Two penguins play in front of the trapped Russian vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy off the Antarctic, Jan.
Two penguins play in front of the trapped Russian vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy off the Antarctic, Jan. 2.
Zhang Jiansong/Xinhua Press/Corbis
100-Year-Old Negatives Recovered From Antarctica: Photos
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Antarctic Heritage Trust conservators recently made a stunning discovery: a box of 22 exposed but unprocessed negatives, frozen in a block of ice for nearly one hundred years. The negatives were recovered from a corner of a supply hut that British explorer Robert Falcon Scott established to support his doomed expedition to the South Pole from 1910-1913. Scott and his men reached the South Pole but died on the trip home. The hut was next used by the Ross Sea Party of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition after they were stranded on Ross Island when their ship, the Aurora, blew out to sea. This party is believed to have left behind the undeveloped negatives. The cellulose nitrate negatives are seen here as they were found -- frozen in ice.
Antarctic Heritage Trust, nzaht.org
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The Antarctic Heritage Trust tapped conservator Mark Strange to painstakingly separate, clean (including removing mold) and consolidate the 22 layers of film.
Antarctic Heritage Trust, www.nzaht.org
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This recovered image shows Alexander Stevens, the chief scientist and geologist of the Ross Sea Party, on the deck of the Aurora in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.
Antarctic Heritage Trust, www. nzaht.org
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A view of Tent Island in McMurdo Sound. There is mold damage evident around the edges of the image.
Antarctic Heritage Trust, www. nzaht.org
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This damaged photo shows Big Razorback Island in McMurdo Sound.
Antarctic Heritage Trust, www.nzaht.org
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Alexander Stevens again poses on board the deck of the Aurora. It was not until January 1917 that the Aurora returned to rescue the Ross Sea Party. By then three men had died, including Arnold Patrick Spencer-Smith, the team's photographer. To see more images from the recovered negatives, visit the Antarctic Heritage Trust's website .
Antarctic Heritage Trust, www.nzaht.org
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The ship, which has 22 crew on board, took about 12 hours to leave the ice field behind and is now heading to New Zealand, AMSA said.
The captain of the Chinese vessel had also managed to break free of the heaviest ice around the same time "and is now making slow progress through lighter ice conditions" and is in need of no assistance, it said.
The ice surrounding the Xue Long, which has 101 people on board, had been up to 13 feet thick.
The Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, had been trapped since Friday, one day after dramatically rescuing 52 scientists, passengers and journalists from the Shokalskiy using its helicopter.
The 52 were transferred to the Australian Antarctic program's supply ship the Aurora Australis, which also raced to the rescue but was unable to break through the ice to reach the Russian vessel.
In total five ships were involved in the search and rescue mission -- Akademik Shokalskiy, the French vessel L'Astrolabe, Xue Long, Aurora Australis and USCGC Polar Star.
The national Antarctic programmes and other agencies of France, China, Australia, Germany and the US helped with "actual operational responses, contingency planning or the provision of specialist data," AMSA said.
"This was a great example of the multi-lateral cooperative nature of Antarctic operations," the authority's acting chief executive Mick Kinley said.
But the diversion of several government's Antarctic program's resources to help the Shokalskiy has drawn criticism of its "Spirit of Mawson" expedition which was emulating a 1911-1914 tour by explorer Sir Douglas Mawson.
The Aurora, which was resupplying Australia's Antarctic base at Casey when it was diverted, is now running two weeks behind schedule, while French scientists have had to scrap a two-week oceanographic campaign.