'Discovery' hut - Blubber Stove

Blubber stove and seal meat (last meal of Ross Sea Party)

During an excursion to Discovery Hut on March, by members of the Terra Nova 1910-13 expedition, the sea-ice was too thin to risk the trek back to Cape Evans, where they were based so, to keep warm, Oates and Meares made a blubber stove that, according to Gran, was constructed with “two oil cans in which bricks are placed” and connected it to the old stove flue. Using some carbide they found, Oates and Gran then tried to make acetylene lamps. Wilson insisted that they test the gas first, however, the experimental lighting was almost a disaster. In Gran’s words, “mine blew up and nearly killed Meares, covered me with carbide, and created alarm and despondency in the hut. Perhaps Titus (Oates) will lose courage. If his blows up, the hut will go with it”.

Gran said, the hut soon had “a pungent odour of blubber and blubber smoke … the fireplace smokes unbearably”. soon, fuel was becoming scarce and Scott noted the stove, “threatens to exhaust our store of firewood. We have redesigned it so that it takes only a few chips of wood to light it and then continues to give great heat with blubber alone”.

At the beginning of their first depot laying journey on 21 January 1915, a party from the Aurora arrived at the Discovery hut and the blubber stove was lit to dry the clothes of Gaze, who had fallen in a tide crack. With the completion of depot laying that autumn, the members of the sledging party that had reached the furthest south joined three others back at the Discovery hut on 25 March. They then waited over two months for the sea-ice to harden in order to make the crossing to Cape Evans.

The hut was two-thirds full of ice and everything was black with greasy soot from blubber fuel. Mackintosh said, “We found even a blubber fire luxurious, but what a state of dirt and grease”. Discovery hut became a clinic, and first aid was rendered by Cope who lanced blisters, and the men huddled around the brick stove for warmth and rest. As the blubber melted and ran over the floor, it was gathered up and re-used. Wooden cases and scrap boards were salvaged for fuel and a platform was made around the stove to walk over. When not out walking or sealing, improvised games were played, and effective blubber lamps made by Jack from old tins with seal bones stuck in the blubber, which gave a flickering glimmer of light in the dark interior. Mackintosh wrote: “We read when our blubber lamps are giving a good light, we are fortunate in having an old supply of graphics – relics of the old Shackleton expedition … arguments are rife, we have so much to settle and decide when we get back to the ship … in the evenings songs are sung and everyone keeps more or less merry and bright, then three turn in, while [the] other three sit over the stove, make tea or coffee, [and] read while [the] stove does not smoke too much and obscures the lights.”