British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13
Report on the Maps and Surveys
FRANK DEBENHAM
Published by HARRISON & SONS Ltd, London, 1923
for the Committee of the Captain Scott Antarctic Fund
The very rare 1923 1st edition of Report on the Maps and Surveys, by Frank Debenham, a veteran of Captain R. F. Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova antarctic expedition of 1910-1913. Debenham was the cartographer and geologist on Scott's second expedition, and his report is accompanied by an excellent series of 15 maps, specially drawn for the expedition, including the first detailed map of Erebus Bay and its glaciers (Map XI). The complete set of 15 maps is in the pocket at the rear of the book. There is a bookplate to the front endpapers - ‘Gift of Professor G. Manley’. Professor Gordon Manley (1902-1980) was a distinguished British climataologist.
List of Maps: A. General Map of the Antarctic Continent (50cm x 62cm); I. General Map of the Australian Sector of the Antarctic Continent (East Antarctica) (62cm x 100cm); II. Ross Barrier, Northern Edge (Inset Cape Crozier) (50cm x 100cm); III. Ross Island to the Pole (47cm x 74cm); IV. The McMurdo Sound Region (50cm x 62cm); V. West Coast of Ross Island (Inset Erebus Summit) (50cm x 62cm); VI. Granite Harbour Region (56cm x 75cm); VII. Ferrar-Koettlitz Region (50cm x 62cm); VIII. Cape Evans and Inaccessible Island (44cm x 44cm); IX. Cape Royds District (34cm x 44cm); X. Hut Point Peninsula (28cm x 37cm); XI. Glacier Tongue, Ross Island (Erebus Bay Ice-Tongue) (33cm x 44cm); XII Mackay Ice-Tongue, Granite Harbour (49cm x 74cm); XIII. Robertson Bay (50cm x 62cm); XIV. Terra Nova Bay (44cm x 44cm).
The book includes details of how the surveys were carried out, and the various scientific instruments used by the members of the expedition. There are chapters on Surveying Instruments, Position of the Headquarters at Cape Evans, Surveys close to Headquarters at Cape Evans, The Southern Journey, Description of the Maps, and Survey Work of the Future.
Debenham started the geological and cartographical work on the western side of McMurdo Sound, visiting the Koettlitz and Ferrar glaciers, and the foothills of the Royal Society Range. A knee injury (while playing football in the snow) prevented him from taking part in Captain Scott's ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole, going instead to the Mackay Glacier and Granite Harbour. His party explored and mapped some 100 miles of coastline, extending in places up to 30 miles inland. One of Debenham's most significant contributions to the Terra Nova expedition was his expertise in plane-table mapping. He convinced Scott and other members of the expedition of its value, not only at base camps, but also on sledge journeys. Debenham constructed his plane table from an ordinary drawing board mounted on a camera tripod. For an alidade, he used a plain wooden rule stiffened by a brass strip, with sights made from two brass hinges.
Frank Debenham (1883-1965): was Emeritus Professor of Geography at the Department of Geography, Cambridge University and first director of the Scott Polar Research Institute. Debenham was born in Bowral, New South Wales, Australia in December 1883. He attended the school run by his father before attending The King's School, Parramatta where he was the top academic and sporting student of his year. He graduated from the University of Sydney with a BA in English and philosophy, then joined the staff at the Anglican Armidale School in New South Wales. He returned to university in 1908, studying geology under Sir Edgeworth David.
In 1910 Debenham was one of a group of three geologists on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). From January to March 1911 Debenham, along with three other expedition members (Thomas Griffith Taylor, Charles Wright, and Edgar Evans), explored and mapped the western mountains of Victoria Land (the western journey) performing scientific studies and geological observations. Debenham did not take part in Scott's final ill-fated journey to the South pole due to a knee injury, and instead took part in the second western journey along with Griffith Taylor, Tryggve Gran and William Forde.
During WW1 Debenham served as a Lieutenant with the 7th Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in France and Salonika, and was severely wounded in August 1916. He married Dorothy Lucy Lempriere in January 1917 and was awarded the O.B.E. in 1919. The same year he became a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and lecturer in cartography. In 1920, with the help of surplus funds raised by public donations in response to the tragedy of Scott’s attempt to reach the South Pole, Debenham co-founded the Scott Polar Research Institute with Raymond Priestley, as a repository of polar information and a centre from which future expeditions could draw on support and experience. He was unpaid director of the Institute from 1920 to 1946. As director of the institute, Debenham, in conjunction with Priestley and one of Shackleton's Endurance scientists, James Wordie, made Cambridge the centre of polar research in Britain.
In 1931, Debenham was appointed Professor of Geography at Cambridge University. During WW2 he trained service cadets, lectured to Royal Air Force navigators and devised relief-model techniques for briefing commandos. He also wrote Astrographics: First Steps in Navigation by the Stars (1942), an important work which assisted the R.A.F.’s Bomber offensive against the 3rd Reich. He was vice-president of the Royal Geographical Society (1951–53) and was awarded their Victoria Medal in 1948.
Professor G. Manley (1902-1980): Gordon Valentine Manley, FRGS was a British climatologist who was the foremost expert on the climate of Britain of his generation. He assembled the Central England temperature (CET) series of monthly mean temperatures stretching back to 1659, which is the longest standardised instrumental record available for anywhere in the world.
Gordon Manley was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, Victoria University, Manchester and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He joined the Meteorological Office in 1925. In 1926 he was a member of the Cambridge Expedition to East Greenland. Later that same year he began a lengthy career in academia when he became an assistant lecturer in geography at Birmingham University. In 1928 he was appointed as a lecturer in geography at the University of Durham. He became Curator of Durham University Observatory in 1931, and worked on standardising the long temperature record that dated back to the mid-nineteenth century. The following year, he started collecting data at Moor House in the northern Pennines, establishing a meteorological station close to the summit of Great Dun Fell (847m), which recorded data at three-hour intervals from 1938 to 1940. This was the first series of mountain observations to be made in England. In 1939 he left Durham to become a Demonstrator in Geography at Cambridge University. From 1942 to 1945 he was a Flight Lieutenant with Cambridge University Air Squadron. From 1948 to 1964, Manley was Professor of Geography at Bedford College for Women in the University of London. He maintained his links with Cambridge, one result being the joint participation of undergraduates from both institutions in expeditions to Norway and Iceland. In 1952 Collins published his Climate and the British Scene, one of his greatest contributions to British climatology. In 1964 Manley founded the new department of Environmental Studies at Lancaster University. In 1967 he retired and moved back to Cambridge, but he remained a Research Associate. During 1969–70 he was a Visiting Professor of Meteorology at Texas A&M University.
Condition:
In very good condition, ex-University library. The boards are in good condition, with general signs of use, some wear to the top and bottom of the spine, and some fading to the cloth. The hinges and binding are very good and secure. The text and illustrations are in very good condition. The 15 folding maps in the pocket at the rear are in very good condition. There is some wear to the edges of the rear pocket. There is a university bookplate to the front endpapers (‘Gift of Professor G. Manley’), and a small ink stamp to the title page.
Published: 1923
Maroon boards with gilt spine titling
Illustrated with 2 plates, line drawings, diagrams, and 15 maps in a pocket at rear
Dimensions: 235mm x 310mm
Pages: 94 (plus 15 maps in rear pocket)
