The Independent Website That Asks The Awkward Questions
Deeds Not Words
Always Judge An Organisation By Its’ Actions Not Its’ Verbiage.
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The Antarctic Heritage Trust wants you to believe that your
donation will help to preserve the historic huts as the time capsules
of Scott and Shackleton - but its current conservation action as
published in its conservation plans - fabric intervention, replication
and re-interpretation of the hut layouts - destroys the very essence of
a time capsule. By using words such as ‘preserving’ instead of
‘renovating’ or ‘rebuilding’, its’ fund-raising literature and
media campaign for the Ross Sea Huts are disingenuous to the point of
misrepresentation.
“A century ago Shackleton in 1908 and then, in 1912, the survivors of Scott’s last expedition left the huts… when fifty years ago, the New Zealand Antarctic expedition started ‘excavation’ of the huts they found the hut interiors had been totally, and eerily preserved… as if Scott had just walked out of the picture… the huts are icons of enduring significance but preserving them needs your help.” (From the most recent fund-raising leaflet of the Antarctic Heritage Trust (UK), 2007)
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Similar mis-information often appears to be at the heart of
the media stories urging support for the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s
plans. In the British Media the campaign has been headed by Simon
Jenkins, who visited the Ross Sea with the Trust - and his
subsequent articles on the huts written for the Times, Guardian and
other newspapers are widely quoted.
“There is nowhere on earth more British than 77 south, 166 east. On the shores of Ross Island in Antarctica stand three wooden huts intact from one of the classic episodes of British history, the race to the south pole between Scott and Shackleton. Two of the huts, Shackleton's at Cape Royds (1908) and Scott's at Cape Evans (1911), are still full of their icebound supplies left in case of either's return… their huts survive, their contents literally frozen in time… I visited the huts three years ago and consider them the most evocative historic buildings in the world. No other continent retains the physical evidence of man's first attempt at settlement… “(Simon Jenkins. The Guardian, London. Friday April 28, 2006)
Such hyperbole would be entertaining if it did not so seriously mislead. Firstly, the implication in his articles that the Trust’s conservation plans will preserve the huts as time capsules, which is utterly false; and secondly the introduction of dubious history - these huts were not attempts at first settlement but temporary quarters for expeditions. Simon Jenkins has been guilty of serious distortion of polar history on a number of occasions. Most notably speaking on behalf of the Antarctic Heritage Trust at the Royal Geographical Society in London on 16 April 2003, when in front of a notable audience, including the Princess Royal, he claimed that Shackleton brought all of his men from the Ross Sea Party home in 1917 (3 died). It was, perhaps, the most historically ill informed talk given at the RGS in some years. Notwithstanding, Simon Jenkins clearly believes himself justified to continue to openly mis-inform and mislead others on the Trust’s behalf.
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The Antarctic Heritage Trust's actions in the field of polar heritage raise an even more
fundamental question: does the Antarctic Heritage Trust really believe
in supporting our Polar heritage? Did you know that the Antarctic
Heritage Trust sanctioned the sale of important Antarctic material at Christie’s to raise itself money to spend on the huts?
Christie’s, Exploration and Travel with the Polar Sale,
Wednesday 27 September 2006
Lot 199
Autograph Letter by Lieut. Evans to Captain Ramsey, the Harbourmaster at Oamaru, New Zealand, 14 February 1913 thanking him for his discretion in the matter of breaking the news of Captain Scott’s death.
“Sold to raise funds for the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project … an international project led by the Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZ).”Prima facie evidence that the Antarctic Heritage Trust has no real interest in our Antarctic history and is prepared to sacrifice and subvert other Polar heritage interests to its own ends. If the Trust had any integrity, it would have ensured that any material of such archival interest had been donated to an appropriate polar archive.
This is even more remarkable since the Trust has forced the withdrawal of items from Polar sales in recent years, simply on the grounds that they were items taken from the huts, whether or not they were of any historical interest. This despite the fact that that such items were legally taken and can legally be sold. The most recent example was that of John Levinson’s Polar Sale at the Swann Galleries in New York, 24 May 2007.