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German South Polar Expedition (1901-1903)
Details
German South Polar Expedition (1901-1903)
Richard Vahsel (d.1912). Autograph manuscript journal, 11 August 1901 - 21 February 1903, in German, in pen and pencil, 227 pages, 4to, contemporary morocco with foliate decoration, gilt edges, Vahsel's name stamped in gilt on upper cover (rubbed); together with an autograph listing of repairs to a ship in the South China Seas, n.d., 3 pages, folio, and two newspaper cuttings.
AN IMPORTANT DIARY OF THE 1901-1903 GERMAN GAUSS EXPEDITION UNDER ERICH VON DRYGALSKI. Vahsel, Second Officer on the Gauss describes the progress of the expedition from its departure from Kiel; on 1 January 1902 the Gauss reaches the Îles Kerguelen, where they establish a magnetic and meteorological station; they leave Kerguelen on 31 January and enter the pack ice on 14 February; on 21 February they sight land (named Kaiser Wilhelm II Land by Drygalski, now Wilhelm II Coast), and on the same day the Gauss becomes stuck in the ice. It was to be the second ship to winter in the pack. One of the most interesting sections of the diary is from 18 to 26 March 1902, when the first sledging expedition, composed of four men including Vahsel, was sent out, and on 21 March discovered an ice-free hill protruding through the ice; this was named Gaussberg. On 29 March Vahsel describes Drygalski's ascent to a height of 480 metres in a hydrogen balloon (from which he photographed Gaussberg, and reported his observations by telephone). Further sledging expeditions followed on 4-16 April and 22 April - 15 May. The winter on the well-equipped Gauss was spent amid relative comfort in a jovial atmosphere compared in another account to that of a cosy German hamlet in winter. Further sledging took place in the spring, but from mid-January 1903 the expedition was chiefly preoccupied with escaping from the pack ice, an end which was achieved by the ingenious device of laying a trail of ash and rubbish, which absorbed the sunlight and created a lead, eventually split by a fortuitous swell on 8 February. Vahsel's diary ends with the Gauss cruising round the coast in search of safe winter quarters, shortly before Drygalski's decision, at the end of March, to retreat from the pack ice. The ship reached South Africa on 9 June, and returned to Kiel on 24 November.
Richard Vahsel returned to the Antarctic as captain of Filchner's vessel Deutschland, and died, apparently of an old illness, on that expedition on 8 August 1912. Erich von Drygalski's expedition was conceived as a complement to Scott's contemporaneous venture on the Ross sea. Though lacking in any sensational successes or failures, and overshadowed by the more celebrated Discovery expedition, the Gauss expedition was distinguished by a wide-ranging and thorough scientific programme, which included the use of a meteorological kite and a windmill to generate electricity, the drilling of holes 30 metres into icebergs to observe temperature and ice conditions, the recording of penguins on an Edison phonograph and the discovery of 600 miles or more of new coastline. The expedition's findings were published by Drygalski over a 26-year period, from 1905 to 1931, in 20 volumes.
Richard Vahsel (d.1912). Autograph manuscript journal, 11 August 1901 - 21 February 1903, in German, in pen and pencil, 227 pages, 4to, contemporary morocco with foliate decoration, gilt edges, Vahsel's name stamped in gilt on upper cover (rubbed); together with an autograph listing of repairs to a ship in the South China Seas, n.d., 3 pages, folio, and two newspaper cuttings.
AN IMPORTANT DIARY OF THE 1901-1903 GERMAN GAUSS EXPEDITION UNDER ERICH VON DRYGALSKI. Vahsel, Second Officer on the Gauss describes the progress of the expedition from its departure from Kiel; on 1 January 1902 the Gauss reaches the Îles Kerguelen, where they establish a magnetic and meteorological station; they leave Kerguelen on 31 January and enter the pack ice on 14 February; on 21 February they sight land (named Kaiser Wilhelm II Land by Drygalski, now Wilhelm II Coast), and on the same day the Gauss becomes stuck in the ice. It was to be the second ship to winter in the pack. One of the most interesting sections of the diary is from 18 to 26 March 1902, when the first sledging expedition, composed of four men including Vahsel, was sent out, and on 21 March discovered an ice-free hill protruding through the ice; this was named Gaussberg. On 29 March Vahsel describes Drygalski's ascent to a height of 480 metres in a hydrogen balloon (from which he photographed Gaussberg, and reported his observations by telephone). Further sledging expeditions followed on 4-16 April and 22 April - 15 May. The winter on the well-equipped Gauss was spent amid relative comfort in a jovial atmosphere compared in another account to that of a cosy German hamlet in winter. Further sledging took place in the spring, but from mid-January 1903 the expedition was chiefly preoccupied with escaping from the pack ice, an end which was achieved by the ingenious device of laying a trail of ash and rubbish, which absorbed the sunlight and created a lead, eventually split by a fortuitous swell on 8 February. Vahsel's diary ends with the Gauss cruising round the coast in search of safe winter quarters, shortly before Drygalski's decision, at the end of March, to retreat from the pack ice. The ship reached South Africa on 9 June, and returned to Kiel on 24 November.
Richard Vahsel returned to the Antarctic as captain of Filchner's vessel Deutschland, and died, apparently of an old illness, on that expedition on 8 August 1912. Erich von Drygalski's expedition was conceived as a complement to Scott's contemporaneous venture on the Ross sea. Though lacking in any sensational successes or failures, and overshadowed by the more celebrated Discovery expedition, the Gauss expedition was distinguished by a wide-ranging and thorough scientific programme, which included the use of a meteorological kite and a windmill to generate electricity, the drilling of holes 30 metres into icebergs to observe temperature and ice conditions, the recording of penguins on an Edison phonograph and the discovery of 600 miles or more of new coastline. The expedition's findings were published by Drygalski over a 26-year period, from 1905 to 1931, in 20 volumes.
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