#polar exploration stuff

[luff-gore]

I had a revelation.

[the-fear-of-art]

Losing my mind at the beauty of these color enhanced photographs of the Endurance expedition by @babelcolour on Twitter. The fact that these are color enhanced and not color added makes their existence even more remarkable. You understand why those first explorers couldn’t stay away.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

I do really want to terrorpost but I don't feel qualified to be in that fandom man...... everyone is so smart and creative and they all have advanced degrees and I'm just sitting here like I think the lieutenants are in love :3

[chiropteracupola]

“He could see it distinctly; a human eye it appeared to be, for surrounding it was the small part of a dead white face..."

[nomilkinmyteaplease]

[crancisfrozier]

Saw the Franklin memorial at Westminster Abbey today!! I had no idea there was also a memorial to McClintock and John Rae beneath it?

[sastrugie]

ok im back into my polar obsession - i know i missed alot in these fice years BUT im happy to know the fandom is still alive AHHHH

so - please reblog/ like this if you are interested in

antarctica

arctic

polar exploration

scotts expeditions

shackletons expedtions

fridtjof nansen, amundsen and co

belgica

terror the series

and polar stuff in general

cant wait to talk to yall <3

[crustaceousfaggot]

Does anyone know of any active Terror/Franklin Expedition/Polar Exploration Discord servers that are currently accepting new members? Feel free to DM me

[apocalypticdemon]

nine people i want to get to know better!!

i was tagged by the lovely @clandestinegardenias!! thank you!

Last Song: I-E-A-I-A-I-O by System of a Down! i've been branching out of my heavy metal rut of the last 6 months, but System of a Down still slaps really hard.

Favorite Color: hmmmm i really like lush jewel tones, so i think i have to go with like a deep burgundy right now, but the green of spring vegetation in full sun is a very, very close second

Currently Watching: well. i'm in the middle of a The Terror rewatch right now (again....) but the literal last thing I just watched was the IndyCar Grand Prix in Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA. but in terms of new shows, i'm not watching new stuff rn.

Last Movie: Mad God. what a fucking trip that film is. jesus. stop-motion horror film. visually gorgeous. disgusting. it was my second time watching it, and it was again really gross and not super linear and 100% up my alley. it was so bizarre, but i am CAPTIVATED by the music (since there is no dialogue; it's only music and sfx) and i want to write a paper on it so so sososo badly.

Currently Reading: currently juggling Captain Crozier: Last Man Standing, Les Miserables, and The Wager! They're all good in their own respects, but very very different from one another, as well. The Crozier bio is a little bit lighter than I was expecting, The Wager more narrative than I was expecting, and Les Mis thus far has just been slow, but i'm in the early pages for everything but the Crozier biography, so i'm still getting used to them. Also I started Persuasion by Jane Austen last month, but haven't gotten very far yet.

Sweet, Spicy, or Savory? they all have their place, but i have such a bad sweet tooth. it trumps almost everything for me. i love sugar.

Relationship: single! i've been single since like.... my sophomore year of high school? and i'm halfway through my master's now, so it's been.... i think i'll have been single for a decade exactly this year, on my birthday. but also i'm extremely aromantic so. that does contribute to that, lmao

Current Obsession: oh it's definitely The Terror. Very much so. but IndyCar is also a quiet sports obsession of mine and i am starting to get In The Weeds for it this year. i deliberately chose to pay more attention after the 500 this year, but i've been meaning to follow the full season for a few years now, and it's been a blast! really nice to watch tbh. it's fascinating stuff, and one of the only sports i can really, truly sink my mental teeth into. also i have been crocheting like mad recently, bc it keeps me entertained and Makes Things!

Last Googled: tire strategy and regulations in IndyCar races, the differences in those regulations between oval and road courses, and the literal difference in composition between alternate and primary tires. very cool stuff. to me, at least, lmao

Currently Working On: jotting down ideas for the next two terror fics i want to work on/sketching out the plots and adaptations for both of them, getting fully trained at my job, and like 3 separate crochet projects. i have. a very scattered brain. also mentally gearing up for my second year of my master's, which is frightening, considering that i have to Write A Thesis soon lmao

oh lordt i don't know if i have 9 people to tag, but i'll tag a few: @imwritesometimes, @jbloopers, @sweetenby, @silkenbutterfly7 - if any of you want to participate, please do!

