Second German Antarctic Expedition
The expedition failed to establish a land base, and the ship became beset in the Weddell Sea ice, drifting north for eight months before reaching open water.
The expedition secured the patronage of Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, who formed a fundraising committee which organised, among other activities, a public lottery.
Attempts to set up their land base at a small inlet which they named Vahsel Bay failed when they chose a site on insecure ice which broke away, taking the camp with it.
The first German visit to the sub-Antarctic region occurred during International Polar Year, 1882–83, when a team of scientists established a station at Royal Bay on the island of South Georgia.
[5] Born in 1877, Filchner had visited Russia, had ridden on horseback through the Pamir Mountains, and after a period of studies in surveying and geography had led an expedition to Southern China and Tibet in 1903–05.
Shore parties from each group would then cross the terrain, to rendezvous at the Geographic South Pole or thereabouts, thereby resolving the one-or-two landmasses conundrum.
[10] The expedition would also carry out a scientific research programme that included a detailed study of the nature of the oceans, how they linked together in the southern seas, and how they impacted on the world's climate.
[13][n 3] Although the German government would not provide funding, they were supportive in other ways, arranging for various agencies and organisations to loan essential scientific equipment, and were willing to meet the cost of the harbour fees for the expedition's anticipated lengthy stays in Buenos Aires.
Among the scientists selected were a young geographer, Heinrich Seelheim, as Filchner's deputy;[19] Carl Wilhelm Brennecke, one of Germany's leading oceanographers; the astronomer Erich Przybyllok; and an Austrian biologist and experienced alpinist, Felix König.
[24] The voyage extended over four months, and covered 10,000 nautical miles (12,000 mi; 19,000 km)[14] with stops at the Azores, at St Paul's Rocks and at Pernambuco.
He then persuaded Alfred Kling, Cap Ortega's first officer, to accept the captaincy of Deutschland, but on arrival found Vahsel still in post and Seelheim gone.
[29][30] In Buenos Aires, the expedition received a consignment of Greenland dogs, and a number of Manchurian ponies;[28] Filchner had been persuaded by Shackleton of the usefulness of horses as pack animals.
[28] In the course of these surveys they revisited the now derelict research station at Royal Bay, reopened it, and kept it manned for a month while taking regular readings to determine magnetic field changes in the intervening years.
[37] Having been restocked with equipment, the now heavily loaded Deutschland left Grytviken on 11 December 1911 carrying 35 men, 8 ponies, 75 Greenland dogs, 2 oxen, 2 pigs and several sheep.
[24] On 27 January, now deep into the Weddell Sea, came the first intimation of land; seabed samples produced blue clay, remnants of glacial deposits that would not be found far from shore.
[40] On 28 January a wide stretch of water appeared, extending southward to the horizon: "No one had expected an open Weddell Sea behind a pack ice girdle of roughly 1,100 nautical miles", wrote Filchner.
[45] Following the coastline as it first tended south-westwards, then west and north-west, on 31 January at 77°48'S, they discovered a vast ice barrier, evidently the southern boundary of the Weddell Sea.
[49] However, Vahsel showed a reluctance to make a landing there, arguing that, having passed Weddell's southern limit, the main task of the expedition was now done and they should return to South Georgia.
This, as David Murphy in his expedition account observes, was inexplicable since Deutschland's equipment, provisions and animals clearly provided for extensive work on shore.
[55] On 18 February a high spring tide caused a surge of water, which sundered the iceberg from the ice barrier and sent it floating into the Weddell Sea.
[62] A research station was set up on the ice for meteorological and magnetic work, and the wildlife – penguins, other birds, whales and seals – was observed, recorded and sometimes eaten.
[63] A programme of entertainment and sporting activities was maintained on the ship and on the ice,[60] but these diversions could not overcome the increasing divisions and hostility between the opposing groups, worsened by the excessive use of alcohol.
[67] Morrell's writings were typically full of exaggerations and provable errors,[68] and he had a reputation for vagueness concerning positions and dates,[69] but his claims had remained uninvestigated.
[70] On 23 June, about 65 kilometres (40 mi; 65 km) east of Morrell's reported sighting, Filchner, König and Kling set out from Deutschland with supplies, sledges and dogs to find the spot, travelling much of the time by moonlight.
[75] The drift continued; by mid-September, open leads were appearing in the distance, but it was not until 26 November, with the help of dynamite, that Deutschland finally broke free of the ice.
[79] As replacement captain Filchner appointed Kling, who took Deutschland to Buenos Aires, where she was temporarily lent to the Argentine government to relieve the Argentinian weather station at Laurie Island.
He informed the American Geographical Society that, after a period in dry dock for essential work, "...the second trip to the newly discovered land can be made again, and the explorations in the Antarctic continued according to the original program".
Its discovery of the Filchner Ice Shelf provided strong evidence, if not outright proof, that Penck's theory of a strait separating two Antarctic landmasses was wrong.
[77] Four alternating layers were identified, carrying warmer and colder streams south and north respectively, a process in which the Weddell Sea played a central role.
[103] Owing to the commencement of the First World War, and the lack of a formal presentation of the results, the expedition's findings made little immediate impact on the international scientific community.
