June 1, 2025 • 44 mins
Douglas Mawson wasn’t just a survivor—he was a scientific powerhouse who helped put Australia on the map of polar exploration. His adventures began with the 1907–1909 Nimrod Expedition under Ernest Shackleton, during which he became one of the first to reach the Magnetic South Pole and climb Mount Erebus. But it was his own Australasian Antarctic Expedition from 1911 to 1914 that sealed his place in history.
Mawson’s leadership, grit, and heartbreak defined that journey. Stranded alone after the deaths of his companions, he hauled himself across 160 kilometres of ice, surviving crevasses, starvation, and the brutal cold. His story isn't just about endurance—it's about the pursuit of knowledge at the edge of the world.
Join Holly & Matthew as they explore the trials, triumphs, and enduring legacy of Douglas Mawson—Australia’s Antarctic hero.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
Mawson’s leadership, grit, and heartbreak defined that journey. Stranded alone after the deaths of his companions, he hauled himself across 160 kilometres of ice, surviving crevasses, starvation, and the brutal cold. His story isn't just about endurance—it's about the pursuit of knowledge at the edge of the world.
Join Holly & Matthew as they explore the trials, triumphs, and enduring legacy of Douglas Mawson—Australia’s Antarctic hero.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with the tall Man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy A Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowi. It's time for the Weird
Crap in Australia Podcast. Welcome to the wee Crap In
(00:45):
Australia Podcast. I'm your host Matthew Soule. Joining me for
another episode is the one and only researcher Extraordinary and
fellow host Holly Soul. Hey, guys, how are you doing today? Holly?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm okay. It's one of those days.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yes, at the moment it is holed in gloomy in
camera as we prepare to entil winter. I think what
we've only got a couple more days?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, winter starts the first to you and yes.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yes, so we've only got a couple more days. And
what winter looks like in Canberra is usually very chilly,
very windy, quite often overcast, and days and days of cold,
softly drizzling rain, which is what we've been experiencing for
the last week. So everything is very gloomy here. But
I actually quite like gloomy camera weather. And I'm not
(01:30):
quite sure why this is something about it that I like.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
It could be worse. We could be down in Volstok
Station and Antarctic currently minus forty five, which is actually
pretty warm. The other day, what did I send it
to you minus seventy two or something?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yes, minus seventy two, I believe. And that's a very
good segue, Holly into part two of the Life end
Times of mister Morson, as we explore his interesting journeys
into the Great Antarctic. This is episode three sixty five.
Just in case I didn't say it, Take it away, Holly.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
With the light returning palm Spring. Shackleton divided the expedition
into several sledging parties, each with a specific goal. Some
would survey the glaciers, others would attempt a sense of
nearby peaks, and one team would attempt the Big Prize,
an overland push for the geographic South Pole.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
With the spring, a new era in entipatic exploration was
inaugurated in the series of sled journeys for which elaborate
preparations had been made. Here Captain Scott showed himself possessed
of all of the qualities of a pioneer, adapting the
methods of Sir Leopold McClintock and doctor Nensen for Arctic
ice to travel to the different conditions prevailing in the Antiarctic.
(02:46):
In preparation for the great effort towards the South, a
depot had been laid out on the ice, and on
November two, nineteen oh two, Scott, Shackleton and Wilson with
four sledges nineteen dogs with four sleds still sepped out
into the unknown on the surface of the barrier. It
was necessary at first to make the journeys by relays,
going over the ground three times to bring up the stores.
(03:09):
The loads were lightened as the food was used, and
by leaving the depot to be picked up on the
return journey. Quote from the Heart of the Antarctic, Volume
one Earnest Shackleton age eighty.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Two, Mawson, Edgeworth David, and a young naval doctor named
Alistair McKay were selected to attempt a different historic first,
reaching the south magnetic Pole. Unlike the geographic pole, which
lies at the rotational bottom of the world, the magnetic
pole is where the Earth's magnetic field points vertically down.
(03:40):
Its location shifts slightly over time, but in nineteen oh
eight it was believed to be somewhere in the continent's interior,
hundreds of kilometers northwest of their base.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Did you know we're actually overdue for the poles to flip?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I do believe I've heard that. But it is also
a geographic overdew, which means lay somewhere in the next
ten thousand years.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
If it happens, it would destroy everything instantaneously for us
as humans. I just realized this. This episode's going to
really upset flat earthers, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this series is just anti flat Earth
the whole way.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Good, have no problem with this. Let's hear from mister
Shackleton again. Very now. Absence the Northern Party, consisting of
Professor David, Mawson and Mackay had started on the journey
that was to result in the attainment of the South
magnetic Pole. I had instructed the Professor who was in
command of this party, to get away on October first,
(04:35):
or as soon as after that date, as whether and
other circumstances would permit. On September twenty fifth, Professor David
Priestley en Day took one hundred and fifty pounds of
stores for the northern journey out into the middle of
the Sound, a distance of about fourteen miles by means
of the motor car. Quote from the Heart of the Antarctic,
(04:56):
Volume one and a. Sheackleton, page eighty two.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Any thing about me researching this episode was every now
and then I'd forget that they'd taken a car, and
I'm like, what the hell have they got a car?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Hm? Well, as I was saying in the last episode,
like this is the beginnings of industrialization. So it's sort
of one of those weird things where the old world
and the New world have somewhat hybridized. Yep, you do
end up sort of getting thrown out the story again,
being like, oh, that's right, there's a motor car involved.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Dog sleds in a car.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
What yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
The biggest problem was that they didn't have a good
and sustainable means of transport. The group had brought dogs, sleds,
a car, anything they would normally use to transverse a
new lend, but they didn't think to examine what would
happen to the creatures that they were taking with them.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
When the Irish explorer Sir Ernest Sheckleton left for Antartica
in nineteen oh seven, he took Siberian horses, thus creating
an extraordinary chain of events which led from Siberia to
the Antarctic Circle and then to Antarctica. Like his Arctic predecessor,
Shackleton knew there would be grating for his horses, so
he turned to the British Army for advice. These experts
(06:05):
knew other cultures for their horses protein as well as fodder.
To help Shackleton reach the South Pole, they invented a
meat based ration for the explorers' horses. Jackleton wrote it
consisted of dried beef, carrots, milk, currants, and sugar. Was
chosen because it provides a large amount of nourishment with
comparatively little weight. Quote from ponies at the Poles, Basher
(06:29):
O'Reilly the Long Rule the Long Ruders Guild on.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
October sixteenth, nineteen oh eight. Actually, note, before we keep
going on, some people may be completely horrified to find
out that things people think of as herbivores actually eat meat.
So there have been cases you can go find on
Google of courses eating baby chickens.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yep, hows eating baby chickens, eating baby chickens saing that before.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, And because of that, there is actually paleontologists who
have rigged evidence and found that traditionally recognized grass eating
plants such as the duck bills, have had protein in
their stomachs, which means that they've been eating things like
cribes and things like that in order to get the
right nutrients to feed their babies as they're growing egs.
So herbivores can become opportunistic carnivores when needs be, and
(07:19):
in this case, they're going to exploit the shit out
of that.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Absolutely. One of the things that I always find interesting
about survivor stories is specifically what they ate to survive.
And the living animal knows what it needs well, its
brain instinctively knows what it needs to eat. And I
remember listening to one Survivor's Pale where he was out
(07:44):
on the ocean for a long time. He ate the
eyeballs of the fishy caught, and he said it tasted
and felt like eating chocolate because that's what his brain
was like, you need whatever was in the jelly of
those eyes, His body needed it to survive, right, Yeah,
so his brain actively encouraged him to eat it. And
(08:06):
I think that's incredibly interesting is that we do sort
of you know, I think a lot of species on
this planet fall into the category of opportunistic eater. You know,
as long as you're getting the new nutrients that you need,
it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
And the nutrients that you need can shift depending on
the time of year, your time in your life, things like.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
That as well gender, whether you're in the middle of pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
What you've eaten the last two weeks.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You know. That's what's really interesting about pregnancy is that
when they speak with people women who are vegetarian or vegan,
for example, there's usually the point where the veganism of
the vegetarianism cracks because baby doesn't care. Baby's in control,
you know, baby starts to influence the mother's brain.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Baby wants that sausage man.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's exactly right, and it's it's fascinating to me. I
think I was listening to Oh now, I can't remember
what the podcast was called, was Michael Cher and he
was talking about how his wife was a vegetarian and
his father was a doctor. They were talking to him about, oh,
you know, she's a vegetarian, but she's been just graving
meat and eating burgers constantly, and his doctor father laughed
(09:19):
and said, ha, babies in control now, And that completely
changed the way I felt about pregnancy hearing that. But yeah, no,
the living organism knows what it needs to survive funnily enough.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And humans are well known to exploit things like that absolutely.
On October sixteenth, nineteen oh eight, the three man team
set off, dragging two sledges across sea ice and over
jagged terrain. They had minimal support, no radio, no dogs,
and limited rations. Jackleton's expedition had brought a few Manchurian
ponies and a motorized sledge, but both had proven useless
(09:55):
in the cold. The murder car comes sledge seized and
collapsed in the cold. This would be a journey on foot,
while the men of the expedition were rugged up, sitting
inside and trying to stay warm. They were photographed with
their naked to the wind horses in minus thirty degree weather,
as seen in a famous photograph of Shackleton and Socks,
the last pony standing. They were also improperly fed. Horses,
(10:18):
being opportunistic omnivores at best, survived best on a diet
of greens and grasses, but the expedition careded to them
with a protein rich diet, thinking to substitute all the
things the horses could not find in the ice. This
led to malnutrition in the horses, which was its own
problem to deal with, causing exhaustion, fatigue, and eventually death.
