships. In the Ships issue the position of the se-tenant 50¢ stamps in each row were alternated such that in each sheet there were equal numbers of Kista Dan and Magga Dan stamps; gutter pairs had one of each stamp. In the Mawson commemorative issue the position of the two 50¢ stamps in each row of 5 stamps is the same. As a result there are 30 Naming Ceremony and 20 Contemporary view of Mawson station stamps in each sheet; gutter pairs have two similar stamps.

The National postmarker (APM36120; Wooley & Eury) for the Mawson commemorative issue used to machine cancel the first day covers produced by the Philatelic Bureau in Melbourne and also for hand cancelling covers to order is shown in Figure 2a. The hand canceller provided to the Post Office at Kingston (APM36121, Figure 2b) and used for hand cancelling covers to order is somewhat different from that used at the Bureau.

Figure 2a: APM 36120 Figure 2b: APM 36121 National Postmark used to cancel the National Postmark used to cancel the Mawson 50th Anniversary stamps at Mawson 50th Anniversary stamps at the the Philatelic Bureau, Melbourne Kingston Post Office

The major difference between the two postmarkers is that the postcode is depicted incorrectly as 7250 on the Kingston PO postmarker (Figure 2b). It should be 7050 as shown on the Bureau postmarker (Figure 2a). Other differences between the two postmarkers are to be seen in the fonts in the printing, the placement of the flagpole and the printing in relation to the mountain, and the definition and detail in the flag. This is the second time in four years there have been errors in the postcode for Kingston in the National postmarker for new issues of AAT stamps (Wooley & Eury). The previous one was for the Australians in the Antarctic issue in 2001, when the postcode for Kingston was shown as 7060 in both the Bureau and Post Office postmarkers. Both postmarkers were subsequently replaced with corrected versions. For the Mawson stamp issue the Kingston PO National postmarker was not replaced with a corrected version.

On page 25 of the Australian Stamp Bulletin (ASB) No. 273 January-February 2004 the following announcement was made: "From January 2004, the sales period for new commemorative and special issues has been reduced from 12 months to 6 months. Planned withdrawal dates may be changed without notice to meet emergent postal or business requirements. Advice of such changes will be published in the first available Australian Stamp Bulletin after the changes." Accordingly, the planned withdrawal date for the Mawson Station 1954-2004 stamp issue was set as 31 August 2004. This withdrawal date was repeated on page iii of the Specialist Notes in ASB No. 275 June-July 2004. On consulting the Antarctic Division website for the 2004/2005 shipping schedules: [http://www-old.aad.gov.au/goingsouth/schedules /0405_ship_sked.asp] I found that the scheduled departure date for the first voyage of Aurora Australis to implement the changeover at Casey station, is 2nd October 2004. On subsequent voyages Aurora Australis will resupply Davis, Mawson and finally Macquarie Island stations. The last mentioned is not due to be resupplied until 2nd April 2005. Could it be that the personnel at Mawson station would never see the stamps that were issued to celebrate their station's 50th Anniversary because they have been withdrawn? I raised this matter with the Postal Manager at Kingston Post Office, who is responsible for supplying the stamps to the ANARE stations and who provides instruction each year to the new station postmasters prior to their departure. Through his intervention good sense has now prevailed and the withdrawal date for this issue has been amended. Check future issues of ASB for the revised withdrawal date for the Mawson stamps! In addition to the AAT stamp issue the Mawson Station 50th Anniversary has been commemorated with a A$1.00 proof quality coin produced by the Perth Mint. This one ounce, 99.9% pure silver coin features a coloured image of Mawson station and an Emperor penguin and chick in the foreground. The number of these coins minted was limited to a total of 7,500. The RRP of the coins as advertised on page 7 of ASB No. 275 is A$65.00. Because of the limited mintage, the coins are now difficult to obtain and coin dealers are currently advertising them for A$95.00!

The Mrs Chippy Project: Mrs Chippy was a cat taken on Shackleton's Endurance expedition by the carpenter Harry McNeish. He was a male tabby cat described as being "full of character" by members of the expedition. When the Endurance was crushed by ice and sank in the Weddell Sea on 21st November 1915, it was clear that Mrs Chippy would not survive. Shackleton ordered him shot along with the pups and later the rest of the dogs. Mrs Chippy's death, for which he never forgave Shackleton, affected McNeish greatly and he mourned the cat for the rest of his life.

After the expedition members reached , McNeish was instrumental in modifying the James Caird for the epic journey to South Georgia during April-May 1916. He was chosen by Shackleton to be one of the six members of the crew for that successful journey. In 1925 McNeish went to New Zealand where he worked on the Wellington waterfront for the NZ Shipping Company. Harry McNeish died in Wellington in 1930 at the age of 56 and is buried in the Karori Cemetery in Wellington.

