July 2021 – Volume Twenty-Seven, Number Seven
Celebrating our 26th year.
EXPEDITION NEWS, founded in 1994, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.
|
|
Endurance sinking in 1915.
|
|
SEARCH FOR SHACKLETON'S ENDURANCE
RESUMES IN FEBRUARY
Sir Ernest Shackleton, the renowned polar explorer, died January 5, 1922, in Grytviken, South Georgia. One hundred years later, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (fmht.co.uk) is planning an expedition to sail from Cape Town in February 2022 to locate, survey and film the wreck of his ship, Endurance.
The Trust will be submitting to the UK authorities an application for a permit for an expedition using the South African Government-owned polar supply and research vessel, SA Agulhas II, and comprising an international team of maritime experts, engineers, environmental scientists, educators and program makers. The Expedition Leader will be Dr. John Shears, who led the Weddell Sea Expedition in 2019, and Mensun Bound, a Falklands-born maritime archaeologist and Trustee of the FMHT, will be Director of Exploration.
|
South African icebreaker, SA Agulhas in the Weddell Sea.
?Photo courtesy: Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.
|
As the wreck is protected as a Historic Site and Monument under the umbrella of the Antarctic Treaty, the search will be non-intrusive. The aim will be to locate, survey and film Endurance, to bring the stories of Shackleton to new generations and to answer questions people have been asking since the ship sank in November 1915:
• Did the strength of construction mean the wreck is virtually intact or was it completely crushed in the ice?
• Are there organisms that will have consumed the hull?
• Will it be possible to glimpse glass photographic plates abandoned by the photographer, Frank Hurley?
• Will the cameras catch sight of biologist Robert Clark's laboratory and sample jars?
The ship, its Master, Ice Pilot and crew are no strangers to unlocking the mystery of the Endurance. All previously arrived at the location of the wreck in 2019 as part of the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019. Heavy weather prevented the study of the site and confirmation of the ship’s actual location, but they were thought to be right on top of it.
To locate, survey and film the wreck, the team will be using SAAB Sabertooth hybrid underwater search vehicles. These combine the attributes of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), being able to follow a pre-programmed course with no physical link to the surface, and remote operating vehicles (ROVs), sending digital signals through a fiber optic cable to the surface in real-time.
?The Sabertooths will be equipped with sensors, lights and high-resolution cameras that can bring the moment of discovery to a worldwide audience with unparalleled immediacy.
For video of SA Agulhas II in Antarctica, see:
EXPEDITION NOTES
|
The H-1 Seawolf rests on her side in 60 feet of water off the Pacific Coast of Isla Margarita, Mexico. Photo courtesy Luis Sanchez.
|
|
Sunken WWI Submarine to Become Living Museum of the Sea
Kaxaan Nautical Foundation, based in Mexico City, is working in close cooperation with Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) to study and preserve Mexico’s underwater cultural heritage; oddly, an American submarine is an artifact of that heritage. USS H-1 (formerly the USS Seawolf) is a 150-foot long, World War One era, H-Class submarine and the only remaining vessel of its design. The submarine lies disintegrating in 60 feet of water off Isla Margarita in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
H-1 spent the war years on America’s east coast and was returning to its homeport of San Pedro, California, when, on the night of March 12, 1920, the boat ran aground. Lt. Cmdr. James Webb, the submarine’s commanding officer and three crewmen perished in the breaking sea. H-1 sank during salvage operations and was sold for scrap; however, the purchaser failed to salvage the boat.
The abandoned wreck lay forgotten until 2016 when Omar Lucero, a local fisherman from Alcatraz, sent his son overboard to retrieve a fishing trap that had become tangled on the bottom. Upon surfacing he expressed that there was a “plane” on the bottom. This discovery was eventually reported to INAH which made a preliminary survey and confirmed the submarine’s presence.
Earlier this year, Kaxaan affiliated archaeologists and adventurers dived H-1 and removed abandoned fishing gear from the wreck. A return trip to study to better understand the rate at which the submarine is disintegrating is planned for this winter.
A museum, sponsored by Kaxaan, is being constructed on the island to house artifacts and educate visitors on the several culturally significant wrecks surrounding the island.
Kaxaan is working in collaboration with INAH and Indiana University to establish H-1 as a living museum of the sea. Kaxaan is actively removing all fishing line and traps on the wreck, and plans to install a memorial plaque commemorating the men that died when she ran aground.
Ultimately Kaxaan hopes to establish the fishing village of Alcatraz as the custodian of this wreck site. They provide vigilance over the site 365 days a year and have a vested interest in her preservation and protection allowing future generations to understand this unique artifact of shared American and Mexican cultural heritage.
