Discovery Hut

Back in the day (1902), the English explorer Scott came down here to explore Antarctica and to do some science. He brought with him a prefabricated hut built in Australia and erected it at the end of a peninsula on McMurdo sound. They called the hut Discovery Hut. The hut was built for the Australian outback and did not do a good job of keeping out the cold. The design made it almost useless as a shelter in Antarctica because it was too hard to heat. From the time it was built until about 1915 many different groups used the hut as they came to Antarctica. Because it was hard to heat, most groups used the hut only for storage or stayed in it only as a last resort, especially when they became stranded. They burned seal blubber for light and heat, so the inside is coated with black, greasy stains. There are still supplies from the different groups in the hut, even seal and mutton carcasses still hang in the corners. We also found penguin skeletons and two penguin carcasses on the wall. There are pieces of blubber cut up in piles, tins of dog biscuits for their sled dogs, old harnesses, blankets, clothing, etc... The blubber from the carcasses still drips when the sun hits it directly and the temperature rises above freezing. It is like walking back in time when you enter the hut and the smells sweep you back to their struggles of survival.

Mike is now a tour guide for the hut and has access to it; it is tightly controlled to preserve it and they keep track of how many people enter it. We have been reading some historic exploration books and they mention using this hut many times and describe what life was like living in it. We have read, "The Worst Journey in the World", "The Endurance", and "Shackleton's Forgotten Men". These books concentrate on the history of the earliest Antarctic exploration...tracking the race to the South Pole to the race across the continent and focus on the explorations of Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton. If you're looking for historical nonfiction that is riveting and unimaginable, try one of these for a good holiday reading escape.