Description
EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912)
Six autograph letters signed (one incomplete, lacking opening) to Charles Seymour Wright, 19 Holland Street, Kensington, 31 January - 1 May 1910 and n.d., together approx 23 pages, 4to, one on B.A.E. paper, one letter including a sketch of a packing case.
Preparations for the scientific department of Scott's Last Expedition. Wilson, as chief of the scientific staff, writes in a long letter of 2 April 1910 to coordinate purchasing of equipment: he will organise most of it with expedition biologist E.W. Nelson, but Wright is to order the hydrographic equipment himself, always remembering that 'Every order must go through the office' for Scott's signature; Wright is also to bear in mind before planning the involvement of other scientists in analysing sea water samples that any results are to be held back for the official expedition reports -- 'There is to be no publication without Capt. Scott's sanction'; any photographic requirements are to be organised via Ponting, who has assured Wilson that 'he will have enough cameras for every body's use'; Wilson also advises on the shape and dimensions of packing cases ('Every case for the Shore parties should be easily manageable by one man'), noting that Venesta cases are to be used if possible. On 15 April, precisely two months before the final departure from Cardiff, Wilson is in a fury of activity -- 'I have so much on hand that you must see yourself that I do not hinder your preparations -- we must get things ready'; as much gear as possible is to be loaded in London before the ship's departure from there on 1 June. Further letters concern books to be taken, and microscopes ('As yet I have had no list of your wants at all, but I know it must be particularly difficult for you') and the possiblity of a grant from a Canadian institution in return for collecting Antarctic geological samples. (6)
Notes
THE CHARLES SEYMOUR ("SILAS") WRIGHT COLLECTION
including Relics from Scott's Last Expedition
(Lots 107-164)
Canadian-born Sir Charles Seymour (Silas) Wright was the physicist and glaciologist on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's 1910 British Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole. Selected by Scott to be part of the Polar Journey, Silas accompanied Scott to within 283 miles of the Pole before being turned back. The next spring, it was Silas who navigated for the Search Party and it was Silas who located the tent containing the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers.
Silas Wright was my grandfather, and through him I was privy to many personal stories from that expedition. One of the more personal being my grandfather and fellow expedition member Griffith Taylor returning to England after three years in Antarctica, each marrying one of fellow expedition member Sir Raymond Priestley's sisters -- thus indirectly giving me two more relatives on the same expedition. But it was my grandfather's extraordinary collection of polar artefacts that I found most fascinating. Among them, the skis he wore on the brutal journey across the Ice Barrier, navigational instruments, camera equipment, and an extensive collection of photographs taken by both Silas and Herbert Ponting.
Although modest about his accomplishments, and reluctant to speak publicly about his time in the Antarctic, his family was privy to many personal stories from that expedition: his constant gnawing hunger from their meagre rations, boots that literally fell apart as they marched across the Ice Barrier, the struggle to get into frozen sleeping bags in minus 40 temperatures, who pulled their weight on the sledging expeditions, and who didn't...
Silas passed away in 1975, making him the last surviving member of Scott's Polar Party. He left behind extensive archival material and artefacts that collectively form an amazing historical record of the last great polar expedition.
Adrian Raeside, Whistler, 28 June 2010
Wright, good-hearted, strong, keen, striving to saturate his mind with the ice problems of this wonderful region. R.F. Scott
Studying radiation and experimental physics at Cambridge in 1909-10, Wright was encouraged to apply for the post of physicist on Scott's British Antarctic Expedition by his friend the Australian geologist Griffith Taylor. Taylor had already been taken on as one of the geologists on the expedition and, when Wright's application was rej.cted by Scott, the two walked from Cambridge to Scott's office in London and persuaded Scott to take him on. Wright's post subsequently variously described as "glaciologist", "physicist", and "chemist". Wright's speciality was penetrating radiation, but his professional interests and universe of discourse would be much broader in the Antarctic, with responsibilities for publishing on glaciology, physiography and gravity as well as his Observations on the Aurora. His is some of the earliest work on the dynamics of glaciers, their causes and the effect of the Antarctic continent on the world's weather system. As he and Priestley wrote in the introduction to the Glaciology '... Antarctic Glaciology must go hand in hand with Antarctic Meteorology in clearing up the weather problems of the southern hemisphere and, indeed, of the greater part of the world.'
