Musings on Mawson & music

In July 2015 I visited a replica of Mawson’s hut. Set on the Hobart waterfront, the replica hut is 2700 km north of Cape Denison in eastern Antarctica. In early 1912 Douglas Mawson arrived on the Aurora in Commonwealth Bay, on what is now part of the Australian Antarctic Territory. Mawson and his party of 17 men built their 60 m² base on a very windy spot, which is difficult to get to, and the hut has many fewer visitors than the historic huts on Ross Island.  

The replica hut was built to generate funds to conserve the original hut, and it also enables people who will never visit Antarctica to imagine what life might have been like for the men. It was built using the same materials as the original and on the same scale, and the articles in the museum are as authentic as possible. After exploring the replica hut it was easier for me to visualise the environment Mawson and his men lived and worked in. I subsequently discovered that at least one item in the replica hut was used during the expedition.

2 items caught my attention. One was a gramophone of the same type which was used on the expedition, and the other was the original pump organ.

Mawson included a gramophone and the pump organ in the expedition’s supplies because he understood that it was essential for his men to have time to unwind. This included reading, listening to music or simply chatting. Regular concerts were also part of hut life. Later expeditions also recognised the importance of “down time”, and the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition’s (ANARE)’s stations were subsequently all supplied with books, gramophone records and films.

The gramophone in Mawson’s hut was provided by the UK’s Gramophone company. The company’s trademark “His Master’s Voice”, with the dog Nipper, is well known.

In The Home of the Blizzard. Mawson described how the cook wound up the gramophone at 7.30 am each day, and Charles Laserson noted that:

“if he is a considerate chap [he] puts on a soothing violin solo, such as ‘Humoresque’, to be followed by others that become gradually louder. This is a great refinement by which the sleepers gradually wake to the strains of music” (South with Mawson, 1947).

Mawson further commented that:

“cooks of lyric inclination would enliven the company with the score of the latest gramophone opera, and the messman and company would often feel impelled to join in the chorus.”

Laserson also mentioned that the photographer Frank Hurley, who was known for his practical jokes, found an alternative use for the gramophone, when:

“from various points in the roof dead Antarctic penguins and skua gulls dropped in every direction on those sitting beneath, while the gramophone funnel descended as an extinguisher on Alfie Hodgeman’s head.”

The 1909 pump (reed) organ was made by Faber in Chicago – one of 73 manufacturers of these organs at that time in Illinois. This portable organ folded into a suitcase. It was called a pump organ because the player pumped the pedals with his or her feet, but organ builders called them reed organs because the sound is produced from brass reeds.  In the picture above Philippa Moyes (grand niece of meteorologist Norton Moyes) is playing the organ. During the expedition the geologist Frank Stilwell (pictured above) often played this organ. It was also used during concerts, for impromptu singsongs, and to play hymns every Sunday. Laserson was grateful for Stilwell’s skill, and noted that this helped to maintain the general welfare of the company.

Some men on this or other expeditions also brought their own musical instruments with them. I found some pictures of explorers from other expeditions playing theirs:

These are: Cecil Meares playing the pianola (Terra Nova expedition, 1910 – 13), Leonard Hussey playing the banjo (Endurance expedition, 1914 – 17) and Gilbert Kerr serenading an indifferent penguin (Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902 – 4).

Leonard Hussey’s banjo has a special place in Antarctic history. Ernest Shackleton rescued it from the wreck of the Endurance as "vital mental medicine". It weighed 12 pounds but Shackleton made an exception of his "2 pounds per person" instructions to save it. In 1916, after Shackleton left Elephant Island on the James Caird with five other men to find help, Hussey (meteorologist) played his banjo to improve morale among the 22 men who were left behind.

What did the penguins make of their musical exposure? Shackleton recorded an occasion when penguins encountered banjo and bagpipe music:

“During the afternoon three adelie penguins approached the ship across the floe while Hussey was discoursing sweet music on the banjo. The solemn-looking little birds appeared to appreciate “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” but they fled in horror when Hussey treated them to a little of the music that comes from Scotland. The shouts of laughter from the ship added to their dismay, and they made off as fast as their short legs would carry them” (South, 1922).

So music has had an important place in Antarctic history - it played an important part in not just entertainment, but in maintaining humour and morale during those long lonely times.

Hazel Agnew, 11 October 2015