(10:39):
The expedition started out with ten ponies, Socks, Kwan, Grizzy, Chinaman, Billy, Sulu, Doctor, Sandy, Nimrod,
and Matt. By the time the expedition found their winter home,
they were down to four.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
We established ourselves at the winter quarters with eight ponies,
but unfortunately we lost four more of them within a
month of our arrival. The loss was due, in the
case of three of the four, to the fact that
they were picketed when they first landed on sandy ground
and was not noticed that they were eating the sand.
I neglected to see that the animals had a supply
of salt given to them, and as they found a
(11:16):
saline flavor in the volcanic sand under their feet, due
to the fact that the blizzards had sprayed all the
land near the shore with sea water, they ate it
at odd moments. All the ponies seemed to have done this,
but some were more addicted to the habit than the others.
Several of them became ill, and we were quite at
a loss to account for the trouble till Sandy died.
(11:38):
Then a post mortem examination revealed the fact that his
stomach contained many pounds of sand, and the cause of
the illness of the other ponies became apparent. We shifted
them at once from the place where they were picketed,
so that they could get no more sand, and gave
them what remedial treatment lay in our power. Two more
died in spite of our efforts. The loss of the
(11:59):
fourth pony was due to poisoning. The Manchurian ponies will
eat anything at all they can be chewed. This particular
animals seems to have secured some shavings which chemicals had
been packed. The first morton examination showed that there were
distinct signs of corrosive poisoning. The losses were a matter
of deep concern to us. We were left with four ponies,
(12:21):
one Socks, Grizzy, and Chinaman. And it was a rather
curious fact that the survivors where the white or light
colored animals, while disaster had been fallen all the dark animals.
But from the heart of the Antarctic Volume one, Ernest Shackleton,
what was he trying to get out there?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I know it sounds really really racist.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, I mean, like it it's one of those things where.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It's possible that the genetics of the white coaded horses
were better to stand up against the sulphurlid and sand.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Potentially, or that the the you know, like that. There's
a lot of things that can factor into this. It
could have also been that the other darker third ponies
were larger and so dominated the rest of the group.
It could be I mean, it could be a numerous
amount of things. Yeah, but yeah, it is interesting that
(13:16):
he wrote that down. I suppose, like I'm just I'm
just being an asshole because I think that all the
class British prats were all racist back in the day,
but he was just most likely making a scientific observation.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, this is a scientist expedition, so basically you write
down every Yeah. Chinaman was the first of the four
horses who survived the winter to fall, dying on November
twenty first, nineteen oh eight, from where he walked with
Shackleton and then a southern group to the South Geographic Pole.
The oldest of the ponies, Chinaman was shot when the
group realized he was struggling to keep pace with them.
(13:49):
He was then harvested for provisions, gaining eighty pounds of
meat for their travels.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We came to camp at twelve thirty pm, just as
the weather cleared a little. We could see land on
our right hand, but only the base of the mountains,
so could not identify them. Chinnaman came up at last,
struggling painfully along, So when we made our depot this evening,
he was shot. We will use the meat to keep
us out longer, and we will save our dried stores.
(14:18):
But from the heart of the Antonic, Volume one and
a Shackleton.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Unfortunately, this is a reality of exploration, is that eventually
you do end up eating your pup animals.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I mean not anymore because we don't generally.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Use pack animal they sit there trying to eat good luck.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah, we generally use you know, obviously you can use
things like skidoos and vehicles and whatnot. So yeah, generally
this doesn't happen anymore. But yeah, you know, anything that was.
When you look at this era of exploration, you know,
eighteen hundreds into the early twentieth century, there's often cases
(14:56):
of like, hey, we have this monkey as a mascot
on our share our war ship wrecked by by monkey?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Are they you the me?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Grizzy was shot on November twenty eight from much the
same problem as Chinaman, and was again harvested for rations.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
A cool breeze had helped us in the forenoon, but
had died away later. Marshall has a touch of snow blindness,
and both Grizzy and Socks were also affected during the day.
When we camped tonight, Grizzy was shot. He had fallen
off during the last few days and the soul blindness
was bad for him, putting in nim off his feed.
He was the one chosen to go at the depot.
(15:36):
We made this evening quote from the Heart of the
Antonic Volume one, Ernest Shackleton.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
On December one, Quan broke down exhausted.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Started at eight am today. Quan had been growing weaker
each hour. We practically pulled the sledge. We passed over
three undulations and camped at one pm. In the afternoon.
We only did four miles. Quan being led by Wild
He also led socks with one sledge, while Adams Marshall
and I hurled two hundred pounds each on the other sledge.
(16:07):
Were off over a terribly soft surface. Poor Kuan was
quite finished when we came to camp at six pm,
having done twelve miles two hundred yards. He was shot.
We all felt losing him, I particularly for he was
my special horse. Ever since he was ill last March,
I had looked after him, and in spite of all
(16:28):
his annoying tricks, he was a general favorite. He seemed
so intelligent. Still, it was best for him to go,
and like the others, he was well fed to the last,
and we have now only one pony left, wrote from
the Heart of the Antarctica Volume one.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
As bad as Jackleton felt, the human's grief was apparently
outdone by the horse who was completely alone in the
land that never should have seen hoofprints.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
We halted for lunch at one pm and had some
of kwan cooked, but he was very tough meat. Poor
old beast Socks. The only pony left now is Learnely.
He winnied all night for his lost companion. Quote from
the Heart of the Antarctic volume on Ernest Hrackleton. There
you go, Disney, there's your next movie.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
And finally we come across the kicker. Socks was not
able to dodge all the holes opening up under his
hors and eventually he fell victim.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
After lunch, the light was better, and as we marched
along we were congratulating ourselves upon it, when suddenly we
heard a shout of help from Wild. We stopped at
once and rushed to his assistance, and saw the pony
sled with forward and down cravasse, and Wild reaching out
from the side of the gulp, grasping the sled. No
(17:41):
sign of the pony. We soon gone up to Wild
and he scrambled out of the dangerous position. Wild had
a miraculous escape. It was following up our tracks, and
we had passed over a cravasse which was entirely covered
with snow. The white of the pony broke through the
snow crust, and in a second all was over. Wilde
says he felt a sort of rushing wind. The leading
(18:04):
robe was snatched from his hands. He put out his
arms and just caught the further edge of the chasm.
Fortunately for Wilde and us, Sox's weight snapped the swiggle
tree of the sledge, so it was saved. Though the
upper barrier is broken. We lay down on our stomachs
and looked over into the gulf, but no sound or
(18:24):
sign came to us. A black, bottomless pit. It seemed
to pick the heart of the Antarctic Volume one.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
But the horses and the few dogs remaining were sent
to the South Geographic Pole party with Shackleton and not
with Morson to the magnetic pole. He David and Mackay
marched for weeks, pulling all their own equipment as they
sought the South Magnetic Pole, ascending to drugalski ice Tongue,
navigating through fresh shattered ridges and white wastelands. They pulled
(18:52):
over three hundred kilograms of supplies by hand in temperatures
that dropped to minus forty degrees at night. The coldest
they ever faced on this expedition was minus forty nine
point nine nine degrees celsius, or for our Americans, minus
fifty seven degrees from hunt. Food became a constant concern
for them, as they didn't have horses they could butcher
to keep going, nor was there any acceptable wildlife to hunt,
(19:15):
and the dogs were with shackles and on their way
to the pole. Their rations hard attack which we talked
about when we did the ars An episode, heem can
tea and cocoa were barely enough to sustain them on
their twelve hundred and sixty kilometer round through.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Well, I mean, when you're looking at you know what
nutrition or value were we ginning here? We've got hard
packed wheight, heemican tea. I'm not sure what pemican is.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I'll look it up, but it's just normal tea.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And then obviously coco drinking chocolate that's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Pemican is actually something made by the Indigenals peoples of
North America, so it's something that they got from the Americas.
Typically composed of dried meat, it's basically a type of jerky.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Right, So they're eating hard pack wheat, dry meat tea
and cocoa.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
That's their entire thing. No greens anywhere to be seen.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I mean, the cocoa in the tea is going to
provide you with some anioxidants, and you know there is
some vitamin nutritional value in those two things.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
No vitamins e though.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, yeah, which is always going to be a problem,
isn't it. Yeah, it's kind of amazing that that's what
they set out with.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Should have taken a couple of bottles arom they would
have been fine.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Would have kept him warm too, No, it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It makes your brain thing that you're warm.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
It kind of forces the capillaries closed, but it doesn't
generate warmth. That just makes you feel warm.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Mos Thon calculated their intake down to the gram, ensuring
that each man had exactly what he needed to get
through the day. They lost weight quickly. David, at fifty
years old, began to show signs of serious exhaustion. By
late November, he collapsed twice. Morson and Mackay took turns
hauling the sledge without him, but after sixty days of
walking through the ice, blizzards, dangers, and hunger, they actually made.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
It Soday, January sixteenth. We were up at about six am,
and after breakfast we pulled on our sled for two miles.
We then depotted all our heavy gear and equipment, with
the exception of the tent, sleeping bag, prim a stove
and cooker, and a small quantity of food, all of
which we placed on the sledge together with the legs
of the dip circle and those of the Thalaa diet
(21:30):
serve as marks. We pulled on for two miles and
fixed up the legs of the dip circle to guide
us back on our track, the compass moving in an
horizontal plane being now useless for keeping us on our course.
