Does anyone know how they generated electricity for the boat? ... was particularly wondering how Hurley got power for his display of bulbs that he decorated the boat with.
"Everything is safe till it goes wrong" - Joe Simpson, "Touching the Void" - book only.
That's a good question, though he didn't decorate the ship with strings of bulbs, those famous exterior nighttime shots of the ship all lit up encased in rime ice were lit by magnesium flares or similar light sources- certainly not electric lights! The guy was incredibly good at working in those cold conditions too. I do imagine the ship had a generator powered by oil/diesel, but doubt they used it to power lighting much since fuel would be at a premium. The ship did have an engine besides the sails. I imagine they used oil/kerosene lamps indoors at night as well as candles possibly. Matter of fact I think at least one crewman would read in his bunk with a candle holder balanced on his head!
Btw, Touching the Void- great book and story, eh? I thought the fairly recent film recreating the climb was especially well done too. Siula Grande is an awesome peak- they were nuts and they did summit but didn't exactly come down unscathed!
For the record, Hurley did indeed accomplish the famous exterior shot of the ship using magnesium flares. He somehow managed to rig up 17 of them to go off simultaneously! As far as electricity generation goes, once again, the Norwegians were far ahead of the game. Fridtjof Nansen was the Norwegian who originally had the famous ship "Fram" built, which was the same ship Amundsen used to conquer the South Pole. Nansen took it on it's first expedition in an attempt to try and drift with the current across the North Pole in 1893. Talk about balls, he purposely froze the ship into the ice pack! Anyways, the Fram was equipped with a huge windmill on deck that powered a generator down in the ship. Whenever there was sufficient winds, which was quite often in the frozen north, the men were able to enjoy nice, bright, electrically powered lights inside the quarters of the ship. Another ballsy move Nansen did on that expedition was taking just one other man with him and leaving the comfort and safety of the ship in an attempt to reach the pole when he realized the ship's drift wasn't going to be northerly enough for attaining the pole. They knew they wouldn't be able to find their way back to the ship, so after establishing a new "Farthest North" record of 86,14' latitude, the two men crossed hundreds of miles of the arctic pack ice to finally reach land, which was the frozen and uninhabited archipelago called Franz Josef Land. They then spent an entire winter there in a crude stone hut they built with a walrus hide roof, surviving on polar bear and walrus meat. The following spring they miraculously managed to bump into the leader of a British expedition in Franz Josef Land, who gave them a ride home back to Norway when their supply ship came. If you could combine Shackleton's sheer tenacity with Nansen's ingenuity, that would've been the perfect polar explorer! I've devoured quite a few books on Shackleton and have immense respect and admiration of the man. If you enjoy reading about polar exploration, pick up a book on Nansen. He was considered the "Polar Oracle" of the time. Both Shackleton and Scott went to him for expert advice before setting out on their expeditions. Unfortunately they both disregarded a lot of what he recommended, especially his advice that sled dogs and men on skis were by far the superior way to travel in the frozen wastelands. Nansen was also Amundsen's inspiration and mentor. If Shackleton had used sled dogs/skis on his 1907 Nimrod expedition, when he came within 100 miles of the South Pole, he would've easily taken the prize!
shareThese polar stories never get tiring, amazing stuff. That's interesting info on Nansen, and though I know about him and his exploits in a general way and of course his ship Fram there's always more to learn. He obviously is one of the "giants" of polar exploration. The story about him leaving his ship for the pole knowing he wouldn't be able to return to it seems to go along with a lot of the questionable nutty decisions some of these great explorer/adventurers made back then! The Norwegians though seemed to take the best approach to polar exploring in their use of dogs, skis, their experience of course living in the Nordic climate, traveling relatively light and fast, going "native" so to speak learning from the Inuits, and Amundsen was extremely well-prepared. The British had guts and tenacity but not taking the Norwegian approach cost them dearly. Some really questionable decisions were made by them. Even so, Scott's party may have suffered but given the same excellent weather that Amundsen was fortunate to get he may have succeeded to reach the Pole and return to tell about it at least.
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