The Polar Record Number 17
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NUMBER 11: JANUARY 1989 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN POR THE SCOTT POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE CAMBRIDGE: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1989 Price Two Shillings CONTENTS FRONTISPI ECE Hen- Daugaard.Jensen FOREWORD J'4II' 1 OBITUARY • 2 A RCTI C REGIONS: S valbard and J an Mayen: Completed Expeditions : Cambridge Spitsbergen Expedition. 1938 4. Norwegian Expedition to Svalbard, 1988 5 Norwegian Fisheries Expedition to Svalbard, 1938 1 German Aviation Experiments in Spitsbergen, 1938 7 I mperial College of Science Expedit ion to J an 1\layen. 1938 7 ARTICLE: Design for a Sledge-wheel, By W. B. Harla.nd l a European Araic: Completed Expedition: Oxford University Women's Biological Expedition to Lapland, 1988 12 R ussian Arctic Expeditw na: Relief of the Soviet Ice-breakers end the Drift of the Sedov 18 Soviet Work in the Arctic, 1938 18 The Finding of De Long's Diary on Henriet ta Island U ARTICLE: The Use of Wireless Equipment by Expeditions. By Captain I. F. Meiklejohn, R.Signals. (Plate) 15 Grunland : Changes in the Greenland Administration 25 Compkted Expeditions : Miss Louise A. Bayd's Arctic Expedition, 1938 25 Norwegia.n Expeditions to East Greenland, 1938 26 C. G. DiOO's Biological I nvestigations in E ast Greenland, 1936-88 . 21 Dr Lauge Koch's Expedit ion to East Greenland, 1986-88 27 (Continued on pagu 8 and 40 ojwrapper) Pages 1. ~ President _ Director __ .._ _ Secretary-General _ Assistant-Secretary T echnical-Assistant r--;l ';, .~ '>j Technical -Assistan ~. ....L.::.c-?-..:2:<f-.... Translator . _ ,.0. ...... I • • ·• •· , 0.000 • I. M. THE POLAR RECORD Number 17 J anuary 1939 FOREWORD At this t ime of year there is usually news from the Antarctic. but it has come too late for more than a bri ef reference in ou r editorial note. Lincoln ElIsworth, now a veteran of the polar regions, has made yet another flight from his ship, JJ' yatt Earp. H e has been operating in what may be loosely termed the End erby Land Sector, but t he fligh t appears to have been over Princess Elizabeth La nd, well to the east of Enderby Land itself. H e flew far inland over a plateau which seems to ha ve been about 9000 ft . high, and saw no bare lan d. The Norwegian Government has made formal announcement of its claim to the sector of the Antarctic which lies bet ween the Falkland Islands Depend encies and the Australian Dependency. It will be remem bered that this stretch of coast. lying to the south of the Atlsntic, has been the field for many Norwegian expeditions in recent years, end.except for Coats Land , all the coastli ne yet known th ere has been d iscovered by Norwegians. It was, cur iously enough, in this sector that the first undoubted land of the main mass of the continent was seen, though not recogn ised as land. Captain llellings haus en on February 5, 1820 , only six days after Bransfield had sighted Trinity Land , when he was 50 miles from what is now known as Ragnhild Land, described what he saw in the following terms: " T he edge or the ice to t he S.S.W. was perpe nd icular and formed into little coves , whilst the surface sloped upwards towards t he south to a d istance so far t ha t its cnd was out of sight eve n from the masthead lookout. " It is a pleasure to record t ha t :Miss Louise A. Boyd, on her return from her seventh expedition to the Arc tic, six of which she has led herself, has been awarded the Cullum Gold )Iedal by the American Geographical Society. DU 2 FOREWORD The naming of the new Admiralty survey ships after Sir John Franklin and Captain Scott deserves a special note. H.M.S. Scott was launched an d so named by Lady Skelton at Dundee on August 28. The Antarctic Club, at its annual dinner. had t he pleasure of presenting to the ship, represented by ber captain, a set of silver tankards a nd a portrait of Captain Scott, Vice-Adm iral Skelton also presented. a silver cigaret te box, which had been given to him by Captain Soott after the National Antarct ic expedition of 1901-4. We regret to have to announce the dea th of several people of pro min ence in polar affairs . The death of Herr Daugaard -J cnscn, the wise and kindly Director of the Greenland Administ ration , is give n a full note elsewhere. but the Edito r desires to pu t on record the great services he rendered to t he