DUNDEE AND ITS LINK TO POLAR EXPLORATION

Iwas in the Czech Republic last month for a European Polar Exhibition. Doubts about its location – given that the country is landlocked! – were laid to rest by the stunning exhibits. There were half a dozen Polar Medals from Dundee ships. There were a dozen letters from Shackleton, half from Dundee vessels, another four or so from Captain Scott, all from RRS Discovery. The display on the 1875 British Arctic Expedition showed that both its ships came from Dundee, as did the six icemasters who steered them to Farthest North.

Dundee was the foundation on which modern polar exploration was established. It built more exploration vessels than any other port and, through its ships and men, helped to facilitate exploration, investigation and research in polar regions.

The port’s whalemen represented the greatest body of expert knowledge on modern Arctic exploration known in the western world. and they lived out that expertise through a series of penetrating voyages which involved ever-present danger as they plotted, pushed and progressed to previously inaccessible high Arctic latitudes.

For this they did not receive fame, wealth and public adulation as the nation’s patriotic explorers did. But the one could not have existed without the other.

We know of Scott and Discovery, Shackleton and Nimrod. The Windward carried Robert Peary, the Aurora saw service with Dr Douglas Mawson, while Evelyn Briggs Baldwin chose the Dundee whaler Esquimaux for his North Pole attempt, as did Dr Frederick Cook.

Just as often, Dundee ships secured their safe return. The Morning and Terra Nova rescued Scott, the Aurora Shackleton, the Erik Peary, the Bear both Adolphus Greely and Roald Amundsen.

An incredible history.

Shackleton and his ship SS Nimrod.