Two miles further we fixed up the legs of the
Thlia diet and two miles further put up our tent
and had a light lunch. We then walk five miles
(21:52):
in the direction of the magnetic pole so as to
place us in the mean position calculated for it by Morson.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
One of the biggest problem with the magnetic pole is
that it's actually not like one tiny little spot where
you could stick a flag and go this is it.
It's actually something like two or three miles across and
trying to find the center of that spot is the
difficult part.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Mowson places camera so as to focus the whole group,
and arranged the trigger, which would be released by means
of a string held in our hands, so as to
make the exposure by means of the focal plane shutter. Meanwhile,
McKay and I fixed up the flag pole. We then
bared our heads and hoisted the union jack three point
thirty PM, with the words uttered by myself in conformity
(22:34):
with Lieutenant Shackleton's instructions, I hereby take possession of this area,
now containing the magnetic pole for the British Empire. At
the same time I find the figure of the camera
by pulling the string. Thus the group were photographed in
the manner shown on the plate. The blurred line connected
with my right hand represents the part of the string
in focus, blown from the side to side by the wind.
(22:57):
Then we gave three cheers for his majesty thicking quote
from that chapters six to thirteen a volume two of
Anna Shackleton's Heart of the Antarctic.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
And narrated by mister David Professor David.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Mister Professor David long lived a King and the Majesty
and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
David grew weaker. At one point McKay had to keep
him moving by poking him with a ski pole. Bove,
you don't want to have to carry you.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Just walk, I say, sir. If you don't continue to
get that little bum of yours moving through the snow,
I will poke it again. Really sick of you poke
me in the bum a yet just then again you mango.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Mowson, the youngest and fittest, assumed responsibility for navigation, food allocation,
and morale. He took the front position on the sledge,
breaking trails through snow and wind. He shortened his own
rations so the others could eat. The situation started to
become dack. They resorted to melting snow with blubber to
stay hydrated, and at times ate for his seal meat
(24:01):
that had been cashed weeks earlier, ranted but edible. By
the time they neared the coast again, David could no
longer stand. Wawson and mackay strapped into the sledge and
pulled him the final one hundred kilometers themselves.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And we have a quote here from Mawson, it was
an awful day of de spare disappointment by traveling, agonizing,
walking forever, falling down. Cravas's Mack called Professor a bloody
fool once on falling into a crevas and all sorts
of other names. Proof gave Mac biscuits and chuck out
of his bag after Mac had been rick anointing. Mac
(24:36):
wanted to know why I should not have it, but
Professor had given me a bit after I fell in
water and offered biscuit, but I was not on for biscuit.
Professor Barberry's pants are now so much torn as to
be falling off. He is apparently half demented, judging by
his actions. A strain has just been too great. He
says himself that he had known the magnitude of the task,
(24:59):
he would not have undertaken it. We camped at seven
am first to February in falling snow. Mac, it seems,
got on to did the Professor properly at one holt
during the afternoon, whith I was reconnoiting. He told the
Professor so that he would have to give me written
authority to take over as commander, or he would his
(25:20):
medical man pronounce him insane. February second, Press's boots were
frozen on and foot gone. Mack now reports that his
feet are more or less gangerous. During most of the day,
the Professor has been walking on his ankles. He has
no doubt doing his best his way. Mac appears to
have kicked him several times when in the harness. During
(25:41):
most of the day the Professor had been walking on
his ankles. He was not out doing his best in
this way, and macapeed to have kicked him several times.
When in the harness, kneel over. We push on and
find no crossing of fissierras, although there is ice in
below where we were stuck at besides too perceptuous. We
finally got sledge down the north side, but would not
(26:04):
get up the south side, so I had to return.
We camped a top on north side, boiled four Emperor's
livers Mac had procured. Went very well. February third. On
our way towards the depot, we had encountered two more
cracks at right angles to former, causing further deviation. Having
finally at about ten PM reached the little bay where
(26:26):
Mac had dragged his sledge full of meat out of
an inlet on our earliest day, we decided to camp
have a meal and turn him with four hour watches.
The Professor was now certainly partially demented. Yesterday evening on
Mac again threatening him. He'd asked me to consider myself
(26:46):
the leader of the expedition since leaving Mozanite id as. Indeed,
he said it always considered me. He said he would
draw it up in writing and get me to sign it.
So I did not like it, have to think on it.
Whilst Mack was away killing seal, he drew out his
pocketbook and began writing out my authority as leader of
(27:06):
the expedition and asked me to sign it. I again
said I did not like the business, and stated he
had better leave matters as they were until the ship
failed to turn up. Now, Mack had the last day
or two been pressing for our departure south. Failing ship's
arrival at a very early date, he suggested getting ready
on the fifth and departing on the tenth. Professor and
(27:28):
I were strong to stay till twentieth. As a matter
of fact, the Professor was too dune to start for
some time. We had now to harbor our very small
stock of sledging provisions and live on local produce. We
fried our penguins with seal blubber over primus. Quote from
Mawson's Antarctic Diaries, edited by Fred Jucker and Ellen Jacker
(27:50):
Allen and Irwin, two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
It's a testament to the amount of struggle these guys
were going to that they looked at a penguin and went, yeah,
that's probably going to taste like chicken.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Their brain's kicking DLA, I know, but still.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Looking at it, fel like I've never been so happy
to see you smelly fucks in my life, because I've
been in a penguin rookery and they stink. Mawson and
his team arrived at Cape Royd's on February four, nineteen
oh nine, emaciated, crossbitten, and barely conscious. They had traveled
one thousand, two hundred and sixty kilometers over one hundred
(28:27):
and twenty two days. Mawson's field notes still intact, recorded
rock types, elevations, ice formations, and temperature reficitions, even at
the edge of collapse. He never stopped collecting data for
his research. After all, if he died and nothing came
of it, then his death was worthless.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Fourth of February, mac did a four hour watch from
mid nine on, during which time he got our cooker
from the depot and hooked up a feed for himself.
Professor took four hours, and then I took six and
a half hours, in which time I killed a couple
of them, Eraprahs and Suka Skua. I woke the others
up and we prepared a meal of penguin livers, etc.
(29:07):
Exceedingly thin and bulky pem as a drink. Rack was
just having a final fell up of blubber, and we
were discussing immediately shifting camp to hire a depot. A
shot rang out. In a second I had overturned the
cooker and was through the door where the bow of
the nimrod was just appearing around the corner in the inlet.
(29:27):
A single shot rang out, and we hurried one after
the other to the beach. Just as I was descending
to the lower shore, the snow gave way and down
I went, some eighteen feet onto the middle of my back,
almost breaking it on a hard snow ridge and the crevasse.
After some trouble, I was hauled up safely by the crew,
Davies jumping down on a road to give me a hand.
(29:50):
Great meeting with officers and crew. Armitage and Brocklehurst on board,
wrote from Mawson's in Tonic Diaries edited by Fred Shaka
and Elanorjaka, Allen and Unwin two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Shackleson greeted them with relief and quiet or The Magnetic
Pole journey hadn't drawn headlines like his own Setwood push,
but he knew what it meant, the scientific value, the
endurance and the survival it required. It was a landmark achievement.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
The Northern Party, consisting of Professor David, doctor McKay and
mister Mawson, was given up as hopelessly lost by the
ship as they were long overdue. The ship serched three
hundred miles of coastline and eventually picked up the party
Little Inlet and Dry Glaski Glacier. They had a very
tough time. It was the biggest piece of luck in
the world. We managed to find them. They would do
(30:41):
back in January, and it was then February. The fourth
quote from the Scrutiny and Bermea District pressed Wednesday, thirty
first of March nineteen oh nine, page four to the Magnetic.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Hole back in Australia. Wilson returned to relative obscurity. The
newspapers were still full of Scott Shackleton, but he had
his samples, his readings, and his own plan beginning to form.
Because there was still one part of Antarctica that no
one had touched, the vast stretch of coastline directly south
of Australia, unmapped, unclaimed, unstudied. Mawson had seen it from
(31:16):
the ship on the way home, and he wanted it
not for a flag, not for a title. For science.
He returned to his post at the University of Adelaide
began assembling notes, drafting proposals, and writing letters. The quiet
young geologist was now due to spend the rest of
his life in a lab, studying everything he had discovered,
well for two years at least, when the Australasian Antarctic
(31:39):
Expedition knocked on his door. In January nineteen ten in London,
Douglas Mawson met with Robert Falcon Scott, who was then
preparing an expedition of his own to Antarctic. Mawson proposed
that he joined as head of an independent team which
would be based at Camp A dairy Scott, however, had
a different idea. Shackleton was consulted and suggested that Mawson
(32:01):
should act as the chief scientist on his second expedition,
which was a position that David had occupied on the original.
On May sixteen, Shackleton issued a statement confirming Mawson would
be joining Shackleton's expedition as chief scientist, adding that Shackleton
himself would not be accompanying them on the expedition, he
was basically acting as the face raising the funds needed.
