The Far Eastern Party was a sledging component of the 1911–1914 Australasian Antarctic expedition. Led by Douglas Mawson, the party aimed to explore the area far to the east of their main base in Adélie Land, pushing about 500 miles towards Victoria Land. Accompanying Mawson were Belgrave Edward Ninnis, a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, and Swiss ski expert Xavier Mertz. On 14 December 1912, with the party more than 311 miles from the safety of the main base at Cape Denison, NinnIs and the sledge he was walking beside broke through the snow lid of a crevasse.
About Far Eastern Party in brief
The Far Eastern Party was a sledging component of the 1911–1914 Australasian Antarctic expedition. Led by Douglas Mawson, the party aimed to explore the area far to the east of their main base in Adélie Land, pushing about 500 miles towards Victoria Land. Accompanying Mawson were Belgrave Edward Ninnis, a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, and Swiss ski expert Xavier Mertz. On 14 December 1912, with the party more than 311 miles from the safety of the main base at Cape Denison, NinnIs and the sledge he was walking beside broke through the snow lid of a crevasse and were lost. Mawson and MERTz turned back west, gradually shooting the remaining sledge dogs for food to supplement their scarce rations. As they crossed the first glacier on their return journey Mert z became sick, making progress difficult. After almost a week of making very little headway MertZ died, leaving Mawson to carry on alone. For almost a month he pulled his sledge across the Antarctic, crossing the second glacier, despite an illness that increasingly weakened him. The causes of Mert Z’s death and Mawson’s related illness remain uncertain. A 1969 study suggested hypervitaminosis A, presumably caused by the men eating the livers of their Greenland huskies, which are now known to be unusually high in vitamin A. While this is considered the most likely theory, dissenting opinions suggest prolonged cold exposure or psychological stresses. The men readied clothing, sledges, tents and rations, conducted limited survey parties, and deployed several caches of supplies.
The most notable of these depots was Aladdin’s Cave, excavated from the ice on the slope five and a half miles to the south of themain hut. The expedition’s main base was established in January 1912, at CapeDenison in Commonwealth Bay, Adélies Land. The Eastern Coastal Party, led by the geologist Cecil Madigan, was charged with exploring beyond the Merttz Glacier tongue. The final party, led to the end of the expedition, would push rapidly inland to the southern tip of Victoria Land, an area he had explored during Shackleton’s Expedition in 1908–1909. It would initially be supported by the Near Eastern Party led by Frank Leslie Stillwell, which would then turn to mapping the area between Cape Adare and the glacier. Each of the parties was required to return to Cape Denisons by 15 January 1913 to allow them to collect the time to collect them for the return to the Aurora for the time of the next summer’s expedition. This was much farther west than originally intended; dense pack ice had prevented the expedition ship SY Aurora from landing closer to CapeAdare, the original eastern limit. Only after the Aurora—heading west—had rounded the ice tongue of the M Hertz Glacier, was a landing made. In February 1913, the shore party erected their hut and began preparations for the following summer’s sledging expeditions.
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This page is based on the article Far Eastern Party published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
