December 14th, 2016

From the age of polar exploration, Robert Falcon Scott's name most likely comes up first, on account of his martyrdom, followed perhaps by Shackleton or Amundsen. Not many remember William Speirs Bruce, who led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition from 1902 - 1904. The expedition established the first ever meteorological station in Antarctic territory, charted new lands, and provided a wealth of scientific data. It was applauded for being incredibly efficient and well organized, however Bruce's strong Scottish Nationalist sentiments meant that it was all but ignored by England. Bruce had also wanted to join Falcon Scott's team, but this never came to pass for the same reasons. Perhaps the most iconic memory of the Expedition was a 1904 photo of a bagpiper serenading a penguin.

Bonus:

Before mounting his own expedition, Bruce had been part of the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition (1894 - 1897), which aimed at mapping the incredibly remote and uninhabited Franz Josef Land. On June 17th, 1896, Jackson's party happened to bump into a bearded gentleman walking around one of the islands. This was Fridtjov Nansen, who had incredibly survived on the island for a year with a fellow explorer Hjalmar Johansen after their attempt on the North Pole (which failed, but broke the record for the highest north ever reached, at 86°14′). On returning to Christiania (the old name for Oslo), Nansen was greeted by the biggest crowd the city had ever seen, was hosted by royalty, and received tributes from around the world.

-E