A photograph from Scott’s ‘British Antarctic Expedition’ of 1910-13 showing Dr Wilson, Lt Bowers and Apsley Cherry-Garrard having a meal on their return from a winter trip to Cape Crozier, August 1st 1911.
Extraordinary though it may seem, a breadboard is visible among their tableware. Further inquiries have established that the board is no longer among the Scott Polar Research Institute collection, nor is it in the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, Christchurch, New Zealand where many of the remaining items from the hut have been stored.
Diana Pope kindly tracked down Lizzie Meek of the AHT who has painstakingly catalogued every object and suggested that ‘it is highly likely it got burnt on the stove for fuel by the Ross Sea Party, as it is a very conveniently stove-sized piece of wood, and they ran out of coal and had to switch to using other materials including seal blubber.’ Photograph courtesy of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.
http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/
http://www.nzaht.org/
Photographer: Ponting, Herbert (1870-1935)
Expedition: British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13
Date: 1911
Breathing new life into antique breadboards 