(credit: Bartholomew, John George; Mill, Hugh Robert [Public domain]
The Germans in Antarctica
This was the first German Antarctic expedition and is also known as the Gauss expedition (after their ship the ‘Gauss’).
Fully funded by the German government and led by Professor Erick Von Drygalski, a geologist from the University of Berlin, the expedition’s aim was to carry out scientific exploration in a large area in the vicinity of the South Magnetic Pole.
Their ship, the Gauss, was purpose-built for its Antarctic role and well-appointed throughout though it was slow, uncomfortable in bad weather and somewhat dark inside.
The expedition reached the Kerguelen Islands where they dropped a small scientific party, then continued south, briefly visiting Heard Island before sighting the Antarctic mainland.
The ship would eventually be trapped in the ice about 75km from the mainland and spend the winter there but the scientists made good use of their time, carrying out a vast amount of scientific work on the ice as well as some sledge journeys inland.
All up the ship was trapped for 14 months. Von Drygalski knew that dark material absorbed heat and tended to melt the ice beneath it so he kept all the ash and soot from the engines and at one point laid it on the ice to create a melted path to break free of the ice.
It worked well but before the task could be completed a sudden heavy gale and snow closed the passageway. It would be another couple of weeks before they would break free.
Though Sir Robert Falcon Scott beat him by a small margin, Von Drygalski was the second person to ascend in a hydrogen balloon over Antarctica. The balloon was only used twice but they did manage to get some great photos and reached a height of 490 metres..
This scientific expedition managed to discover a totally new region of Antarctica which they named Kaiser Wilhelm II land (later to be called Wilhelm II Coast), survey 1000 km of coastline and describe 1,440 Antarctic species.
The expedition also provided strong evidence for the existence of the Antarctic Convergence, where cold southern waters meet the relatively warmer waters of the subantarctic. The convergence circles Antarctica and is a highly productive marine environment.
Between 1905 and 1931, Von Drygalski published 20 scientific volumes and 2 atlases documenting their discoveries. Bravo.