The time of departure is fast approaching, and I am getting excited. As my preparation tasks are being completed one-by-one, there is, however, still an ocean of reading which I would like to wade through before I go.

I am now in the middle of reading Roland Huntford’s biography of Shackleton. After the last few books which were written by the explorers themselves, reading an account of someone else’s life is a totally different experience.

In any case, I feel like I am getting to know a troupe of players.

And the players share themselves around, acting in different productions (some successful, and some not). There are playwrights, who have varying degrees of control over the final outcome. And there are directors and producers, who work on different productions, sometimes using the same actors over again.  They occasionally share the props, and sometimes even share the theatre (although never at the same time).

This all sounds rather fanciful.

However, putting the analogy aside, there is no doubt that the Age of Exploration encouraged some serious collaboration. And I am going to present some of the ways the explorers did just this.

I have come across quite a few examples. And so, I am going to present these over a few posts, writing about a number of “Cool Collaborations” over the coming weeks. I am starting with how they unselfishly shared their knowledge.

Sharing information

Consistent with the overriding objective of adding to the knowledge of the day, knowledge was generally shared freely. Naturally part of this was to obtain kudos for adding to the existing information. However, there was also the bond between explorers and navigators, the foundation of which was the desire for fellow travellers to be safe.

The charts of the early days were like a dot-to-dot puzzle, with strips of coastline surveyed in relative detail, followed by whole gaps where someone had simply not yet sailed and charted the adjoining area. This meant that, for many years, there were theories about what existed beyond the barrier, and whether the Antarctic consisted of one continent or many islands.

In “A Voyage of Discovery and Research”, Ross says, “There do not appear to me sufficient grounds to justify the assertion that the various patches of land recently discovered by the American, French, and English navigators on the verge of the Antarctic Circle unite to form a great southern continent.”

In fact, Ross found himself embroiled in quite a scandal about some information which was shared with him by the American explorer, Wilkes. Wilkes had provided Ross with a marked up copy of his chart, to assist Ross’s navigation through known and unknown areas. On the chart, there was mention of a group of islands at a specific location of latitude and longitude. However, when Ross sailed over the location, there was definitely no land! On his return, when he published his discoveries (this being just one) there were some rather heated exchanges, via various newspapers and other publications around the world.

Of course, this continued with each new expedition, on land as well as at sea. Each new expedition which returned with new information, would fuel the enthusiasm and add to the knowledge of the next party who was eager to take this knowledge and push the boundaries just a little further.

And this wasn’t confined to charts and maps. Techniques of travel and survival were also being tested and developed.

For example, the big problem on Antarctic missions was scurvy, and while there were many theories about its cause, and some successful methods for prevention and cure, the science was still a bit hazy. Consequently, scurvy was most often expected, and the men sometimes ended up in a race against time, to return to base and consume some fresh food, which they knew would drive the scurvy away.

Travel across the ice was still a matter of experimentation. The Norwegian explorers, notably Amundsen and Nansen, favoured dogs pulling sledges. Despite being so open to using the “collective knowledge” in some areas, the British explorers persisted for some time with ponies and man-hauling for their modes of transport. It was often said that this tendency to resist new ideas in this area was due to some misguided attitude that the British explorer needed to suffer to demonstrate his “worth”.  In the early days there were a couple of unsuccessful attempts with cars and motor sledges. Clearly, this technology needed to make some advancements first.

 

This sharing of knowledge, together with the many other examples of collaboration, have given us a glimpse of the special relationships which developed between these men over time. There was definitely a group of high latitude explorers, whose experiences were unique, and who formed a kind of club, within whose domain there appeared to be an alliance which transcended nationalities (even in times of war), and created bonds that extended across land and time.