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October « 2014 « The Polar Museum: news blog

The Polar Museum: news blog

Archive for October, 2014

Friday fun: more Polar pastimes

Friday, October 31st, 2014

Last week, I blogged about board games inspired by expeditions to the North Pole, and about how they reflected contemporary interest in polar exploration. This week, it’s the turn of the Antarctic, starting with perhaps the most famous polar exploration of all: the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13. This was the ill-fated expedition led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, which resulted in the deaths of Scott and his shore party during their return journey from the South Pole. They had reached the Pole a couple of months earlier, only to discover that they had already been beaten to it by a rival party led by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

The race to the South Pole was a story of large personalities and national competition, and the game 1911 Amundsen vs Scott (2013) neatly demonstrates this by pitting two players head-to-head in a race to the Pole. The game attempts to mimic the conditions that would have prevailed during a real Antarctic expedition in 1911 – for example, players can have their cards restricted because of “equipment loss”, and the expansion packs include “Patrons”, “Food Depots” and “Damned Weather!”. You can see more of the game in action in video reviews here or here.

Also set in 1911 is the game Roll to the South Pole (2012), in which players assume the identity of one of five explorers from the Heroic Age (the instructions are not clear about the identities of these explorers, but they appear from the illustrations to be Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton, Charcot and Filchner). The high risks and sheer luck involved are nicely illustrated by the use of not one but fifteen dice to determine the players’ fate.

These games both date from the last 2 years, perhaps inspired by recent centenaries of famous Antarctic expeditions. Interestingly, I haven’t been able to find any contemporary games about Scott’s expeditions. Instead, I’ve found this one about Scott’s contemporary Ernest Shackleton:

Illustrated London News Article View

Called To The Pole With Shackleton, this game was published in 1910, a year after Shackleton returned from the British Antarctic Expedition (Nimrod). The circular papier-mâché board was textured with sastrugi (sharp ridges of snow) and players had to guide their sledges through the resulting maze to the South Pole, using a special magnetic pencil. The picture above comes from the Illustrated London News (24 December 1910), and is titled “Racing sleighs to the South Pole using pencils in place of dogs and “Dr Cook” as assistant. Playing a new Christmas game.” (Presumably the Dr Cook in question was Frederick Cook, who claimed to have reached the North Pole in April 1909.)

I love this illustration, which shows the whole family clustered around the board, vicariously experiencing the frustrations and triumphs of Antarctic exploration from the comfort of their home in England. For me it really highlights the way that board games allow players to share the excitement of polar exploration … without any of the risk of frostbite, starvation or being mauled by a polar bear!

Christina

Friday fun: To the North Pole by Air-Ship

Friday, October 17th, 2014

A couple of months ago, I posted about The Avenging Narwhal, which sits in our Keeper of Collections’ office and startles anyone who goes in to see her. This amazing artefact inspired me to do some research into polar-themed games and toys, which I’ll share here over the next few weeks. Today’s post is about games inspired by exploration of the North Pole during the so-called Heroic Age, and how they reflect the intense interest and excitement evoked at home by polar expeditions.

The game above is splendidly-titled To the North Pole by Air-Ship, and was possibly inspired by Salomon August Andree’s doomed attempt to reach the North Pole by hydrogen balloon in 1897. (Kaddy and Bridget from the Polar Museum recently blogged about this expedition, too!) In fact, it wasn’t until 1926 that the North Pole was successfully crossed by air, when Roald Amundsen’s airship Norge flew from Svalbard to Alaska.

I haven’t been able to find out anything about the rules to this game, but the box from a later edition gives an idea of the content: it shows some intrepid explorers emerging from their tents to fight polar bears single-handed on the ice while their colleagues fly past in an airship bearing a large American flag. The corner of the box proclaims that the game is part of “The American Boy’s Series”, which fits its general air of patriotic and adventurous heroism.