(32:22):
Mawson returned to Australia, but he heard nothing of Shackleton
or his attempt to fund the expedition for months. Finally,
on December first, Shackleson confirmed that he could not be going,
but Mawson had his full support.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
In a letter to the Daily Mail, Sir Ernest Shackleton
warmly appeals for public subscriptions towards a und of twelve
thousand pounds to enable Doctor Douglas Mawson, the leader of
the proposed Australian expedition to the Antarctic, to purchase the
ship which he has selected and make a start with
her in June. Quote from the Age at Tuesday ninth
May nineteen eleven, page seven, The Antarctic. It's very interesting
(32:56):
considering how everyone nearly died and people lost their feet
in AS's like, I want to go back.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
And Shackton's like, I'm not going back.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, fuck that.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
How you doing that?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
He got his photo in front of the flag. He
was done.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Jackleson never made it to the South Pole.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Oh okay, sorry, well, I mean he led the expedition that.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Got the photograph at the Magneticus.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah. So, I mean at the end of the day, like,
mission accomplished, British Empire looks great. He gets to be
a professor and talk for the rest of his days
about his trip. He was done. He'd had enough, and
I think that was fully understandable.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
He's like, from now on, no winter will ever be
too cold for me.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah, exactly, It'll be fine, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
In January nineteen eleven, Mawson revealed his plans to operate
in the Antarctic postal arc between Caperdair and Gosberg, essentially
the long flat stretch of ice bound coast lying directly
south of Australia. Within this zone, he aimed to conduct
a comprehensive geological survey alongside an ambitious osheographic program. Edward
(33:57):
David's former mentor and companion, pared a committee for the
Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science in support of
the venture. Thanks in part to David's reputation and Mawson's
growing credibility, the expedition quickly gained the backing of scientific institutions,
government departments, and several private donors across Australia and Britain.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Professor T. W. David at the Sydney University, who accompanied
Shackles at Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic nineteen oh seven
to nineteen oh nine, returned from a trip to London
by the mail steamer of Vantio on Sunnday. In an interview,
Professor David said the object of his trip had been
to arrange for the geological and mineralogical results of the expedition.
(34:40):
At the conclusion of his visit, satisfactory arrangements had been concluded.
The manuscript and plates handed into the publishers, who had
already bought out The narrative of the Shackleton expedition in
the book termed The Heart of the Antarctic, lectures were
delivered by Professor David at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford
and Bristol, and before the Geographical Society of London and
(35:01):
the Royal Geographical Society. Quote from the Register, twenty seventh
March nineteen eleven, page eight Antarctic Problems.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
All that to tell you that Professor David he was
living his best life. Mawson acquired the s y Aurora Barclatine,
built in eighteen seventy six, previously used for sealing and
Arctic exploration. It wasn't glamorous, narrow holed, and far from luxurious,
but it had proven itself in polar conditions. Mawson had
(35:28):
it retrofitted and stocked to support multiple overwintering parties. It
was to be a scientific expedition first, not a race
or a stunt. Mawson assembled a crew of thirty one men, geologists, physicists, cartographers, biologists, meteorologists,
a photographer, wireless operators, sailors, and one book. They weren't
(35:49):
adventurers in the romantic sense. These were scientists and technicians.
Most of them were young, many of them astraying, who
had signed on not for glory but for dutt something
I didn't put in the script here. At this point
in time, there was a second race building to get
to the South Pole. And you might know the scott expedition,
the one where they all died.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Uh. I think so. I've listened to a lot about
disasters in ships and around the Antarctic, so I think.
So did they eat each other?
Speaker 2 (36:20):
There was lots of things going down because they all died,
It's not known what really happened.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, but I remember, if I recall correctly, normarks on bones.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, some of the bodies will never think. Mawson's expedition
departed Hobart on December two, nineteen eleven, bound for the
Frozen Unknown.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
The steam yacht Aurora, which takes Mawson's expedition to the Antarctic,
sailed punctually at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Long before
this time, the near approaches to the vessel have become impassable.
Crowds of interested spectators were thronging the board passages of
the Queen's Peer, while the other peers and adjacent shipping
were also crowded. Quote from the Daily Post, Monday fourth
(37:02):
at December nineteen eleven, page three, Goodbye Aurora and ladies
and gentlemen. We are going to have to cut it
off there as we prepare for our second expedition to
the Antarctic with Sir Lawson.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Not us, because there's no damn way you'd get me
down there.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh I'd love to go. Too cold, I've looked into it.
It's about thirteen thousand dollars per ticket.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Too cold. I could be cold here by sitting in
a freezer.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, but you get to journey where very few people
get to go. So the way they help to fund
Antarctic expeditions now is you can buy a cabin space basically,
and you travel along with the scientists. I don't believe
you disembark to Antarctica.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, I believe you stay on the ship.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
You stay on the ship when they disembark, the scientists
and whatnot to the research the research centers. But yeah,
you can absolutely do it. Like I said, it costs
about thirteen thousand dollars. The more you pay, the better
your accommodation is. I've heard for the thirteenth another the
price tag. You're basically living in a shoe box for
a couple of months and not a lot of unless
(38:06):
you're really, really invested in being that old fashion sort
of explorer type. It is a bit of a struggle
for a lot of people, but yeah, no, I'd love
to do it, absolutely love to do it. Well, ladies
and gentlemen, before we let you go, just a couple
of bits of housekeeping, don't You can reach out to
us via our social media just typing we crap in
Australia into your search engine of choice for your social
(38:27):
media of choice. You can also send us a good
old fashion email weir crap in Australia at gmail dot
com just quickly. As well. We have been making some
efforts to remaster old episodes and get a YouTube channel
up and running where you can check out this podcast
as well. It's getting closer so by the time you
(38:49):
listen to this, potentially the first test episode will be up, which, Holly,
will be the remastered version of our first episode, or
is that sorry? It wasn't a remaster, It would be
a rerecording, a remake of the first episode.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I'm only going to put the remaster up there because
I want to release the re recording in its own
episode on the YouTube channel yep, because otherwise it's like
four and a bit hours long, and I don't think
YouTube would support.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, so keep an eye out to that. We Crap
in Australia on YouTube. Obviously we've tried doing streaming and
stuff before, but you can imagine how our poor, how
time poor we are now.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I mean we have seventy something subscribers.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, so some new content for them, which is great.
And if you prefer listening to podcasts on YouTube, well
that's what we're trying to do. So it encourages us
to go back through use of AI tools to remaster
some of those old episodes, which they actually sound pretty
good on once they do the work through, and we're
going to slowly re release all of those episodes until
(39:51):
they become concurrent. So keep an eye on that. Head
to YouTube typically crap in Australia and subscribe to that
and you'll start to see some of those episodes popping
up very very soon. Holly, you've been working with an
artist who has done the looping animation for those episodes
and it looks fantastic, so very big thing. So sorry,
what's the artist's name? Because you've you've been handling this project,
(40:12):
haven't even looked at it.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Blanka Denko here's Romanian.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Oh well, thank you very much, Blanka for all of
your fantastic work, and can't wait to show that to everyone,
So keep an eye out on the YouTube channel for
that one. You can also help us out in a
couple of different ways, first and foremost being our Patreon.
For only five dollars US a month, you get access
to uncut episodes early as well as additional minisodes where
(40:36):
we examined some of that week's Australian news headlines. You
can also grab our book series Volume one to five
is available now from our great mates at Impact Comics
dot com. If you want a paperback version here in
Australia sorry dot com dot Au. You can also grab
the paperback internationally from Lulu dot com. If you would
like the digital version, you can grab that from the
(40:58):
Amazon Kindlestore. Until, of course, if Bezos is told by
the American government that he has to remove anything that
doesn't comply with their very narrow view of history. We
are waiting for it to happen, because it has been
happening to some digital releases and audio books over in
the States. We don't know how far reaching that is
going to be, but we will find an alternative platform
to release our book to you digitally. Good that happens.
(41:20):
So Volume one to five are out now you can
pick up volume six, which we're coming out in September.
If you would like to do any pre ordering of
the paperback, just shoot our great mates at impactomics dot
com today you and email just let them know you'd
like to pre order Volume six for the September release.
I'm sure mail would appreciate the business. And last but
(41:43):
not lease, if you want a week Crap in Australia
T shirt, don't forget to a head to our Tea Public
and Red Bubble stores where you can grab T shirts, mugs, cups,
all sorts of bits and pieces for your weak Crap
in Australia collection. And as is our custom, we give
Holly the final words.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
I went looking to see about the Antarctic tours because
why not. Apparently right now they're actually running in promotion.
So if you ever spare thirteen grand to blow, you
can get a free upgrade on this ship cabin so
you can get a little bit more room for free.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
I'll be happy to like, like take six months off
work to go on one of these boats.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
They think that you're going a little bit.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
And why do you think that.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
I'm taking six grand I'm taking six months off to
go freeze my ass off in a little ship, tiny cabin,
shoebox thing. Yeah, maybe occasionally stare at a penguin.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
That's fine.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
I think you're nuts for wanting to do it. I
think they were nuts for wanting to do it way
back when.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
I just go get a tablet with a decent screen.
I'd load up all these books and comics and TV
shows and movies and stuff that I've wanted to check
out for a.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
While, and then ignore all of them.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
It would set up, you know, we'd be able to
do podcasting quite easily. So we'd still have believe you
get interet access, so we'd still be able to upload episodes.
And yeah, and then I go on a little trip
for a couple of months down to the Antarctica back.
I think it'd be great fun.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Still not getting me on that book.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
That's fine. I'll come back in six months. You'll be fine.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
I've seen Titanic, gay don it Sabe's not getting me
in space, not yet.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I'd love to go into space. And I'm like Katie Perry,
I want to be a fuckhead about it.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Yes, she would. You'd be walking around me. I went
to space, what about you?
