The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914Mawson, Douglas, Sir
History
The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
Mawson, Douglas, Sir
Antarctica -- Discovery and exploration; Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)
In the calm weather, abundant "worms" freely swimming, jelly-fish,
pteropods and small fish were observed. Traps were lowered along the
edge of the harbour-ice and dredgings were made in every possible
situation. The bulk of the biological collecting was effected under
circumstances in which Hunter and Laseron might well have given up work
in disgust. For instance, I noted in my diary that on May 16, with an
off shore wind of forty-three miles per hour, they and several others
were dredging from the edge of the slippery bay-ice. The temperature at
the time was -2 degrees F.
During April the head of the boat harbour froze over permanently, the
ice reaching a thickness of eighteen inches in ten days. By that time
it was strong enough to be suitable for a tide-gauge. This was one of
Bage's charges, destined to take him out for many months in fair and
foul weather.
There were several occasions in April when the velocity of the wind
exceeded ninety miles an hour. On the evening of the 26th, the wind
slackened, and for part of the 27th had almost fallen to a calm. This
brought the optimists to the fore, once again, with the theory that the
worst was over. The prediction was far from being fulfilled, for, as the
days passed, the average velocity steadily rose. On May 11 the average
for the twenty-four hours was eighty miles per hour. By that time the
Hut had been further protected by a crescent of cases, erected behind
the first break-wind. In height this erection stood above the Hangar,
and, when the snow became piled in a solid ramp on the leeward side, it
was more compact than ever. Inside the Hut extra struts were introduced,
stiffening the principal rafters on the southern side. It was reassuring
to know that these precautions had been taken, for, on May 15, the wind
blew at an average velocity of ninety miles per hour throughout the
whole twenty-four hours.
Having failed to demolish us by dogged persistence, the hurricane tried
new tactics on the evening of May 24, in the form of a terrific series
of Herculean gusts. As we learned afterwards, the momentary velocity of
these doubtless approached two hundred miles per hour. At 11.30 P.M. the
situation was cheerfully discussed, though every one was tuned up to a
nervous pitch as the Hut creaked and shuddered under successive blows.
It seemed very doubtful whether the roof would resist the gusts, and the
feasibility of the meat cellar as a last haven of refuge was discussed.
After the passage of each gust, the barometer dropped, rising again
immediately afterwards. Similar pulsations of the barometer were
observed many times later in the year. The maximum sudden movement noted
was one-fifth inch. Had the interior of the Hut been more freely in
communication with the outside air, instead of resembling a hermetically
sealed box, the "kicks" would undoubtedly have been much greater.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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