To the North Pole By Air-Ship was followed by Can You Find the North Pole? and, in 1909, The Game of the North Pole. The latter was probably created following American naval officer Robert Peary’s claim to have reached the North Pole on 6 April 1909, especially as the box shows an explorer proudly planting a US flag in the snow. Peary’s claim remains controversial, and the first confirmed overland journeys to the geographic North Pole were made in 1968-9 by Ralph Plaisted (by skidoo) and Wally Herbert (by dogsled).

Game-of-North-Pole

The instructions give an idea of the manufacturer’s lofty ambitions – this was a game to educate, enlighten and edify as well as entertain:

“Up-to-date and certainly most interesting and instructive is the North Pole Race in which the players are given some appreciation of the excitement and hardship of a journey through the polar snows, some knowledge of the scenery, the geography, and the natural history of those remote parts. The North Pole Game is to the child what a cinematograph lecture by Sir Ernest Shackleton is to a grown-up … This is a really fine game for children which is as exciting as an adventure-story  and imparts a deal of useful knowledge at the same time.”

In case that all sounded a bit too worthy to be fun, they also described some of the thrilling adventures that you might meet with:

“To begin with, each player is provided with a model of an arctic explorer, clad in the correct cold-proof garb, snow boots, etc. for the latitude. During the game all the incidents of a voyage of Polar Exploration are met with one after another. Here is the sturdily-built whaler caught in the ice-pack, here is the landing party building a snow-hut, here they are engaging Esquimaux for their journey, here they are shooting walruses and seal, here they are fishing through a hole in the ice, here they are admiring the splendour of the aurora borealis as it stretches athwart the sky, here they are making a sledge-dash for the pole, and here at last they are planting the flag upon the untrod solitudes that surround the axis of the earth.”

Phew, that all sounds exhausting!

The Game of the North Pole is a simple roll-and-move board game, in which you throw a die to determine how many numbered squares you move around the board. However, it was enlivened by random hazards (such as you might meet on a real polar expedition) for players unlucky enough to land on certain squares. For example:

  • 6. Ship lingers to look at the midnight sun – lose one throw
  • 16. Mixed up in the drift ice – lose two throws
  • 18. Encounter several walruses – return to square 15
  • 38. Esquimaux village, pay three counters into the pool for a good reception and hospitality
  • 48. Frozen feet. Cannot continue the expedition, therefore drop out of the game
  • 66. Pursued by polar bears. If you are lucky and throw 5, you escape if not, miss two throws
  • 69. Splendid display of northern lights – lose one throw

The games above were produced to celebrate (and cash in on) landmark achievements in Arctic exploration. It’s probably not a coincidence therefore that my last game appeared in 1969, the year after Plaisted reached the North Pole by skidoo:

race_to_the_north_pole

Race to the North Pole was created long after the Heroic Age had ended, and it is very different in feel from the previous games. It is billed as “the exciting new snowmobile safety game” (surely a contradiction in terms?) and included a booklet called “Play Safe with Snowmobiles For More Winter Fun”. I haven’t been able to find out much about the rules, but it certainly sounds a lot less thrilling than To the North Pole By Air-Ship or The Game of The North Pole!

Christina

Boxes, boxes and more boxes!

Friday, October 10th, 2014

At the moment, our museum store is full of boxes of all shapes and sizes:

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We are lending some objects from Scott’s Terra Nova expedition to Henfield Museum in West Sussex, where they will be on display for a week while Henfield Theatre Company perform Ted Tally’s play Terra Nova. The boxes were all out while I tried to find the best (and safest) way to pack the objects for their trip down to Sussex. Some of the boxes have been bought especially for loans and others have been salvaged from other places – we try not to throw anything away as you never know when it might come in handy!

Loans are always a busy time for the conservators, as all the objects have to be carefully checked, photographed, documented and packed before they can travel. Fortunately, I had help from our conservation intern, Ellie Ohara Anderson, who is spending a year working in the University of Cambridge Museums as part of her MSc in Conservation at UCL. Ellie only started with us three weeks ago, but she has already been thrown into the thick of it, helping to install The Thing Is… and preparing for exhibitions at the Polar Museum and the Whipple Museum.