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah, I'd be like I went to space, but I
want to turn around and go I'm an astronaut, and
I wouldn't take like a flower up with me and
pose it at the camera while there's this amazing view
of the Earth behind us. And she's too busy making
a little fucking TikTok video. So no, I would go
to space and not be a fuck head.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Look, I'll be honest. When I want to just feel
tiny and small, I actually put on the ISS feed
watch the Earth float by.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, you can watch that on YouTube. Actually, they do
a live feed every day. Well that's it from us,
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us.
Please stay safe out there and be kind to each other.
We'll see you once again for more week Crap in
Australia next week. Until then, Bye for now.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
The Weird Crap In Australia podcast is produced by Holly
and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review on your favorite podcatching app.
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with the tall Man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy A Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowi. It's time for the Weird
Crap in Australia Podcast. Welcome to the wee Crap In
(00:45):
Australia Podcast. I'm your host Matthew Soule. Joining me for
another episode is the one and only researcher Extraordinary and
fellow host Holly Soul. Hey, guys, how are you doing today? Holly?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm okay. It's one of those days.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yes, at the moment it is holed in gloomy in
camera as we prepare to entil winter. I think what
we've only got a couple more days?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, winter starts the first to you and yes.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yes, so we've only got a couple more days. And
what winter looks like in Canberra is usually very chilly,
very windy, quite often overcast, and days and days of cold,
softly drizzling rain, which is what we've been experiencing for
the last week. So everything is very gloomy here. But
I actually quite like gloomy camera weather. And I'm not
(01:30):
quite sure why this is something about it that I like.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
It could be worse. We could be down in Volstok
Station and Antarctic currently minus forty five, which is actually
pretty warm. The other day, what did I send it
to you minus seventy two or something?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yes, minus seventy two, I believe. And that's a very
good segue, Holly into part two of the Life end
Times of mister Morson, as we explore his interesting journeys
into the Great Antarctic. This is episode three sixty five.
Just in case I didn't say it, Take it away, Holly.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
With the light returning palm Spring. Shackleton divided the expedition
into several sledging parties, each with a specific goal. Some
would survey the glaciers, others would attempt a sense of
nearby peaks, and one team would attempt the Big Prize,
an overland push for the geographic South Pole.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
With the spring, a new era in entipatic exploration was
inaugurated in the series of sled journeys for which elaborate
preparations had been made. Here Captain Scott showed himself possessed
of all of the qualities of a pioneer, adapting the
methods of Sir Leopold McClintock and doctor Nensen for Arctic
ice to travel to the different conditions prevailing in the Antiarctic.
(02:46):
In preparation for the great effort towards the South, a
depot had been laid out on the ice, and on
November two, nineteen oh two, Scott, Shackleton and Wilson with
four sledges nineteen dogs with four sleds still sepped out
into the unknown on the surface of the barrier. It
was necessary at first to make the journeys by relays,
going over the ground three times to bring up the stores.
(03:09):
The loads were lightened as the food was used, and
by leaving the depot to be picked up on the
return journey. Quote from the Heart of the Antarctic, Volume
one Earnest Shackleton age eighty.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Two, Mawson, Edgeworth David, and a young naval doctor named
Alistair McKay were selected to attempt a different historic first,
reaching the south magnetic Pole. Unlike the geographic pole, which
lies at the rotational bottom of the world, the magnetic
pole is where the Earth's magnetic field points vertically down.
(03:40):
Its location shifts slightly over time, but in nineteen oh
eight it was believed to be somewhere in the continent's interior,
hundreds of kilometers northwest of their base.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Did you know we're actually overdue for the poles to flip?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I do believe I've heard that. But it is also
a geographic overdew, which means lay somewhere in the next
ten thousand years.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
If it happens, it would destroy everything instantaneously for us
as humans. I just realized this. This episode's going to
really upset flat earthers, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this series is just anti flat Earth
the whole way.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Good, have no problem with this. Let's hear from mister
Shackleton again. Very now. Absence the Northern Party, consisting of
Professor David, Mawson and Mackay had started on the journey
that was to result in the attainment of the South
magnetic Pole. I had instructed the Professor who was in
command of this party, to get away on October first,
(04:35):
or as soon as after that date, as whether and
other circumstances would permit. On September twenty fifth, Professor David
Priestley en Day took one hundred and fifty pounds of
stores for the northern journey out into the middle of
the Sound, a distance of about fourteen miles by means
of the motor car. Quote from the Heart of the Antarctic,
(04:56):
Volume one and a. Sheackleton, page eighty two.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Any thing about me researching this episode was every now
and then I'd forget that they'd taken a car, and
I'm like, what the hell have they got a car?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Hm? Well, as I was saying in the last episode,
like this is the beginnings of industrialization. So it's sort
of one of those weird things where the old world
and the New world have somewhat hybridized. Yep, you do
end up sort of getting thrown out the story again,
being like, oh, that's right, there's a motor car involved.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Dog sleds in a car.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
What yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
The biggest problem was that they didn't have a good
and sustainable means of transport. The group had brought dogs, sleds,
a car, anything they would normally use to transverse a
new lend, but they didn't think to examine what would
happen to the creatures that they were taking with them.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
When the Irish explorer Sir Ernest Sheckleton left for Antartica
in nineteen oh seven, he took Siberian horses, thus creating
an extraordinary chain of events which led from Siberia to
the Antarctic Circle and then to Antarctica. Like his Arctic predecessor,
Shackleton knew there would be grating for his horses, so
he turned to the British Army for advice. These experts
(06:05):
knew other cultures for their horses protein as well as fodder.
To help Shackleton reach the South Pole, they invented a
meat based ration for the explorers' horses. Jackleton wrote it
consisted of dried beef, carrots, milk, currants, and sugar. Was
chosen because it provides a large amount of nourishment with
comparatively little weight. Quote from ponies at the Poles, Basher
(06:29):
O'Reilly the Long Rule the Long Ruders Guild on.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
October sixteenth, nineteen oh eight. Actually, note, before we keep
going on, some people may be completely horrified to find
out that things people think of as herbivores actually eat meat.
So there have been cases you can go find on
Google of courses eating baby chickens.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yep, hows eating baby chickens, eating baby chickens saing that before.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, And because of that, there is actually paleontologists who
have rigged evidence and found that traditionally recognized grass eating
plants such as the duck bills, have had protein in
their stomachs, which means that they've been eating things like
cribes and things like that in order to get the
right nutrients to feed their babies as they're growing egs.
So herbivores can become opportunistic carnivores when needs be, and
(07:19):
in this case, they're going to exploit the shit out
of that.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Absolutely. One of the things that I always find interesting
about survivor stories is specifically what they ate to survive.
And the living animal knows what it needs well, its
brain instinctively knows what it needs to eat. And I
remember listening to one Survivor's Pale where he was out
(07:44):
on the ocean for a long time. He ate the
eyeballs of the fishy caught, and he said it tasted
and felt like eating chocolate because that's what his brain
was like, you need whatever was in the jelly of
those eyes, His body needed it to survive, right, Yeah,
so his brain actively encouraged him to eat it. And
(08:06):
I think that's incredibly interesting is that we do sort
of you know, I think a lot of species on
this planet fall into the category of opportunistic eater. You know,
as long as you're getting the new nutrients that you need,
it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
And the nutrients that you need can shift depending on
the time of year, your time in your life, things like.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
That as well gender, whether you're in the middle of pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
What you've eaten the last two weeks.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You know. That's what's really interesting about pregnancy is that
when they speak with people women who are vegetarian or vegan,
for example, there's usually the point where the veganism of
the vegetarianism cracks because baby doesn't care. Baby's in control,
you know, baby starts to influence the mother's brain.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Baby wants that sausage man.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's exactly right, and it's it's fascinating to me. I
think I was listening to Oh now, I can't remember
what the podcast was called, was Michael Cher and he
was talking about how his wife was a vegetarian and
his father was a doctor. They were talking to him about, oh,
you know, she's a vegetarian, but she's been just graving
meat and eating burgers constantly, and his doctor father laughed
(09:19):
and said, ha, babies in control now, And that completely
changed the way I felt about pregnancy hearing that. But yeah, no,
the living organism knows what it needs to survive funnily enough.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And humans are well known to exploit things like that absolutely.
On October sixteenth, nineteen oh eight, the three man team
set off, dragging two sledges across sea ice and over
jagged terrain. They had minimal support, no radio, no dogs,
and limited rations. Jackleton's expedition had brought a few Manchurian
ponies and a motorized sledge, but both had proven useless
(09:55):
in the cold. The murder car comes sledge seized and
collapsed in the cold. This would be a journey on foot,
while the men of the expedition were rugged up, sitting
inside and trying to stay warm. They were photographed with
their naked to the wind horses in minus thirty degree weather,
as seen in a famous photograph of Shackleton and Socks,
the last pony standing. They were also improperly fed. Horses,
(10:18):
being opportunistic omnivores at best, survived best on a diet
of greens and grasses, but the expedition careded to them
with a protein rich diet, thinking to substitute all the
things the horses could not find in the ice. This
led to malnutrition in the horses, which was its own
problem to deal with, causing exhaustion, fatigue, and eventually death.
(10:39):
The expedition started out with ten ponies, Socks, Kwan, Grizzy, Chinaman, Billy, Sulu, Doctor, Sandy, Nimrod,
and Matt. By the time the expedition found their winter home,
they were down to four.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
We established ourselves at the winter quarters with eight ponies,
but unfortunately we lost four more of them within a
month of our arrival. The loss was due, in the
case of three of the four, to the fact that
they were picketed when they first landed on sandy ground
and was not noticed that they were eating the sand.
