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Mawson, Ninnis and Mertz

Six parties set out from the base in early November on journeys of varying lengths. Mawson’s expedition comprised himself, British Army officer Belgrave Ninnis and Swiss champion skier Xavier Mertz. The three men intended to map the coastline east of Cape Denison – a round trip of 1, kilometres.

A month later, kilometres from Cape Denison, Ninnis fell into a crevasse at least 50 metres deep, taking his sledge and most of their supplies and huskies with him.

Peering into the crevasse, Mawson and Mertz could see little trace of Ninnis, and their calls went unanswered. The rope they had with them was not long enough to mount any effective rescue attempt.

Ninnis’s death hit Mertz the hardest. In his journal, he wrote:

We could do nothing, really nothing. We were standing, helplessly, next to a friend’s grave, my best friend of the whole expedition. We read a prayer in Mawson’s prayer book. This was our only consolation, the last honouring we could do for our beloved friend Ninnis.

After nine hours Mawson and Mertz began their return to base with only ten days of food for a journey that would take at least As they retraced their steps they were forced to eat their dogs. Mawson recorded in his journal:

That night we ate George. He was a very poor sample; chiefly sinews with a very undesirable taste. It was a happy relief when the liver appeared which, if little else could be said in its favour, could be easily chewed and digested.

However, both men were unaware that the dogs’ livers contained toxic levels of Vitamin A. It is thought that this contributed to the deterioration of both men, particularly Mertz.

About Douglas Mawson

Douglas Mawson was born on 5 May at Shipley, Yorkshire, England. The family moved to Australia in  and Douglas was educated at Rooty Hill and at Fort Street Model School in Sydney. At the University of Sydney in he studied mining engineering, graduating in In he took his second degree in geology.

In  he was appointed lecturer in mineralogy and petrology in the University of Adelaide. Here he became interested in the glacial geology of South Australia. Also, continuing his interest in radioactivity, he identified and first described the mineral davidite, containing titanium and uranium, in specimens from the region now known as Radium Hill. That deposit was the first major radioactive ore body discovered in Australia. Mawson named it after Professor Sir Edgeworth Tannant David, his mentor at the University of Sydney. It was his interest in glacial geology that determined him to examine active glaciers and glaciation in progress. The opportunity arose to join Ernest Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica in Mawson was appointed physicist for the duration of the expedition. Edgeworth David also accompanied that expedition, initially only for the voyage there and back, but he decided to remain in Antarctica.

On this expedition Mawson, David and Alistair MacKay made the gruelling trek to the South Magnetic Pole. Mawson also one a member of the party which was the first to climb the active volcano Mt Erebus on Ross Island. He also contributed to the book Aurora Australis, the first book to be printed in the Antarctic. His story Bathybia is a piece of science fiction set in Antarctica.

On his return from this expedition, Mawson was determined to go south again and began planning his own expedition. This was the Australasian Antarctic Expedition which sailed from Hobart in December

ONLINE LINKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ayres, Philip J Mawson : a life. Miegunyah Press : Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic,

Hall, Lincoln and Scanlan, Barbara Douglas Mawson : the life of an explorer. New Holland, French's Forest, N.S.W,

Magee, Adrian Douglas Mawson : explorer for science. Cardigan Street Publishers, Carlton, Vic,

Mawson, Douglas Sir The Australasian Antarctic expedition. Royal Geographical Society, London,

Mawson, Douglas Sir The home of the blizzard : being the story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, (Abridged popular ed). Hodder and Stoughton, London,

Mawson, Douglas Sir, Jacka, Eleanor and Jacka, Fred, Mawson's Antarctic diaries. Allen & Unwin, Sydney,

Mawson, Paquita Mawson of the Antarctic : the life of Sir Douglas Mawson. Longmans, [Lond.],

Mawson, Paquita, Mawson, Douglas Sir, and Flannery, Nancy Robinson, This everlasting silence : the love letters of Paquita Delprat and Douglas Mawson, Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic,

Parer, David, Parer-Cook, Elizabeth and Australian Broadcasting Corporation Douglas Mawson, the survivor. Alella Books ; Sydney : Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Morwell, Vic,

For the ship lost at sea in , see SS Douglas Mawson.

Australian geologist and explorer of the Antarctic (–)

"Mawson" redirects here. For other uses, see Mawson (disambiguation).

Sir Douglas MawsonOBE FRSFAA (5 May – 14 October ) was a British-born Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Mawson was born in England and was brought to Australia as an infant. He completed degrees in mining engineering and geology at the University of Sydney. In he was made a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide. Mawson's first experience in the Antarctic came as a member of Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (–), alongside his mentor Edgeworth David. They were part of the expedition's northern party, which became the first to attain the South magnetic pole and to climb Mount Erebus.

After his participation in Shackleton's expedition, Mawson became the principal instigator of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (–). The expedition explored thousands of kilometres of previously unexplored regions, collected geological and botanical samples, and made important scientific observations. Mawson was the sole survivor of the three-man Far Eastern Party, which travelled across the Mertz and Ninnis Glaciers named after his two deceased companions. Their deaths forced him to travel alone for over a month to return to the expedition's main base.

Mawson was knighted in , and during the second half of World War I worked as a non-combatant with the British and Russian militaries. He returned to the University of Adelaide in and became a full professor in , contributing much to Australian geology. He returned to the Antarctic as the leader of the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (–), which led to a territorial cla