In 1959 the New Zealand Antarctic Society provided a headstone for the grave of McNeish. Now, inspired by an idea conceived by Baden Norris, the noted Antarctic historian, and Caroline Alexander, author of Endurance and Mrs Chippy's Last Expedition, the NZ Antarctic Society has undertaken to put a commemorative, life size bronze statue of Mrs Chippy on the grave. The Society has also carried out restoration work on the grave and headstone.

The creator of the bronze sculpture of Mrs Chippy is Chris Elliott, an artist from Haumoana, Hawkes Bay, NZ. The artist said that she "was impressed by Mrs Chippy's adventurous nature and the friendship between the cat and his mate on such an arduous voyage". She continued "I would like people to come upon the grave and be surprised to find a cat resting, its face alert, its body relaxed as if he were lying on McNeish's bunk".

To celebrate the completion of the project, a small ceremony was held on Sunday 27th June 2004, at Harry McNeish's grave in the Karori cemetery. Nearly 100 people gathered to watch the unveiling of the statue of Mrs Chippy.

Travels of the James Caird: The James Caird (see the previous section), which is normally housed in the North Cloister of Dulwich College, London, left the college on 16th March 2004 en route to the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand. Here it is one of the major attractions of the exhibition entitled "Antarctic Heroes: The race to the South Pole", which opened on 29th May and will continue until 26th October 2004. The exhibition is based on the hugely successful "South - The Race to the Pole" exhibition developed by the National Maritime Museum in London. The exhibition tells the epic stories of three of the Antarctic's greatest heroes - Captain Robert Scott, Roald Amundsen and Sir .

The exhibition is of great significance to New Zealand, which was (and still is) the final setting off point for so many Antarctic expeditions and is also the birthplace of Frank Worsley, the navigator on Shackleton's Endurance expedition. It was Frank Worsley who was responsible for navigating the James Caird on what was one of the greatest small-boat voyages ever made. In order to save their marooned crewmates on Elephant Island, Shackleton, Worsley, McNeish and three others sailed 1300 kilometres across the treacherous Southern Ocean to the island of South Georgia. After landing at , on the west coast of South Georgia, Shackleton, Worsley and crossed the rugged, mountainous island in a non-stop 36-hour trek and reached the whaling station at Stomness Bay. From here Shackleton commenced the task of organising the rescue of the men on Elephant Island but not before the remaining three men and the James Caird were rescued from King Haakon Bay. The James Caird was transported back to England and eventually given a "permanent" home at Dulwich College. Tribute to Frank Worsley: A bust of Frank Worsley, shaped by Christchurch sculptor Stephen Gleeson and commissioned by the Friends of Akaroa Museum was unveiled in Akaroa on 6th March 2004. The unveiling was performed by John Thomson, who is the author of Shackleton's Captain, the first-ever biography of Frank Worsley. It is most appropriate that the bust sits on a plinth of Antarctic rocks, which were once part of the ballast of a government vessel engaged in Antarctic work.

Born in Akaroa on February 22nd 1872, Frank Worsley was apprenticed to the New Zealand Shipping Company at 16, and went on to become a sailing master and a remarkable navigator. In addition to his navigational skills Frank Worsley was also the author of four books including Endurance and Shackleton's Boat Journey. It is his diaries and notes which provide the main records of the voyage of the James Caird from Elephant Island to South Georgia.

References:-

Antarctic - Journal of the New Zealand Antarctic Society 22, No. 1, 2004 Australian Philatelic Bulletin No. 6. Melbourne, Victoria: Australia Post. 1954 Australian Stamp Bulletin No. 273. Melbourne, Victoria: Australia Post. January - February 2004 Australian Stamp Bulletin No. 275. Melbourne, Victoria: Australia Post. June - July 2004 Bowden, Tim: The Silence Calling - Australians in Antarctica 1947-97. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, ISBN 1864483113. 1997 James Caird Society Newsletter, Issue 10, May 2004 Migot, André: The Lonely South. Charing Cross Rd, London: Travel Book Club. 1956? Milner, Roy M: Postal History of the Australian Antarctic 1911-1965. Pall Mall, London: Robson Lowe for the PPHSGB, ISBN 0853971536. 1980 (Second printing) Thomson, John: Shackleton's Captain - A Biography of Frank Worsley. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, ISBN 1865082457. 1999 Wooley, Colleen A & Eury, Janet S: Postmarks of the Australian Antarctic Territory 1911-2004. Melbourne, Victoria: DC Desktoppers, ISBN 0646401718. 2004