The wreck is accessible to recreational divers and all the efforts to clean the site have been sponsored by Kaxaan and its team of technical divers.
For more information about the Kaxaan Nautical Foundation:
|
|
OceanGate’s Titan submersible is sent out from its support vessel, the Horizon Arctic. (Photo Courtesy of David Concannon via OceanGate) |
|
Titantic Deterioration Studied by New Carbon Fiber/Titanium Submersible
Speaking of subs, after years of building, testing and dealing with setbacks, Everett, Wash.-based OceanGate has sent a next-generation submersible and its crew down to the wreck site of the Titanic for the first time.
“We had to overcome tremendous engineering, operational, business (challenges), and finally Covid-19 challenges to get here, and I am so proud of this team and grateful for the support of our many partners,” OceanGate’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, said.
The first fruits of OceanGate’s 12,500-foot-deep dive in the North Atlantic include photos that show the frame of a stained-glass window and fragments of floor tile from the ocean liner, which hit an iceberg and sank during its maiden voyage from England to New York in 1912, according to Alan Boyle writing on GeekWire.com (July 13).
OceanGate Expeditions’ mission to the Titanic will involve multiple dives and employ 3-D imaging techniques to document the wreck’s condition in detail. In 2019, a different dive team reported that the Titanic’s deterioration appeared to be accelerating. Rush and his teammates plan to survey the wreck site annually to track how it’s changing over time and survey the surrounding sea life as well.
OceanGate’s pilots use a video-game-style controller to guide the submersible — a technical twist that could inspire do-it-yourself inventors everywhere. One of the trickier innovations has to do with the submersible’s hull, which is made of carbon fiber and titanium. When the first version of the hull was manufactured and tested, experts determined that it might not stand up to the extreme pressures that exist on the seafloor. As a result, OceanGate’s engineers had to go back to the drawing board and build a new hull with guidance from NASA and other partners.
Read the full story here:
For more information:
|
|
Fork prepares for chartered flight home from Arizona. |
|
Wayward Marmot Returns to Rocky Mountain Research Lab
Signs outside the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) near Crested Butte, Colorado, warn visitors to check under their hoods for wayward marmots. They advise drivers to slap the hood and make loud noises to scare four-legged hitchhikers.
Recently one of these exceedingly cute relatives of woodchucks and groundhogs hitched a ride to Mesa, Arizona, well outside the normal territory range of yellow-bellied marmots. Or at least that’s the theory; marmots aren’t known to survive long drives in the vicinity of a hot, roaring V-6 engine, much less a drive of 10 hours and 630 miles.
When found wandering in Mesa, the female’s ear tag was traced back to the RMBL laboratory. Seems the creature actually has a name, Fork, and was part of a local study.
In late June, Fork was flown back to the lab in an Arizona State plane with an entourage that included members of the press and her captor, a non-game specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
The RMBL, founded over 90 years ago, is a globally renowned center for research on high-altitude ecosystems. Every year, the 9,500-ft. high laboratory hosts one of the largest annual gatherings of field scientists who come to study plants and pollinators to learn more about food supply; study stream insects to measure water quality; and research the effects of warming temperatures on alpine environments.
They’ve also been studying marmots since 1962, so Fork’s return was met with fanfare, a front-page story in the local Crested Butte News, and hopefully a bowl of grass to encourage her to stay around this time.
|
|
Calling Citizen Scientists: Birds Come to Life on NestWatch
After lockdown, anyone can use their newfound freedom to advance science.
For instance, if you have a birdhouse, check on it every few days to see if there are eggs, hatchlings, and then none, presuming they’ve spread their wings and left the nest. As you go, report that information to the NestWatch program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which uses data collected by the public to monitor avian reproductive health in the U.S.
Do this and BOOM! You’re a citizen scientist.
David Bonter, the co-director of the lab’s Center for Engagement in Science and Nature, tells the New York Times, “there’s no way” that scientists and researchers would be able to do their work – measuring bird populations across the continent or over many decades, without the help of ordinary people, counting the birds in their own neighborhoods.
It’s good for people too: participants in environmental volunteer efforts are healthier and more physically active, less likely to experience depression and report feeling a greater sense of purpose, according to several recent studies.
For more information:
|
|
National Outdoor Book Awards Call for Entries
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2021 National Outdoor Book Awards. The program, which is in its 25th year, recognizes the work of outstanding writers and publishers of outdoor books.