I neglected to see that the animals had a supply
of salt given to them, and as they found a
(11:16):
saline flavor in the volcanic sand under their feet, due
to the fact that the blizzards had sprayed all the
land near the shore with sea water, they ate it
at odd moments. All the ponies seemed to have done this,
but some were more addicted to the habit than the others.
Several of them became ill, and we were quite at
a loss to account for the trouble till Sandy died.
(11:38):
Then a post mortem examination revealed the fact that his
stomach contained many pounds of sand, and the cause of
the illness of the other ponies became apparent. We shifted
them at once from the place where they were picketed,
so that they could get no more sand, and gave
them what remedial treatment lay in our power. Two more
died in spite of our efforts. The loss of the
(11:59):
fourth pony was due to poisoning. The Manchurian ponies will
eat anything at all they can be chewed. This particular
animals seems to have secured some shavings which chemicals had
been packed. The first morton examination showed that there were
distinct signs of corrosive poisoning. The losses were a matter
of deep concern to us. We were left with four ponies,
(12:21):
one Socks, Grizzy, and Chinaman. And it was a rather
curious fact that the survivors where the white or light
colored animals, while disaster had been fallen all the dark animals.
But from the heart of the Antarctic Volume one, Ernest Shackleton,
what was he trying to get out there?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I know it sounds really really racist.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, I mean, like it it's one of those things where.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It's possible that the genetics of the white coaded horses
were better to stand up against the sulphurlid and sand.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Potentially, or that the the you know, like that. There's
a lot of things that can factor into this. It
could have also been that the other darker third ponies
were larger and so dominated the rest of the group.
It could be I mean, it could be a numerous
amount of things. Yeah, but yeah, it is interesting that
(13:16):
he wrote that down. I suppose, like I'm just I'm
just being an asshole because I think that all the
class British prats were all racist back in the day,
but he was just most likely making a scientific observation.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, this is a scientist expedition, so basically you write
down every Yeah. Chinaman was the first of the four
horses who survived the winter to fall, dying on November
twenty first, nineteen oh eight, from where he walked with
Shackleton and then a southern group to the South Geographic Pole.
The oldest of the ponies, Chinaman was shot when the
group realized he was struggling to keep pace with them.
(13:49):
He was then harvested for provisions, gaining eighty pounds of
meat for their travels.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We came to camp at twelve thirty pm, just as
the weather cleared a little. We could see land on
our right hand, but only the base of the mountains,
so could not identify them. Chinnaman came up at last,
struggling painfully along, So when we made our depot this evening,
he was shot. We will use the meat to keep
us out longer, and we will save our dried stores.
(14:18):
But from the heart of the Antonic, Volume one and
a Shackleton.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Unfortunately, this is a reality of exploration, is that eventually
you do end up eating your pup animals.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I mean not anymore because we don't generally.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Use pack animal they sit there trying to eat good luck.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah, we generally use you know, obviously you can use
things like skidoos and vehicles and whatnot. So yeah, generally
this doesn't happen anymore. But yeah, you know, anything that was.
When you look at this era of exploration, you know,
eighteen hundreds into the early twentieth century, there's often cases
(14:56):
of like, hey, we have this monkey as a mascot
on our share our war ship wrecked by by monkey?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Are they you the me?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Grizzy was shot on November twenty eight from much the
same problem as Chinaman, and was again harvested for rations.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
A cool breeze had helped us in the forenoon, but
had died away later. Marshall has a touch of snow blindness,
and both Grizzy and Socks were also affected during the day.
When we camped tonight, Grizzy was shot. He had fallen
off during the last few days and the soul blindness
was bad for him, putting in nim off his feed.
He was the one chosen to go at the depot.
(15:36):
We made this evening quote from the Heart of the
Antonic Volume one, Ernest Shackleton.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
On December one, Quan broke down exhausted.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Started at eight am today. Quan had been growing weaker
each hour. We practically pulled the sledge. We passed over
three undulations and camped at one pm. In the afternoon.
We only did four miles. Quan being led by Wild
He also led socks with one sledge, while Adams Marshall
and I hurled two hundred pounds each on the other sledge.
(16:07):
Were off over a terribly soft surface. Poor Kuan was
quite finished when we came to camp at six pm,
having done twelve miles two hundred yards. He was shot.
We all felt losing him, I particularly for he was
my special horse. Ever since he was ill last March,
I had looked after him, and in spite of all
(16:28):
his annoying tricks, he was a general favorite. He seemed
so intelligent. Still, it was best for him to go,
and like the others, he was well fed to the last,
and we have now only one pony left, wrote from
the Heart of the Antarctica Volume one.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
As bad as Jackleton felt, the human's grief was apparently
outdone by the horse who was completely alone in the
land that never should have seen hoofprints.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
We halted for lunch at one pm and had some
of kwan cooked, but he was very tough meat. Poor
old beast Socks. The only pony left now is Learnely.
He winnied all night for his lost companion. Quote from
the Heart of the Antarctic volume on Ernest Hrackleton. There
you go, Disney, there's your next movie.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
And finally we come across the kicker. Socks was not
able to dodge all the holes opening up under his
hors and eventually he fell victim.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
After lunch, the light was better, and as we marched
along we were congratulating ourselves upon it, when suddenly we
heard a shout of help from Wild. We stopped at
once and rushed to his assistance, and saw the pony
sled with forward and down cravasse, and Wild reaching out
from the side of the gulp, grasping the sled. No
(17:41):
sign of the pony. We soon gone up to Wild
and he scrambled out of the dangerous position. Wild had
a miraculous escape. It was following up our tracks, and
we had passed over a cravasse which was entirely covered
with snow. The white of the pony broke through the
snow crust, and in a second all was over. Wilde
says he felt a sort of rushing wind. The leading
(18:04):
robe was snatched from his hands. He put out his
arms and just caught the further edge of the chasm.
Fortunately for Wilde and us, Sox's weight snapped the swiggle
tree of the sledge, so it was saved. Though the
upper barrier is broken. We lay down on our stomachs
and looked over into the gulf, but no sound or
(18:24):
sign came to us. A black, bottomless pit. It seemed
to pick the heart of the Antarctic Volume one.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
But the horses and the few dogs remaining were sent
to the South Geographic Pole party with Shackleton and not
with Morson to the magnetic pole. He David and Mackay
marched for weeks, pulling all their own equipment as they
sought the South Magnetic Pole, ascending to drugalski ice Tongue,
navigating through fresh shattered ridges and white wastelands. They pulled
(18:52):
over three hundred kilograms of supplies by hand in temperatures
that dropped to minus forty degrees at night. The coldest
they ever faced on this expedition was minus forty nine
point nine nine degrees celsius, or for our Americans, minus
fifty seven degrees from hunt. Food became a constant concern
for them, as they didn't have horses they could butcher
to keep going, nor was there any acceptable wildlife to hunt,
(19:15):
and the dogs were with shackles and on their way
to the pole. Their rations hard attack which we talked
about when we did the ars An episode, heem can
tea and cocoa were barely enough to sustain them on
their twelve hundred and sixty kilometer round through.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Well, I mean, when you're looking at you know what
nutrition or value were we ginning here? We've got hard
packed wheight, heemican tea. I'm not sure what pemican is.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I'll look it up, but it's just normal tea.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And then obviously coco drinking chocolate that's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Pemican is actually something made by the Indigenals peoples of
North America, so it's something that they got from the Americas.
Typically composed of dried meat, it's basically a type of jerky.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Right, So they're eating hard pack wheat, dry meat tea
and cocoa.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
That's their entire thing. No greens anywhere to be seen.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I mean, the cocoa in the tea is going to
provide you with some anioxidants, and you know there is
some vitamin nutritional value in those two things.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
No vitamins e though.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, yeah, which is always going to be a problem,
isn't it. Yeah, it's kind of amazing that that's what
they set out with.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Should have taken a couple of bottles arom they would
have been fine.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Would have kept him warm too, No, it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It makes your brain thing that you're warm.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
It kind of forces the capillaries closed, but it doesn't
generate warmth. That just makes you feel warm.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Mos Thon calculated their intake down to the gram, ensuring
that each man had exactly what he needed to get
through the day. They lost weight quickly. David, at fifty
years old, began to show signs of serious exhaustion. By
late November, he collapsed twice. Morson and Mackay took turns
hauling the sledge without him, but after sixty days of
walking through the ice, blizzards, dangers, and hunger, they actually made.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
It Soday, January sixteenth. We were up at about six am,
and after breakfast we pulled on our sled for two miles.
We then depotted all our heavy gear and equipment, with
the exception of the tent, sleeping bag, prim a stove
and cooker, and a small quantity of food, all of
which we placed on the sledge together with the legs
of the dip circle and those of the Thalaa diet
(21:30):
serve as marks. We pulled on for two miles and
fixed up the legs of the dip circle to guide
us back on our track, the compass moving in an
horizontal plane being now useless for keeping us on our course.
Two miles further we fixed up the legs of the
Thlia diet and two miles further put up our tent
and had a light lunch. We then walk five miles
(21:52):
in the direction of the magnetic pole so as to
place us in the mean position calculated for it by Morson.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
One of the biggest problem with the magnetic pole is
that it's actually not like one tiny little spot where
you could stick a flag and go this is it.