Polar Institute in th e past, as well as to many young men who have visited Greenland with his permission and guidance. The portrait for our frontispiece was kindl y given to T he Polar Record by the editor of Bn'lin8ke T idernk. The passing of Lady E llison Mecertney, sister of Captain Scott, removes one more of the intimate circle of his relations who have helped the Inst itute both in spirit and in deed . Petty Offi cer Crea n, of Captain Scot t's two expeditions and Sir Ernest Shaekleton's WeddeDSea expedition, is the subject of a separate note in this issue. The sudden death of a youthful explorer in the field always strikes a more poignant note. The loss by drowning of Reynold Bray in Foxe Channel has been 8 tragic one ; we extend our deepest sympa thy to his family, and particularly to his young widow. OBIT UARY T he recent death of t he head of t he Greenland Administration has brought to an une xpected end a life devote d entirely to Greenland and its inhabitants. In 189 - ~ , at the age of twenty -three, Daugaard-Jensen went out to Greenlan d as an assista nt in t he Administration, and six years lat er he became Inspector for North Gree nland . In 1905 he first put forward th e detailed proposals for the reorganisation of t he Admini stration which became his life's work. H e became Director in 1912. OB IT UA RY 3 Always in favour ofa large measureofhome rule for Greenland, he devoted himself to the extremely di fficult work of preparing th e Greenlanders for closer contact with civilisa tion, and the large number o( admini stra tive positions now held by them is a tes timony to his success . During his time 8S Directo r th e whole country has been united unde r government administ ra tion, a nd most important scientific investigat ions have been made. It was his deep interest and sympathy for the indi vidual problems of th e Greenlanders which made him anxious to have under his own control all th e details of th e administration. What was best for the Greenlanders was always his guiding motive, a nd it was (or their sake that he was so strict in excl uding a ll tourists from Greenland . But he made it easy for scient ists, whatever their na tionality, to visit t his fascinating cou ntry, and, in England, we owe him a great debt for th e freedom he allowed and the help he gave t o our expedit ions. R eynold Bray lost his life at t he age of 27, on September 14, 1988, 40 miles south of Igloolik, when he was blown out to sea in a small collapsible boat in Foxe Chan nel. He was setting out with one corn panion on an expedition to cont inue th e ornith ological work and mapping which he had started th e previous year. This was his t hird expedition to Arctic Canada. H e was a member of th e Oxford University expedition to Hudson's Day in 1931, and from 1986 to 1987 he was ornithologist to the BritishCanadi an Arctic expedition under the leadership of T. 11. Manning. Colonel Valeri ChkalolT, th e famous Soviet long-distance Bier and test pilot, was killed recently while try ing out a new type of plane. By a non -stop flight of 5200 miles ove r the Nort h Pole from Moscow to California in 1981, Colonel ChkalolT won for the U.S.S .n. the world's long-distance record . For this achievement he and his two companions were awarded the title of " Hero of the Soviet Union ", J . D. Morrison, t he Chief Engineer of the M orning relief expedition, 1902-4, died on November 13, 1988. ARCTIC REGIONS SVALBARD AND JAN MAYEN C OMPLETED E X PEDI TIONS Cambridge Spitsbergen Expedition, 1938. A prelimin ary account of the Cambridge expedition which was at work during the summer of 1938 in 'Vest Spitsbcrgen, under the leader ship of L ~ H. l\lcCabc, was given in T he P olar Record, No. 16. The object ofthe expedition was to carry out geomorphological work in co nti nua tion ofW. V. Lewis's investigations in cirque development in Iceland in 1987 . Six weeks were spent in the Campbell Range on the eas t side of Billefjorden, Klaas Billen Bay. One party then visited the Stubendorff Mountains, and another visited Gips Valley, inland from the Campbell Range. McCabe examined the cirques and t heir relation to the geological structu re, and made a more precise investigation into t he mode of their formation. Two well-developed cirq ues in the Stubendorff Mountains were visited and many significant differences between these and th e cirques of t he Billefjorden region were noted.