Carstens Borchgrevink

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Borchgrevinck's Cape Adare Hut

Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (December 1, 1864 in Kristiania, Norway — 1934 in Slemdal, Oslo, Norway), was a teacher and explorer. He led the first expedition to winter on the Antarctic continent. Although of Norwegian birth, Borchgrevink emigrated to Australia, where he was a lecturer in geography and natural history at the University of Sydney. Subsequently he returned to Norway.

A drawing above Kolbein Ellefsen's bed in Borchgrevink's Cape Adare Hut. Ellefsen, the cook on the Southern Cross Expedition, was a talented artist.

Borchgrevink was a member of a whaling expedition to the Ross Sea in 1894-1895. The expedition was funded by Norwegian whaler Svend Foyn and organised and managed by Henrik Bull. Bull was a Norwegian resident in Melbourne from 1886-1892. He accompanied the voyage. The ship used had been renamed Antarctic and was subsequently used on the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904 (where it sunk in the Weddell Sea). The expedition landed at Cape Adare, at the northern end of Victoria Land, Antarctica. The ship's captain, Leonard Kristensen, the manager Henrik Bull, Borchgrevink and five other crew members were the first party to make a confirmed landing on the Antarctic continent in January 1895, although subsequent research suggests crews of early sealers may have made landings on the Antarctic Peninsula in the 1820s. The landing at Cape Adare created some controversy with both Kristensen and Borchgrevink conducting a heated debate through letters to The Times both claiming to have been the first to leap onto land at Cape Adare. Geological specimens recovered during this landing were the very first scientific samples recovered from the Antarctic mainland. Today, they are in the collections of Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum. Several geological specimens were also donated to the Warrnambool Museum, a coastal city in Victoria, Australia, though their current location is unknown.

After returning to Australia Borchgrevink lectured on his trip with Henrik Bull in both Melbourne and Sydney, but personality conflicts with Bull led to a falling-out. Borchgrevink travelled to London and addressed the International Geographical Congress regarding the Antarctic landing.

Borchgrevink wished to return to the Antarctic leading a scientific expedition. The result was the Southern Cross Expedition using the ship Southern Cross financed by Sir George Newnes, a newspaper owner in London. Members of the expedition were 7 Norwegians, among them 2 Sami (Lapps), who had the responsibility of the dogs, 2 British, and one Australian, meteorologist Louis Bernacchi, who subsequently joined Scott's 1901-1904 expedition. In February 1899, Borchgrevink's party landed at Cape Adare, where they built a prefabricated hut (the first human structure ever built on the Antarctic continent), and wintered. The ship returned to New Zealand.

In January 1900, the Southern Cross returned to pick up the survivors. The expedition's zoologist, Nicolai Hanson, was the only member of the expedition team not to survive. The exact cause of his death is unknown but he is suspected to have suffered from beriberi. The expedition continued south setting the record for the most southern point reached (an estimated 78°50´S). Borchgrevink also surveyed the extent of the northern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, then termed The Barrier. They were able to ascend the Barrier at The Bay of Whales, a feat that Roald Amundsen acknowledged as of the greatest importance in the early exploration of the continent. They used dogs for penetrating south. The expedition returned to Australia in March, 1900. He was heavily criticised by the several members of the expedition for poor leadership, and got only one more expedition to lead – to Martinique.

In 1930 he was awarded the Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographic Society. He also received honours from the United States and Norway; with Norway dubbing him first as a Knight of St. Olaf and later a Knight of Danebrog.

Borchgrevink's Cape Adare hut still existed as of 2003, but was being destroyed by the effects of penguin guano. However there is a plan to save the antarctic huts for another hundred years by the Antarctic Heritage Trust^[1] ^[2] .

An enigmatic fossil arthropod, Borchgrevinkium taimyrensis Novojilov, 1959, from the Devonian of the Taymyr Autonomous Okrug has been named in his honour.