It's actually something like two or three miles across and
trying to find the center of that spot is the
difficult part.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Mowson places camera so as to focus the whole group,
and arranged the trigger, which would be released by means
of a string held in our hands, so as to
make the exposure by means of the focal plane shutter. Meanwhile,
McKay and I fixed up the flag pole. We then
bared our heads and hoisted the union jack three point
thirty PM, with the words uttered by myself in conformity
(22:34):
with Lieutenant Shackleton's instructions, I hereby take possession of this area,
now containing the magnetic pole for the British Empire. At
the same time I find the figure of the camera
by pulling the string. Thus the group were photographed in
the manner shown on the plate. The blurred line connected
with my right hand represents the part of the string
in focus, blown from the side to side by the wind.
(22:57):
Then we gave three cheers for his majesty thicking quote
from that chapters six to thirteen a volume two of
Anna Shackleton's Heart of the Antarctic.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
And narrated by mister David Professor David.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Mister Professor David long lived a King and the Majesty
and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
David grew weaker. At one point McKay had to keep
him moving by poking him with a ski pole. Bove,
you don't want to have to carry you.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Just walk, I say, sir. If you don't continue to
get that little bum of yours moving through the snow,
I will poke it again. Really sick of you poke
me in the bum a yet just then again you mango.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Mowson, the youngest and fittest, assumed responsibility for navigation, food allocation,
and morale. He took the front position on the sledge,
breaking trails through snow and wind. He shortened his own
rations so the others could eat. The situation started to
become dack. They resorted to melting snow with blubber to
stay hydrated, and at times ate for his seal meat
(24:01):
that had been cashed weeks earlier, ranted but edible. By
the time they neared the coast again, David could no
longer stand. Wawson and mackay strapped into the sledge and
pulled him the final one hundred kilometers themselves.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And we have a quote here from Mawson, it was
an awful day of de spare disappointment by traveling, agonizing,
walking forever, falling down. Cravas's Mack called Professor a bloody
fool once on falling into a crevas and all sorts
of other names. Proof gave Mac biscuits and chuck out
of his bag after Mac had been rick anointing. Mac
(24:36):
wanted to know why I should not have it, but
Professor had given me a bit after I fell in
water and offered biscuit, but I was not on for biscuit.
Professor Barberry's pants are now so much torn as to
be falling off. He is apparently half demented, judging by
his actions. A strain has just been too great. He
says himself that he had known the magnitude of the task,
(24:59):
he would not have undertaken it. We camped at seven
am first to February in falling snow. Mac, it seems,
got on to did the Professor properly at one holt
during the afternoon, whith I was reconnoiting. He told the
Professor so that he would have to give me written
authority to take over as commander, or he would his
(25:20):
medical man pronounce him insane. February second, Press's boots were
frozen on and foot gone. Mack now reports that his
feet are more or less gangerous. During most of the day,
the Professor has been walking on his ankles. He has
no doubt doing his best his way. Mac appears to
have kicked him several times when in the harness. During
(25:41):
most of the day the Professor had been walking on
his ankles. He was not out doing his best in
this way, and macapeed to have kicked him several times.
When in the harness, kneel over. We push on and
find no crossing of fissierras, although there is ice in
below where we were stuck at besides too perceptuous. We
finally got sledge down the north side, but would not
(26:04):
get up the south side, so I had to return.
We camped a top on north side, boiled four Emperor's
livers Mac had procured. Went very well. February third. On
our way towards the depot, we had encountered two more
cracks at right angles to former, causing further deviation. Having
finally at about ten PM reached the little bay where
(26:26):
Mac had dragged his sledge full of meat out of
an inlet on our earliest day, we decided to camp
have a meal and turn him with four hour watches.
The Professor was now certainly partially demented. Yesterday evening on
Mac again threatening him. He'd asked me to consider myself
(26:46):
the leader of the expedition since leaving Mozanite id as. Indeed,
he said it always considered me. He said he would
draw it up in writing and get me to sign it.
So I did not like it, have to think on it.
Whilst Mack was away killing seal, he drew out his
pocketbook and began writing out my authority as leader of
(27:06):
the expedition and asked me to sign it. I again
said I did not like the business, and stated he
had better leave matters as they were until the ship
failed to turn up. Now, Mack had the last day
or two been pressing for our departure south. Failing ship's
arrival at a very early date, he suggested getting ready
on the fifth and departing on the tenth. Professor and
(27:28):
I were strong to stay till twentieth. As a matter
of fact, the Professor was too dune to start for
some time. We had now to harbor our very small
stock of sledging provisions and live on local produce. We
fried our penguins with seal blubber over primus. Quote from
Mawson's Antarctic Diaries, edited by Fred Jucker and Ellen Jacker
(27:50):
Allen and Irwin, two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
It's a testament to the amount of struggle these guys
were going to that they looked at a penguin and went, yeah,
that's probably going to taste like chicken.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Their brain's kicking DLA, I know, but still.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Looking at it, fel like I've never been so happy
to see you smelly fucks in my life, because I've
been in a penguin rookery and they stink. Mawson and
his team arrived at Cape Royd's on February four, nineteen
oh nine, emaciated, crossbitten, and barely conscious. They had traveled
one thousand, two hundred and sixty kilometers over one hundred
(28:27):
and twenty two days. Mawson's field notes still intact, recorded
rock types, elevations, ice formations, and temperature reficitions, even at
the edge of collapse. He never stopped collecting data for
his research. After all, if he died and nothing came
of it, then his death was worthless.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Fourth of February, mac did a four hour watch from
mid nine on, during which time he got our cooker
from the depot and hooked up a feed for himself.
Professor took four hours, and then I took six and
a half hours, in which time I killed a couple
of them, Eraprahs and Suka Skua. I woke the others
up and we prepared a meal of penguin livers, etc.
(29:07):
Exceedingly thin and bulky pem as a drink. Rack was
just having a final fell up of blubber, and we
were discussing immediately shifting camp to hire a depot. A
shot rang out. In a second I had overturned the
cooker and was through the door where the bow of
the nimrod was just appearing around the corner in the inlet.
(29:27):
A single shot rang out, and we hurried one after
the other to the beach. Just as I was descending
to the lower shore, the snow gave way and down
I went, some eighteen feet onto the middle of my back,
almost breaking it on a hard snow ridge and the crevasse.
After some trouble, I was hauled up safely by the crew,
Davies jumping down on a road to give me a hand.
(29:50):
Great meeting with officers and crew. Armitage and Brocklehurst on board,
wrote from Mawson's in Tonic Diaries edited by Fred Shaka
and Elanorjaka, Allen and Unwin two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Shackleson greeted them with relief and quiet or The Magnetic
Pole journey hadn't drawn headlines like his own Setwood push,
but he knew what it meant, the scientific value, the
endurance and the survival it required. It was a landmark achievement.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
The Northern Party, consisting of Professor David, doctor McKay and
mister Mawson, was given up as hopelessly lost by the
ship as they were long overdue. The ship serched three
hundred miles of coastline and eventually picked up the party
Little Inlet and Dry Glaski Glacier. They had a very
tough time. It was the biggest piece of luck in
the world. We managed to find them. They would do
(30:41):
back in January, and it was then February. The fourth
quote from the Scrutiny and Bermea District pressed Wednesday, thirty
first of March nineteen oh nine, page four to the Magnetic.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Hole back in Australia. Wilson returned to relative obscurity. The
newspapers were still full of Scott Shackleton, but he had
his samples, his readings, and his own plan beginning to form.
Because there was still one part of Antarctica that no
one had touched, the vast stretch of coastline directly south
of Australia, unmapped, unclaimed, unstudied. Mawson had seen it from
(31:16):
the ship on the way home, and he wanted it
not for a flag, not for a title. For science.
He returned to his post at the University of Adelaide
began assembling notes, drafting proposals, and writing letters. The quiet
young geologist was now due to spend the rest of
his life in a lab, studying everything he had discovered,
well for two years at least, when the Australasian Antarctic
(31:39):
Expedition knocked on his door. In January nineteen ten in London,
Douglas Mawson met with Robert Falcon Scott, who was then
preparing an expedition of his own to Antarctic. Mawson proposed
that he joined as head of an independent team which
would be based at Camp A dairy Scott, however, had
a different idea. Shackleton was consulted and suggested that Mawson
(32:01):
should act as the chief scientist on his second expedition,
which was a position that David had occupied on the original.
On May sixteen, Shackleton issued a statement confirming Mawson would
be joining Shackleton's expedition as chief scientist, adding that Shackleton
himself would not be accompanying them on the expedition, he
was basically acting as the face raising the funds needed.
(32:22):
Mawson returned to Australia, but he heard nothing of Shackleton
or his attempt to fund the expedition for months. Finally,
on December first, Shackleson confirmed that he could not be going,
but Mawson had his full support.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
In a letter to the Daily Mail, Sir Ernest Shackleton
warmly appeals for public subscriptions towards a und of twelve
thousand pounds to enable Doctor Douglas Mawson, the leader of
the proposed Australian expedition to the Antarctic, to purchase the
ship which he has selected and make a start with
her in June. Quote from the Age at Tuesday ninth
May nineteen eleven, page seven, The Antarctic. It's very interesting
(32:56):
considering how everyone nearly died and people lost their feet
in AS's like, I want to go back.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
And Shackton's like, I'm not going back.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, fuck that.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
How you doing that?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
He got his photo in front of the flag. He
was done.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Jackleson never made it to the South Pole.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Oh okay, sorry, well, I mean he led the expedition that.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Got the photograph at the Magneticus.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah. So, I mean at the end of the day, like,
mission accomplished, British Empire looks great. He gets to be
a professor and talk for the rest of his days
about his trip. He was done. He'd had enough, and
I think that was fully understandable.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
He's like, from now on, no winter will ever be
too cold for me.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah, exactly, It'll be fine, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
In January nineteen eleven, Mawson revealed his plans to operate
in the Antarctic postal arc between Caperdair and Gosberg, essentially
the long flat stretch of ice bound coast lying directly
south of Australia. Within this zone, he aimed to conduct
a comprehensive geological survey alongside an ambitious osheographic program. Edward
(33:57):
David's former mentor and companion, pared a committee for the
Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science in support of
the venture. Thanks in part to David's reputation and Mawson's
growing credibility, the expedition quickly gained the backing of scientific institutions,
government departments, and several private donors across Australia and Britain.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Professor T. W. David at the Sydney University, who accompanied
Shackles at Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic nineteen oh seven
to nineteen oh nine, returned from a trip to London
by the mail steamer of Vantio on Sunnday. In an interview,
Professor David said the object of his trip had been
to arrange for the geological and mineralogical results of the expedition.
