Scottish National Antarctic Expedition
The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (SNAE) was led by William Speirs Bruce. Bruce was a natural scientist and former medical student from the University of Edinburgh. SNAE completed a full programme of exploration and scientific work. Its achievements included the establishment of a manned meteorological station, the first in Antarctic territory.
About Scottish National Antarctic Expedition in brief
The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (SNAE) was led by William Speirs Bruce. Bruce was a natural scientist and former medical student from the University of Edinburgh. The SNAE completed a full programme of exploration and scientific work. Its achievements included the establishment of a manned meteorological station, the first in Antarctic territory, and the discovery of new land to the east of the Weddell Sea. Its large collection of biological and geological specimens, together with those from Bruce’s earlier travels, led to the creation of the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory in 1906. Despite this, Bruce received no formal honour or recognition from the British Government and the expedition’s members were denied the prestigious Polar Medal despite vigorous lobbying. Bruce led no more Antarctic expeditions, although he made regular Arctic trips. His focus on serious scientific exploration was out of fashion with his times, and his achievements, unlike those of the polar adventurers Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, soon faded from public awareness. The expedition’s permanent memorial is the Orcadas weather station, which was set up in 1903 as Omond House, South Orkneys, and has been in continuous operation ever since. In late 1901, Bruce purchased a whaler, Hekla, at a cost of £2,620 ). During the following months, the ship was completely rebuilt as an Antarctic research vessel, with two laboratories, a darkroom, and extensive specialist equipment. Two huge revolving cylinders, each carrying 6,000 fathoms of cable, were fitted to enable the deep-sea trawling for marine specimens to be made easier.
In the early 1900s, Bruce was supported by the wealthy Coats family, who were prepared to give whole-hearted financial backing to a Scottish expedition under his leadership. In this way the idea of a distinctive Scottish Antarctic expedition was born. After the expedition, he was born into a wealthy Scottish family. He died in 1904, aged 80, and was buried in Glasgow, Scotland, in a private ceremony attended by many of his former expedition colleagues. He was buried alongside his wife, who died in 1913, and their two children, who had been born in 1913 and 1914, respectively. He is survived by his three children, one of whom is a grandson of Sir Robert Falcon Scott, who was a member of the Discovery Expedition, and a great-grandson of Prince Albert of Monaco, Prince of Monaco. Bruce’s great-nephew, Sir David Bruce, was born in 1914. He also had a son, David, who went on to become one of the world’s leading oceanographers. Bruce spent most of the 1890s engaged on expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic regions, and by 1899 was Britain’s most experienced polar scientist. In 1892 Bruce gave up his medical studies altogether, and embarked on a voyage to the Antarctica in the whaler Balaena, as part of the 1892–1893 Dundee Whaling Expedition. On his return, he began organising an expedition of his own to South Georgia, claiming that ‘the taste I have had has made me ravenous’
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This page is based on the article Scottish National Antarctic Expedition published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