Ellie


In the picture above, Ellie is packing a snowshoe that belonged to Captain Oates. The snowshoe is too long to fit into any of the boxes that we had already, so Ellie has had to make a box especially for it. She has used Correx (corrugated plastic sheet), which we use for packaging because it is strong, light and easy to cut. The box has been lined with Plastazote, an inert polyethylene foam that is used a lot in conservation.

It’s important that objects don’t slide around inside their boxes when they’re in transit … but it’s equally important that they don’t get squashed by excessive packaging! There’s a bit of an art to packing objects, and ingenuity is often required as objects don’t come in standard shapes and sizes. We’ve recently started using a new method to secure objects that uses nothing more sophisticated than some pieces of Plastazote foam and a pack of cocktail sticks:

cocktail_stick


The object is put on a foam-covered board, and surrounded by foam wedges. Cocktail sticks are pushed through the wedges and into the board, securing them in place, then trimmed so they are flush with the wedges. The wedges avoid putting pressure on particularly fragile areas and can be easily repositioned if necessary. This method is really quick and easy to do (and best of all, it doesn’t cost much).

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mount_board2


We usually send a courier on loans – someone from the Polar Museum staff who can unpack, check and install our objects safely (or pack them up again at the end of an exhibition). This time it’s Willow who is accompanying them: here she is wrapping up the last box of objects before they are loaded into the van.

Willow_packing


Now that our objects have made it safely to Henfield Museum, the conservators can have a rest (and tidy up) … until they come back in 10 days time and we have to unpack them all …

Christina

Toby Booth’s Epic Kayak Adventure

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014

kayak 1

Age 11, Toby Booth has recently completed an epic kayak expedition to London from Harlow, 25 miles and 20 locks. Inspired by the world’s greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and a recent visit to The Polar Museum where he learned more about the men of the heroic age, Toby decided to embark on his own adventure and to raise money for the Scott Negative Appeal.

Toby began his journey in June of this year, starting from Harlow Outdoor Centre but due to a number of setbacks he had to postpone the final leg until September.

kayak 2

Four older lads and two adults, both keen kayakers with coaching experience, took part in the initial paddle along with him.   Toby used a sea kayak, as this type of boat is ideal for comfort, but it proved to be quite heavy and was difficult to portage at many of the locks.  Some of the locks had extremely high banks and he needed help to climb down into his boat.

His intention was to complete the trip in a single day starting at 8am, but two of the group became very tired as were in smaller ‘play’ boats (which were unsuitable for the long journey) and another participant fell in when portaging. Heavy showers along the route also hampered his efforts. Initially disappointed, Toby still enjoyed the day and vowed to complete his plans.

kayak 15

On Saturday 20 September, Toby reached his final destination, Limehouse Basin at the edge of the River Thames in London. Using his own boat, which is a reliable and lightweight racing kayak called a ‘Couger’, Toby and Ant Wright, an adult volunteer who took part in the initial paddle, completed the journey.

The journey was at times difficult, but his experience and perseverance enabled him to reach his final destination. He was sponsored by friends and family and believes he may have raised up to £300.

kayak 9

A pupil at St Andrew’s C of E Primary School in Much Hadham, Toby is a member of Bishop’s Stortford Canoe Club and most recently won gold in the under-12 category last Sunday (June 22) representing the club in Leighton Buzzard.

Bridget Cusack, Museum Development Coordinator said

“We are delighted that Toby completed his journey to London. We are all impressed by his determination and achievement. Toby’s extraordinary generous response to the appeal proves how important Captain Scott remains in the national imagination.”

After hearing of the journey, Toby’s Grandfather recalled a piece of family history telling him that his own father had completed the same journey as a young man as a swimmer. At the turn of the 20th century, Harlow used to hold river swimming races, and it transpires that Toby’s great grandfather had completed a swim from Harlow to London, not in a race but simply because he enjoyed a challenge.