(34:40):
At the conclusion of his visit, satisfactory arrangements had been concluded.
The manuscript and plates handed into the publishers, who had
already bought out The narrative of the Shackleton expedition in
the book termed The Heart of the Antarctic, lectures were
delivered by Professor David at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford
and Bristol, and before the Geographical Society of London and
(35:01):
the Royal Geographical Society. Quote from the Register, twenty seventh
March nineteen eleven, page eight Antarctic Problems.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
All that to tell you that Professor David he was
living his best life. Mawson acquired the s y Aurora Barclatine,
built in eighteen seventy six, previously used for sealing and
Arctic exploration. It wasn't glamorous, narrow holed, and far from luxurious,
but it had proven itself in polar conditions. Mawson had
(35:28):
it retrofitted and stocked to support multiple overwintering parties. It
was to be a scientific expedition first, not a race
or a stunt. Mawson assembled a crew of thirty one men, geologists, physicists, cartographers, biologists, meteorologists,
a photographer, wireless operators, sailors, and one book. They weren't
(35:49):
adventurers in the romantic sense. These were scientists and technicians.
Most of them were young, many of them astraying, who
had signed on not for glory but for dutt something
I didn't put in the script here. At this point
in time, there was a second race building to get
to the South Pole. And you might know the scott expedition,
the one where they all died.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Uh. I think so. I've listened to a lot about
disasters in ships and around the Antarctic, so I think.
So did they eat each other?
Speaker 2 (36:20):
There was lots of things going down because they all died,
It's not known what really happened.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, but I remember, if I recall correctly, normarks on bones.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, some of the bodies will never think. Mawson's expedition
departed Hobart on December two, nineteen eleven, bound for the
Frozen Unknown.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
The steam yacht Aurora, which takes Mawson's expedition to the Antarctic,
sailed punctually at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Long before
this time, the near approaches to the vessel have become impassable.
Crowds of interested spectators were thronging the board passages of
the Queen's Peer, while the other peers and adjacent shipping
were also crowded. Quote from the Daily Post, Monday fourth
(37:02):
at December nineteen eleven, page three, Goodbye Aurora and ladies
and gentlemen. We are going to have to cut it
off there as we prepare for our second expedition to
the Antarctic with Sir Lawson.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Not us, because there's no damn way you'd get me
down there.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh I'd love to go. Too cold, I've looked into it.
It's about thirteen thousand dollars per ticket.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Too cold. I could be cold here by sitting in
a freezer.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, but you get to journey where very few people
get to go. So the way they help to fund
Antarctic expeditions now is you can buy a cabin space basically,
and you travel along with the scientists. I don't believe
you disembark to Antarctica.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, I believe you stay on the ship.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
You stay on the ship when they disembark, the scientists
and whatnot to the research the research centers. But yeah,
you can absolutely do it. Like I said, it costs
about thirteen thousand dollars. The more you pay, the better
your accommodation is. I've heard for the thirteenth another the
price tag. You're basically living in a shoe box for
a couple of months and not a lot of unless
(38:06):
you're really, really invested in being that old fashion sort
of explorer type. It is a bit of a struggle
for a lot of people, but yeah, no, I'd love
to do it, absolutely love to do it. Well, ladies
and gentlemen, before we let you go, just a couple
of bits of housekeeping, don't You can reach out to
us via our social media just typing we crap in
Australia into your search engine of choice for your social
(38:27):
media of choice. You can also send us a good
old fashion email weir crap in Australia at gmail dot
com just quickly. As well. We have been making some
efforts to remaster old episodes and get a YouTube channel
up and running where you can check out this podcast
as well. It's getting closer so by the time you
(38:49):
listen to this, potentially the first test episode will be up, which, Holly,
will be the remastered version of our first episode, or
is that sorry? It wasn't a remaster, It would be
a rerecording, a remake of the first episode.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I'm only going to put the remaster up there because
I want to release the re recording in its own
episode on the YouTube channel yep, because otherwise it's like
four and a bit hours long, and I don't think
YouTube would support.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, so keep an eye out to that. We Crap
in Australia on YouTube. Obviously we've tried doing streaming and
stuff before, but you can imagine how our poor, how
time poor we are now.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I mean we have seventy something subscribers.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, so some new content for them, which is great.
And if you prefer listening to podcasts on YouTube, well
that's what we're trying to do. So it encourages us
to go back through use of AI tools to remaster
some of those old episodes, which they actually sound pretty
good on once they do the work through, and we're
going to slowly re release all of those episodes until
(39:51):
they become concurrent. So keep an eye on that. Head
to YouTube typically crap in Australia and subscribe to that
and you'll start to see some of those episodes popping
up very very soon. Holly, you've been working with an
artist who has done the looping animation for those episodes
and it looks fantastic, so very big thing. So sorry,
what's the artist's name? Because you've you've been handling this project,
(40:12):
haven't even looked at it.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Blanka Denko here's Romanian.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Oh well, thank you very much, Blanka for all of
your fantastic work, and can't wait to show that to everyone,
So keep an eye out on the YouTube channel for
that one. You can also help us out in a
couple of different ways, first and foremost being our Patreon.
For only five dollars US a month, you get access
to uncut episodes early as well as additional minisodes where
(40:36):
we examined some of that week's Australian news headlines. You
can also grab our book series Volume one to five
is available now from our great mates at Impact Comics
dot com. If you want a paperback version here in
Australia sorry dot com dot Au. You can also grab
the paperback internationally from Lulu dot com. If you would
like the digital version, you can grab that from the
(40:58):
Amazon Kindlestore. Until, of course, if Bezos is told by
the American government that he has to remove anything that
doesn't comply with their very narrow view of history. We
are waiting for it to happen, because it has been
happening to some digital releases and audio books over in
the States. We don't know how far reaching that is
going to be, but we will find an alternative platform
to release our book to you digitally. Good that happens.
(41:20):
So Volume one to five are out now you can
pick up volume six, which we're coming out in September.
If you would like to do any pre ordering of
the paperback, just shoot our great mates at impactomics dot
com today you and email just let them know you'd
like to pre order Volume six for the September release.
I'm sure mail would appreciate the business. And last but
(41:43):
not lease, if you want a week Crap in Australia
T shirt, don't forget to a head to our Tea Public
and Red Bubble stores where you can grab T shirts, mugs, cups,
all sorts of bits and pieces for your weak Crap
in Australia collection. And as is our custom, we give
Holly the final words.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
I went looking to see about the Antarctic tours because
why not. Apparently right now they're actually running in promotion.
So if you ever spare thirteen grand to blow, you
can get a free upgrade on this ship cabin so
you can get a little bit more room for free.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
I'll be happy to like, like take six months off
work to go on one of these boats.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
They think that you're going a little bit.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
And why do you think that.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
I'm taking six grand I'm taking six months off to
go freeze my ass off in a little ship, tiny cabin,
shoebox thing. Yeah, maybe occasionally stare at a penguin.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
That's fine.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
I think you're nuts for wanting to do it. I
think they were nuts for wanting to do it way
back when.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
I just go get a tablet with a decent screen.
I'd load up all these books and comics and TV
shows and movies and stuff that I've wanted to check
out for a.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
While, and then ignore all of them.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
It would set up, you know, we'd be able to
do podcasting quite easily. So we'd still have believe you
get interet access, so we'd still be able to upload episodes.
And yeah, and then I go on a little trip
for a couple of months down to the Antarctica back.
I think it'd be great fun.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Still not getting me on that book.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
That's fine. I'll come back in six months. You'll be fine.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
I've seen Titanic, gay don it Sabe's not getting me
in space, not yet.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I'd love to go into space. And I'm like Katie Perry,
I want to be a fuckhead about it.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Yes, she would. You'd be walking around me. I went
to space, what about you?
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah, I'd be like I went to space, but I
want to turn around and go I'm an astronaut, and
I wouldn't take like a flower up with me and
pose it at the camera while there's this amazing view
of the Earth behind us. And she's too busy making
a little fucking TikTok video. So no, I would go
to space and not be a fuck head.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Look, I'll be honest. When I want to just feel
tiny and small, I actually put on the ISS feed
watch the Earth float by.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, you can watch that on YouTube. Actually, they do
a live feed every day. Well that's it from us,
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us.
Please stay safe out there and be kind to each other.
We'll see you once again for more week Crap in
Australia next week. Until then, Bye for now.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
The Weird Crap In Australia podcast is produced by Holly
and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review on your favorite podcatching app.
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