Ross Expedition

The Ross Antarctic Expedition of 1839-43 in real(ish) time.

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Moving over here! This account will continue posting as scheduled through January 1st of next year (1842), but that will be it.

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Cunningham records that the new year "was ushered in with joviality and hilarity; I hope it will go out so…we in all spent a very happy New Years day Considering where we were".

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According to Sullivan, "The Games went off well, the Exhibition in the circus far Exceeded the Waltzing in the Ball room".

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Dancing in the ballroom begins around 8PM; Davis writes, "Of course Captain Crozier and Miss Ross opened the ball with a quadrille; after that we had reels and country dances".

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"Bringing in the Year 1842": Davis's drawing of the festivities.

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During the day, the crews clear space on the ice for a jingling match, a skittle alley, and a ballroom.

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Clothes are distributed to the crews of both ships: each man receives a jacket, a pair of trousers, a red shirt, two comforters, one pair of boot hose, and one Welsh wig.

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1 January 1842: Shortly after midnight, McCormick shoots a snow petrel and presents it to Ross "as the first victim to science in the new-born year".

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Sullivan records that "The Terrors Crew Came on board we Kept up Danceing until 5 oclock in the morning When it Ended with three or four Pugilastic matches in the Forecastle".

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The officers gather on the ice floe; Ross drinks the health of Terror's crew, and Crozier does the same for Erebus's crew.

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A few minutes before midnight, the ships' crews begin trying to outdo each other with noise—"blowing of horns, beating of gongs, squealing of pigs…and all kinds of diabolical music"—followed by both ships ringing forty-two bells at midnight.

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Davis dines on board Erebus, and after dinner he and Hooker go out on the floe to carve the ice, creating a table and an eight foot tall sculpture of a woman that they call their Venus de Medici.

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31 December 1841: Ross has the two ships' magnetic instruments compared, and finds that they are still in exact accordance.

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Erebus's heating apparatus is lit to dry out the lower decks. McCormick's cabin fills with smoke.

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Sergeant Baker goes aboard Terror to visit Cunningham.

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30 December 1841: Ice begins to spread into the hole of clear water; Ross has the ships made fast to the largest floe of ice in their immediate vicinity, positioning it between the ships to prevent them from colliding with each other.

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Crozier returns to Terror at 3PM.

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Crozier goes aboard Erebus in the morning.

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29 December 1841: "Nasty wet foggy Day," according to Cunningham; visibility is less than 20 yards.

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McCormick skins another penguin, lamenting "the benumbed condition of the fingers in this cold climate".

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28 December 1841: Foggy weather; the ships continue to make no progress through the pack.