[areyougonnabe]

It's polycule powerpoint anon. How've you been? Also if it is not breaking any rules to ask: who is Roland and why is he not Allowed Here?

lol hi nonny, roland is Roland Huntford who wrote The Last Place on Earth, the book that permawrecked scott's reputation in the late 70s. he is... an interesting character..... his amundsen standom was very powerful and so was its flipside of scott haterism, and both allowed him to do a lot of research that nobody had bothered to do up to that point. but in the interest of promoting amundsen's (legitimate and impressive!) achievements he promoted the "scott was an incompetent bumbler" trope which soon became dominant in the 80s during a broader trend of re-examination of imperial attitudes.

hilariously the guy was like... a conservative thatcherite..... he was also more importantly a big scandiboo who just wanted everyone to know that norwegians rock. BUT his book was adapted into the Last Place On Earth minseries by Trevor Griffiths, a radical socialist playwright who turned the incompetence huntford saw in scott into political commentary, emphasizing scott's sentimentality, anxiety, and (i daresay) femininity as representing imperial hubris, during a the time when the falklands war was at the top of the headlines.

despite a ton of work being done since huntford's book to rehabilitate scott, new pro-scott biographies up the wazoo in the 90s and 2000s, the damage was pretty much done, especially as shackleton's star began to rise. huntford also wrote a big shackleton biography that is just as detailed as LPOE, but i don't think shackleton's ascension had quite as much to do with huntford as scott's downall—it was probably the self-help industrial complex kicked off by "shackleton's way" which was more to blame... anyway what's insane is that huntford and griffiths are both still alive and i think someone should make them fight to the death.

[buildoblivion]

underrated part of being a polar explorer person is getting into a new cold boy only to stumble upon a bottomless pit of conspiracy theories

[tristanaef]

Royal Navy Records

Thought I'd try here: I am researching the careers of the Franklin Expedition. I am looking for service records of the crew and muster lists for related ships. I have started with what's scanned online from the Kew National Archives, but if this work has already been done I'd love to find it.

I started transcribing what's online of ADM 196 (Royal Navy officers), but the scans and/or records themselves seem to incomplete. (Non-officers are of course much harder to find as well.) If anyone is aware of existing transcriptions or other resources I'd be very grateful!

I'd also like to contribute to a wider effort like Global Maritime History or Naval-History.net for ~1815-45 if one exists!

Edited to add a link to a post that goes into a little more detail about the purpose of the project, and where I'll be collecting resources as I find them: Franklin Expedition Careers Project

[explorers-central]

Scarlett - The Collector

I feel bad for her, she was isolated her whole childhood and taught that she was owed the world. She never learned empathy for others because it was never demonstrated to her, I hope in the future of the series someone can get through to her.

[johntorrington]

about me

- henry/stewart

- 20

- they/he

- nonbinary butch lesbian (tme)

- autism + adhd

- white

- theatre major </3

formerly @ jordanlakesessions

[chiropteracupola]

as part of the delightful wonderful @sailorpants' birthday boy king taskmaster extravaganza, I present to you the Most Dramatic Letter Written Home from a Polar Boat Journey Which Is Going Horribly.

Dear Mother, If this letter reaches you well I am not sure how that happened given that all who remain to post this home are penguins & leopard seals & the horrible dr Fred Cook. I am some where near the South pole but I know not where on acct. of the Captain has thrown all our navigational equipment into a crevasse to prevent us turning back. Alas by then we were Three days since our last sight of the ship so we are about lost. After this occurrence the Bosun was set up on [sic] by two of the Meteorologists as [illeg.] the steel legs he had received after the war might be used for compasses. They were disciplined by being thrown into a crevasse by the Captain. The remaining men who had not been drowned frostbitten taken by consumption [illeg.] trampled by ponies got food poisoning ect. mutinied against Capt. & threw him into the crevasse. We regretted this for we found that he had hidden all of the food in his coat. In the next days the horrible dr Fred Cook & I drew lots among the men — we killed and ate the master's mate the cabin boy two ABs & my good friend [illeg.] Thomas who I once fucked in our berth for lack of any otter [sic] companionship. Very much afraid that the horrible dr Fred Cook will eat me next in order to survive as he has been eyeing me in a creepy way of late. Giving this letter to a penguin — shall now walk out into the ice to die — I lay this is a better fate for me than being stabbed with a marlinespike & being eaten raw and warm by the horrible dr Fred Cook. I am yr loving son always, Thomas Thomas Williamson, AB

[submariini]

POLAR OUTTAKES of the NAUTICAL MAGAZINE & NAVAL CHRONICLE for 1832 to 1839.

on arctonauts!

INCLUDES: the questionable usefulness of john ross, the many adventures of george back, and the starting race for the antarctic. also whalers! missing! and then not.