The Magnetism of Antarctica. The Ross Expedition 1839-1843. By John Knight. Published by Whittles Publishing, Dunbeath, Caithness. ISBN 978-1-84995-501-0.
Reviewed by David Hobbs
John Knight has written a number of books on a variety of subjects but he clearly has an interest in Antarctic exploration since an earlier title, The Crossing, described the continent’s first crossing by Sir Vivian Fuchs and the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctica Expedition in 1958.
In this book he describes the expedition led by Captain James Clark Ross RN in HM Ships Erebus and Terror between 1839 and 1843. Each ship had a complement of 64 and in addition to circumnavigating Antarctica they were tasked with gathering data about the earth’s magnetic field in order to provide a greater understanding of its effects ships’ compasses. They travelled further south than any previous expedition and endured pack ice and storms that would have destroyed ships that had not been as well prepared as these two. No ships powered by sail alone ever penetrated further into the sea ice and Ross and his men discovered the Ross Sea, the Ross ice shelf and two volcanoes which they named Erebus and Terror after their ships. Many other features such as McMurdo Sound were named after men who sailed with Ross and prominent people back in the UK.
The book is divided into three parts. The first describes the progress of the expedition and includes fascinating details about how it was conducted that give the reader insight into mid-Victorian naval technology. Apart from the logistic requirements needed to sustain the ships for prolonged periods away from any kind of support, they carried pre-fabricated wooden buildings which were set up on remote islands such as St Helena, Kerguelen Island, the Falkland Islands and also in Australia and New Zealand. Small parties were left to man them and provide continuous readings of scientific instruments, in some cases for years. Those who manned the stations near Hobart and Sydney were considerably better off than those who manned the stations on uninhabited islands. Apart from the magnetic readings, cattle and sheep were landed on remote islands to provide potential food for shipwrecked mariners and seeds were spread in the hope that they would grow into useful wheat and barley. We know now that these often had a catastrophic effect on the local flora and fauna of course but at the time the measures were thought to be a good idea. Constant sea water depth and temperature readings were taken with a lead and particularly long line. Bottles with messages and varying amounts of sand were thrown overboard at intervals in the hope that they would provide information about currents at varying depths if they were ever found. Only one was known to have been located when it was washed up in Australia after its long journey.
The first part also describes how previously unknown flora and fauna were discovered and examples preserved, how these sailing ships passed through ice barriers, were repaired by their specialists after storm damage that would have destroyed less well-found hulls and how they were heated and run on a daily basis. Knight also describes how popular the explorers were with the populations of Sydney and Hobart and, in doing so, he gives an idea of how the Australian colonies were developing. Of interest the Governor of Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen’s Land, was Sir John Franklin who later commanded Erebus and Terror in their ill-fated attempt to find a north west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
There are two further sections; the second gives more details about individual people and the third gives brief descriptions of ships that the members of the expedition served in before and after their time in the Southern Ocean. The ships’ companies for both vessels are listed, as are the arrival and departure dates for every port of call including Sydney, Hobart and the dockyard at Simon’s Town in South Africa.
Anyone who read Matthew Betts’ book about HMS Terror will find that John Knight’s book complements it by expanding on the time spent in the Southern Hemisphere. Knight has drawn attention to the Ross expedition, making the point that it has, to an extent, been over-shadowed by the later expeditions led by Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen. He redresses that imbalance and has written an interesting book that also focuses the reader’s attention on the RN’s polar and scientific exploration techniques in the mid-nineteenth century which were at the cutting edge of contemporary technology. The descriptions of society in Hobart, Sydney and northern New Zealand give the book an even wider appeal. I recommend it.