Books may be nominated for awards in one of several categories including: History/Biography, Outdoor Literature, Outdoor Adventure Guides, Nature Guides, Children's Books, Design/Artistic Merit, Nature and the Environment, Natural History Literature, Outdoor Classics, and Journeys.
Journeys is a new category this year. Titles entered in this category involve journeying in some manner for the purposes of nature or outdoor travel.
To be eligible for the 2021 National Outdoor Book Awards, nominated books must have been released after June 1, 2020 and before September 1, 2021, except for those titles which have been nominated for the Outdoor Classic Award.
Information on eligibility requirements and entry forms are available at the National Outdoor Book Awards website:
The deadline for entries is August 19, 2021.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
|
|
To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now, I'm an adult in a spaceship with lots of other wonderful adults looking down to our beautiful, beautiful earth. To the next generation of dreamers, if we can do this, just imagine what you can do.
– Sir Richard Branson, as he became the first person to ride into space aboard a rocket he helped fund. The supersonic space plane developed by his company, Virgin Galactic, roared into the sky over New Mexico early July 11, 2021, carrying Branson and three fellow crew members.
Space tourism could generate close to $4 billion in annual revenue by 2030, according to an estimate last year by UBS. Virgin Galactic has reported 600 reservations for future flights backed by $80 million in deposits based upon a reported price of $250,000 per ticket, according to its latest annual report.
Adventure writer James Clash of New York purchased a ticket for his birthday in 2010. The price then was $200,000 secured with a 10% down payment. As passenger no. 610, he hopes to fly within two years.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this and remained positive even after the crash in 2014 that took the life of a test pilot. But I am very high on space tourism.
"With Jeff Bezos taking off shortly, more start-ups entering the business, and additional venture capital expected, I expect ticket prices to come down,” said Clash who has flown as a passenger on a MIG fighter at 84,000 feet; pulled 6Gs in a centrifuge; and experienced weightlessness in an Ilyushin Il-76 to prepare on his own what it will be like flying with Virgin Galactic.
Win two seats on a flight in early 2022 here:
|
|
|
|
War of Words
In a subtle, yet snarky tweet, Blue Origin compared its proposed space flights to Branson’s recent flight “only” 53 miles up. The handy chart helps prospective space tourists compare the two as if they were buying a car. (Maybe these are the flying cars we’ve all been waiting for?)
|
|
Explorers Inspire Change at GLEX 2021
The GLEX Summit, held in Lisbon and The Azores earlier this month, was themed “Together in Exploration,” and was part of the celebrations of the 500 years of the circumnavigation voyage of Portuguese explorer Magellan (1480-1521).
The event acknowledged the history of global exploration and the impact exploration has had on indigenous cultures and the environment. Today, as borders are erased and the world confronts challenges beyond boundaries like climate change, GLEX Summit looked at the intersection of exploration and science to help further understanding of life and to help educate people across the globe about our common heritage.
GLEX was co-organized by Expanding World (Portugal) and The Explorers Club (New York), in association with Turismo de Portugal, the Azores Tourism Association (ATA), and the Government of the Azores.
Among the presenters were Richard Garriott, newly-elected president of The Explorers Club; Nina Lanza, NASA’s lead team in charge of the Perseverance Rover on its voyage to Mars; Alan Stern, NASA astrophysicist and aerospace engineer; Ricardo Conde, president of the European Space Agency; and Brian Cox, one of the BBC’s best-known science program hosts.
A recording of American laureate poet Amanda Gorman’s Earthrise poem was played. David Blaine, American illusionist and endurance artist also performed.
In addition, more than 20 panels addressed cutting-edge technology and innovations in space and ocean exploration, polar exploration, the conservation of natural sanctuaries, the environmental sustainability of the planet, climate change and extreme phenomena, and protecting the planet, animal species and natural resources.
Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa co-opened GLEX with a pre-recorded video in which he said that the gathering of "extraordinary individuals who challenge the frontiers of knowledge" contributes to "inspire several generations, impelling change in society,” making it "more aware, more mobilized" and reconciled "with the nature and urgency of cooperation and global attention in the fight against climate change.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said of explorers, "They break boundaries and take us beyond knowledge, contributing in such a real way to bring us closer to the unknown."
He stressed that "innovation cutting-edge technology and curiosity are the motto that points the direction of the future of scientific exploration."
For more information about GLEX 2021 and to screen Richard Wiese’s video podcast interviews of numerous speakers, view:
|
|
MEDIA MATTERS
Nine Intrepid Women Explorers
History.com early this month created a listicle of some of the most inspiring women adventurers in history who flouted societal conventions, broke barriers and proved that women can journey as far and as high as any man.