Wright joined the Terra Nova at Cardiff, sailing for the south on 15 June 1910. He was soon nicknamed "Silas" and "Cousin Silas" by Bowers (a typical Yankee name according to Birdie, himself named for his beak of a nose), a sobriquet which stuck for the expedition. After establishing their base at Cape Evans on Ross Island, Wright was a member of the Western Party, with Debenham, Taylor and P.O. Evans, which was dropped off by the Terra Nova at Butter Point on 27 January 1911 to undertake a geological field trip amongst the glaciers of the Western Mountains. The party returned to Cape Evans on 14 March, and, no sooner back, Wright was off again: 'Scott called for volunteers to join a small party to go to Corner Camp and take some stuff out to be cached there. As I wanted to get some experience of sledging on the Barrier, I was one of those who volunteered ...' As Scott noted in his journal: 'It was very sporting of Wright to join in after only a days rest. He is evidently a splendid puller.' The depot laying journey saw eight men manhauling two sledges and was led by Evans. Bowers had not yet perfected the rations and Wright reported acerbicly, 'It was not a good show'. Nevertheless, he had made an impression on Scott, and was chosen to be a member of the southern journey, one of the large party which set out for the Pole with Scott on 1 November 1911. 'Started yesterday morning from Cape Evans at 11am., arrived 5pm nonstop to Hut Point -- fourteen miles. Chinaman [with] 450 pounds pulled fairly well ... [We] are going to reorganize[:] myself, Atch and Keohane with the three slow ponies, Chinaman, Jehu and Jimmy Pigg form a unit by ourselves and march and stop when we feel like it. [We] are going to night-march and will push off about 9pm ...' The party led the way, being the slowest (for which it was nicknamed "The Baltic Fleet" and "funeral cortege"), and would be caught at the end of the day by those who followed, the main party and its ponies led by Scott, then Oates, Bowers, Taff Evans and Crean and their ponies, then Meares and Demetri with the two dog teams. They all followed the motor teams, but by 6 November both of the motors had failed and Day, Hooper, Evans and Lashly were faced with manhauling all the way across the Barrier. As they came off the Barrier and approached the Beardmore Glacier the ponies were duly shot and they began manhauling. Bad weather on the Barrier had slowed them, with soft snow making the ponies' (without snowshoes) going tortuous, and a blizzard at the foot of the glacier put them a good 6 days behind Shackleton's progress in 1908. Wright's journal records: '[9 December] A black day. All ponies shot tonight about 8 miles on. Breakfast 6am, lunch 3pm, tea 9pm, camp 11pm. Pulled our guts out on ski. Surface awful -- 3 ft of soft snow ... [Sunday December 10] Another bad day. Camped after toiling five miles near junction of Beardmore and gap [the Gateway]. Ascended about 99 feet in soft 3ft snow ice below. Scarped faces, both sides of gap ... Pulled about 170lbs per man on ski and ended up on foot. Breakfast 8, lunch 5 and camp 9. Depot [the Lower Glacier Depot] to be made here.' They proceed on up the glacier, and Wright is disappointed not to have the time he wanted to geologise, but he does find time to take the most extensive photographic record of the ascent, as they head up the centre of the glacier towards the Cloudmaker. The surface firms and they get into crevassed snow, make Middle Glacier Depot on 17 December, and Upper Glacier Depot on 20-21 December: '20 December Atch, Cherry and I turn back tomorrow night. Scott a fool. Teddy goes on. I have to make course back. Too wild to write more tonight. Teddy slack trace 7/8th of today. ... The two parties who went forward were (1) Scott, Wilson, Taff Evans, and Oates; and (2) under Lieutenant Evans, Birdie Bowers, Lashley, and Crean, with 190lb. to pull per man.' From the Upper Glacier Depot, at about 85° 10S, the first supporting party known as the Summit Party and comprising of Wright, Atkinson, Cherry-Garrard, and Keohane, turned back north: 'It was a wretched parting from the others. Atch took my watch back as they were short and only had one. Silas took my sundial.' (Wilson) Wright navigates his party back and, after some adventures in the crevasses on the Beardmore, the party makes good progress, reaching One Ton Depot on 15 January ('"The" Great Hoosh. Almost a full day's whack gone in one meal ...') and Cape Evans on 28 January, having averaged 16 miles a day on the return. '... Ponting made a claim on our bodies to take part in a cinema record of our arrival up the icefoot at Cape Evans, filthy as we were, unshaven and with hair uncut and with sledge firmly attached behind us. "Art not for Art's sake, but for publicitys!"'
Wright was then a member of the Search Party which set out on 29 October 1912 to try and discover the fate of the Polar Party, and it was Wright who discovered the tent: 'I had been plugging away along my chosen course when I saw a small object projecting above the surface on the starboard bow but carried on the chosen course until we were nearly abreast of this object ... I decided [it] had better be investigated more closely, but did not expect it was of great interest so told the mule train to continue south while I went over the mile or so to examine what it was. It was the 6 inches or so tip of a tent and was a great shock ... I tried to signal my party to stop and come up to me, but my alphabetical signals could not be read by the Navy and I considered it would be a sort of sacrilege to make a noise. I felt much as if I were in a cathedral and found myself with my hat on.'
After the expedition, Wright returned to Cambridge and worked on the scientific reports, interrupted by his service in the Great War, finally publishing the Observations on the Aurora, Determinations of Gravity, Glaciology and Physiography from 1921-23. He raised a family and worked for the Admiralty, becoming Director of Scientific Research, and worked on the crucial development of radar in the years before war was declared. After the war, he became the first chief of the Royal Navy Scientific Service, and was knighted in 1946. At 60, in 1947, he retired and sailed with E.D. for Canada, setting up home in Victoria, B.C. Finding his services in demand, he took on various postings in Canada and the United States before retiring again in 1969. In 1960 and 1965 he was taken back to Antarctica, and was flown up the Beardmore Glacier and on to the South Pole by the U.S. Navy, finishing the journey he had been so disappointed not to complete with Scott in December 1911.
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