Antarctica, Globe | Incredible Ruins
The time between 1897 and 1922 is known as the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration, a time when both northern and southern polar regions of the globe were for the first time visited by humans.
The United Kingdom, the super power of the age, envisioned itself as the natural leader in this endeavor. The Discovery Hut stands as a monument to one of their less successful endeavors.
This humble wooden building was erected in 1902 at Hut Point on Ross Island by McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. With intent to be use as a base for so called Discovery Expedition lead by Sir Robert Falcon Scot, Britain had employed its best scientific minds with the task of designing a habitat and storage facility suitable for antarctic climatic conditions.
Unfortunately, the best minds of Britain had never set foot in Canada or Scandinavia, much less the antarctic. As an antarctic habitat the Discovery Hut proved to be an utter failure.
The hut was prefabricated in Australia at a cost of £360 of that time, and transported by ship in pieces and assembled on the spot. A square structure it had useless verandas on the three sides, which served only as snow traps. The insulation provided by a relatively thin layer of felt stuck between two layers of wooden planks, turned out to be extremely insufficient. The hut was unbearably cold and windy, so much so that the crew refused to use it and continued sleeping on the ship.
The pyramidal roof was not slanted enough to permit the sliding off of accumulated snow, but at least it made the profile of the building low enough to avoid the most brutal whips of wind. However, this fact was too rendered useless because the hut was oriented with the entrance on the windward southern side. The hut was visited again by Shackleton’s expedition in in February 1908. He found the main door ripped off the hinges by a gust of wind and entrance blocked completely by accumulated snow. Shackleton’s men had to enter the building via the window on the leeward side.
Most of these errors could have been avoided if traditional hut building methods of inhabitants of sub-polar regions, or indeed some common sense, had been employed.
The lessons learned from errors of Discovery Hut were used in the design of the base for Terra Nova expedition, Scott’s next attempt to reach south pole. However, this was not enough to save the lives of himself and his crew in this next ill-fated effort, as arrogance and ignorance, again played the part in choice of personal equipment and planning for the mission.
A part of the provisions left by expeditions of early 1900s are still present in the hut. Some items are in comparatively good condition thanks to constant subzero temperatures. Century old seal blubber still hangs inside the hut, though ome bacterial decay did occur as reportedly the seal meat left there smells, by now, quite rancid.