The women explorers praised by writer Ratha Tep were: young Icelandic explorer Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir, nicknamed the Far Traveler; Jeanne Baret, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe; young Native American guide and translator, Sacagawea; Isabella Bird Bird, who captured her extensive travels in 10 books, and became the first woman fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1891; investigative journalist Nellie Bly; and Harriet Chalmers Adams, who after being rebuffed from the New York-based Explorers Club, became the founding president of the Society of Woman Geographers in 1925.
Also on the list are sisters Augusta and Adeline Van Buren (counting as one) who became the first women to ride coast to coast across America on two solo motorcycles; long distance cyclist Annie Cohen Kopchovsky; and Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, the first woman to travel into space.
Read the story here:
|
|
Depiction of Sacagawea prompts removal of Charlottesville statue after 102 years. |
|
In a related story, earlier this month the Charlottesville, Virginia, City Council held an emergency meeting and voted unanimously to remove a 1919 statue of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark due to its depiction of Sacagawea crouching subserviently below the two better-known male explorers.
“It was a very offensive statue,” says Rose Abrahamson, an Idaho educator and member of the Shoshone tribe who tells the New York Times (July 11) that’s she’s a direct descendant of the early explorer.
The move coincided with the removal of a statue of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee four years after the United the Right rally in Charlotteville shocked the nation. Sacagawea established cultural contacts with Native American populations and contributing to the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition’s knowledge of natural history (1803-1806).
It remains to be seen whether the statue will someday be replaced by a more accurate depiction of Sacagawea’s role in exploring and mapping the newly-acquired Louisiana Purchase territory. The U.S. Mint issued the Sacagawea Golden Dollar from 2000 to 2008 so at least there’s that.
EXPEDITION INK
|
|
Point the Hot Part Down
With billionaire astronauts in the news, here’s a handy explanation for how spacecraft work, courtesy of Up Goer Five excerpted from Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words © 2015 by Randall Munroe. It’s a writing stunt that explains complex stuff using the ten hundred most frequently used words in English contemporary fiction (it uses the term ten hundred because “thousand” is not one of them).
See the entire poster here:
WEB WATCH
|
|
Molly Higgins (l) and Barb Eastman. AAC photo by Larry Bruce |
|
The AAC Presents: Women in Yosemite
In 1977 Molly Higgins and Barb Eastman made history as the first all-female team to climb The Nose in Yosemite National Park. With a camera in tow, Molly and Barb photographed their journey up the big stone. Now, 44 years later, the slides have been scanned by The American Alpine Club Library, and organized into a photo story by author, climber, and long-time AAC Volunteer Lauren DeLaunay Miller.
Molly writes, “Recessed in the back of each sweeping corner was an exquisite crack that one could write essays about. I envied the Stonemasters who had the time and talent to free climb those cracks, for they were all vertical or overhanging, and classically beautiful.”
View the slide show here:
BUZZ WORDS
|
|
Kármán Line
The Kármán line is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, which is important for legal and regulatory purposes: aircraft and spacecraft fall under different jurisdictions and are subject to different treaties.
Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos has been investing in his company, Blue Origin LLC, which plans to take him and three others to suborbital space on a company rocket on July 20. In contrast to the July 11 flight by Richard Branson (see related story), Blue Origins will fly above the Kármán line. Branson’s VSS Unity flew 53.5 miles high.
|
|
Travel With Purpose, A Field Guide to Voluntourism (Rowman & Littlefield, April 2019) by Jeff Blumenfeld – How to travel and make a difference while you see the world? These are stories of inspiration from everyday voluntourists, all of whom have advice about the best way to approach that first volunteer vacation, from Las Vegas to Nepal, lending a hand in nonprofits ranging from health care facilities, animal shelters and orphanages to impoverished schools.
Case studies are ripped from the pages of Expedition News, including the volunteer work of Dooley Intermed, Himalayan Stove Project, and even a volunteer dinosaur dig in New Jersey.
|
|
Get Sponsored! – Hundreds of explorers and adventurers raise money each month to travel on world class expeditions to Mt. Everest, Nepal, Antarctica and elsewhere. Now the techniques they use to pay for their journeys are available to anyone who has a dream adventure project in mind, according to the book from Skyhorse Publishing called: "Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers."
Author Jeff Blumenfeld, an adventure marketing specialist who has represented 3M, Coleman, Du Pont, Lands' End and Orvis, among others, shares techniques for securing sponsors for expeditions and adventures.
EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 290 Laramie Blvd., Boulder, CO 80304 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2021 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
