The South Polar Race Medal
Sculpted by Danuta Solowiej
Published by Sim Comfort Associates
The South Polar Race Medal is approximately
6 cms / 2.4 inches in diameter and has a sterling silver weight of 3.0 troy
ounces / 93 grams. The edition is limited to 100 medals with each medal signed
by the artist and numbered and bearing London hallmarks.
The price is £474.00. Included is a 12 page booklet which provides further images and background regarding the medal and the achievements of Amundsen and Scott. .
Danuta Solowiej is a Polish-born artist
residing in the United
Kingdom. She arrived
in the UK in 1988 after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts,
Warsaw, where she studied sculpture having specialized in medallic art.
Her many medal and coin designs include the five pound crown coin celebrating
the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II and a recently a five pound
coin for Alderney, commemorating John Lennon. Danuta won the silver award for
modelling at the Goldsmith’s Competition for 2012 for creating The South Polar
Race Medal.
Each medal is cast by using the lost wax
process at the works of Niagara Falls Casting located in Warwick, England.
Following casting, the central images are burnished by Danuta with the rims and
edges polished by Reg Elliot, who also sees to the engraving of the medal’s
number.
The South Polar Race by Glenn Stein
The 100th anniversary of man's
first attainment of the South Pole recalls a story of two iron-willed explorers
committed to their final race for the ultimate prize, which resulted in both
triumph and tragedy.
In July 1895, the International
Geographical Congress met in London and opened Antarctica’s portal by deciding that the southernmost continent would become
the primary focus of new exploration.
Indeed, Antarctica is the only such land mass in our world where man has ventured and
not found man. Up until that time, no
one had explored the hinterland of the frozen continent, and even the vast
majority of its coastline was still unknown.
The meeting touched off a flurry of activity, and soon thereafter
national expeditions and private ventures started organizing: the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration had
begun, and the attainment of the South Pole became the pinnacle of that age.
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen
(1872-1928) nurtured at an early age a strong desire to be an explorer in his
snowy Norwegian surroundings, and later sailed on an Arctic sealing
voyage. He furthered that experience by
shipping as first mate with Adrien de Gerlache’s Antarctic expedition onboard
the Belgica (1897-99). In his
youth he admired Fridtjof Nansen’s achievements, and dreamed of becoming the
first to sail the Northwest Passage, which he did from 1903-06.
During this expedition, Amundsen learned from the Inuit how to construct
igloos, and notably, how to drive dogs.
Next setting his sights on attaining the
North Pole, Amundsen received a grant from Norway’s parliament, and
Nansen’s permission to sail in the polar ship Fram (“Forward”). Naval First Lieutenant Thorvald Nilsen served
as her captain and the expedition’s second-in-command. Amid his preparations for departure, in September
1909 Amundsen got word of the separate claims by Robert Peary and Frederick
Cook to have reached the North Pole.
However, the South Pole remained unconquered, and the Norwegian
formulated a secret plan to accomplish one objective as rapidly as possible –
get to the Pole and back.
Amundsen favoured skilled skiers, and
trusty canines were his locomotive mainstay.
Assembling a team of highly capable men was crucial for the plan’s
success; among the nine chosen for the shore party were: excellent skier and dog driver F. Hjalmar
Johansen, skiing champion Olav O. Bjaaland, dog
drivers Helmer J. Hanssen, Sverre H. Hassel, and Oscar Wisting (who was
afterward trained as a dog driver in Antarctica).
When Fram sailed from Kristiansand on 9 August 1910, she headed
for the North Atlantic island of Madeira, from where Amundsen telegrammed Captain Scott: “Beg leave to inform you Fram
proceeding Antarctic. Amundsen.” He also addressed his entire crew on deck and
reviewed plans to strike for the South Pole, and was greeted with smiles all
around.
Fram
entered the Bay of Whales on 14 January 1911, and established his Framheim base two miles inland. Although he was 60 miles closer to the Pole
than the British starting point of Cape Evans, Ross Island, Amundsen would be
trailblazing his way south. Depots were
laid through the end of March before the Norwegians settled down for the long
winter. By late August, several false
starts were the crucible of Amundsen’s patience, until he and his seven-man
team finally burst southward on 8 September.
But the Antarctic would have none of it, and after three days of good
progress temperatures plunging to – 56ºC (– 69ºF); and things only worsened. It was 14 September before Amundsen finally
ordered a retreat back to Framheim, 40 miles away. Much battered, the Norwegians nursed their
wounds and waited for better days.
When 19 October came around, Amundsen set
out again, but with a smaller team:
Bjaaland, Hanssen, Hassel, and Wisting – each of whom commanded a sledge
with 13 dogs. The unknown trail was kind
to them and Amundsen allowed for five hours of travelling per day. By the end of the third week in November, the
team rested atop the newly named Axel Heiberg Glacier, having discovered it and
the Queen Maud Mountains along the way. After a few
days the men moved out into unfavorable conditions of poor visibility, and a
minefield of crevasses awaiting them beyond the mountains.
Leaving dangers further and further
behind with each mile gained, the Pole now beckoned Amundsen. In the afternoon of 14 December, on what was
christened the King Haakon VII Plateau, the five Norwegians grasped their flag
together and planted it at the South Pole.
Not wishing to suffer the same scrutiny as Peary and Cook were due to
their conflicting and unverified claims related to the North Pole, Amundsen
crisscrossed the whole area for three days, carefully making observations and
calculations. Only then did he erect a
tent called Poleheim, in which he left a message for Captain Scott, asking for
another message to be delivered to King Haakon in case anything should happen
to him. Their objective accomplished,
the five Norwegian turned northward for Fram on 18 December.
Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) came
from a family where several members had served in the army or navy, and he
joined as a naval cadet in 1881, at age 13, following a traditional path for a
Victorian naval officer. Six years later,
the now Midshipman Scott caught the eye of Royal Geographical Society Secretary
Clements Markham, a strong proponent of polar exploration and himself a veteran
of the Franklin search during the 1850s. Markham made a note of the
young officer as a possible future choice for exploration work. In mid-1899, a chance encounter on a London street between
Lieutenant Scott and Clements Markham – now RGS President – forever changed
Scott’s life. Scott first learned on an
upcoming Antarctic expedition, and a few days later volunteered to be its
leader, thereafter being promoted to commander.
In the tradition of 19th
century Royal Navy Arctic expeditions, Scott arrived at Hut Point, Ross Island,
with a large party onboard the purpose-built Discovery in early
1902. Ahead was a comprehensive two-year program: geographical exploration and scientific
inquiry. Only one man actually had any
experience with dogs, and sledging experience was almost non-existent as well –
it would be on-the-job-training for the men.
A primary aim was to reach the South Pole, and Scott led a man-hauling
team that achieved a farthest south of 82° 17′ S, about 530 miles
from the Pole before turning back.
After returning home, Scott was
promoted to captain, and though he continued his naval career, he also planned
to return south one day. That day came
in January 1911 when the Terra Nova (“New Land”),
carrying an even larger party of men than Discovery, approached Cape Evans on Ross Island. Scott’s program again included exploration
and science, along with a run south, this time utilizing mechanized sledges,
ponies, dogs and man-hauling. Scott was
determined to prove he could make it all the way, and surpass Ernest
Shackleton’s 1909 farthest record (88º
23’ S), in which he came within 97 miles (190 km) of the Pole.
Depots for the South Pole attempt
the following year were laid, and by mid-May everyone was back at Cape Evans
for the winter. On 24 October the first
of three southern elements departed, aiming for a rendezvous at 80º 32’ S. The motor sledge team clanked out of camp,
but the machines soon succumbed to mechanical failures, and the team reverted
to man-hauling. Scott followed-up with
ponies on 1 November, and afterward came two dog sledges. Everyone met up at the rendezvous on 21
November, and one month later the top of the Beardmore Glacier was reached,
giving way to the polar plateau; now there were only three sledge teams, and
one more was sent back.
Finally, on 4 January 1912, the
final Pole Party was set at five men, one more than the original plan of
four. Since Scott decided take an extra
man along, this meant a recalculation of food and weight, and a more crowded
than usual tent on the trail. Scott
chose Dr. Edward Wilson, Lieutenant Henry Bowers, Captain Lawrence Oates, and
Petty Officer Edgar Evans. Five days
later, Shackleton’s farthest south was surpassed: but jubilant expectations were soon
shattered. On 16 January the white
landscape was interrupted by a marker flag left by the Norwegians. The following day Scott and his men stood at
the South Pole, “but under very different circumstances from those expected,”
wrote Scott, and they found the tent and messages left by Amundsen.
With an 800-mile trek back to Cape
Evans, Scott left the Pole on 18 January.
Initially, the party made good progress, but as Scott approached the
summit of the Beardmore, two of the men, Wilson and Evans, were suffering
particularly badly, the latter having received a concussion after a bad
fall. The effects of weather and the
limited sledge diet had taken their toll.
Evans made it to the bottom of the glacier, but died in his sleep on 17
February. A month later, not wishing to
continue to be a hindrance to his comrades’ chances for survival, Oates
sacrificed his life by walking out of the tent during a blizzard.
In the meantime, on 26 February,
Assistant Zoologist Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Russian Dog Driver Dmitriy Girev
departed from the coast with two dog teams to deposit extra rations for the
Polar Party at One Ton Depot. They
arrived on 4 March, but not finding Scott, waited
six days, and then amid deteriorating weather and diminishing supplies made a
turn for home – at this time the desperate Pole Party was fewer than 70 miles
(110 km) away. One more attempt to reach
Scott was made through the man-hauling trip of Surgeon Edward L. Atkinson and
Petty Officer Patrick Keohane, but they were unsuccessful.
By 19 March, Scott, Wilson and
Bowers had struggled to within 11 miles (18 km) of One Ton Depot – and safety –
until a ferocious blizzard trapped them in their tent: Scott set down his last journal entry ten
days later. Atkinson led a sledge party
that found the three men that November. Scott was frozen solid, sitting upright, eyes open and
journal in his lap, with Wilson and Bowers leaning against him. The swell of the Heroic Age had hit
its peak.
It is with the creation of The South Polar Race Medal that these extraordinary men, and those who followed them, are remembered.