Evaporation was measured by hanging measured cubes of snow and ice from rods projecting from the wall of the hut. Sometimes wind direction could be tracked by monitoring the steam plume coming from Mount Erebus. The biologist, James Murray, built a sledge which could be lowered through a crack in the ice and pulled along the bottom which scooped up a vast variety of small fish, crustacean and other marine animals. Oddly to Murray, the fish and other animals would freeze before he could get back to the hut but, once thawed out, they would spring back to life.
As the sun began to set in March, tiny details of the daily routine became major events. The weather was an important factor of everyday life; in a blizzard the chores of emptying dishwater and ashes and getting fresh ice became small feats of endurance. Night watchmans' duties were rotated every two weeks. Two men were exempted from these duties: Roberts, who was the cook, and Sir Philip Brocklehurst, whose toes were still black with frostbite (one later amputated by Marshall) after his climb of Mount Erebus. (NOTE: The successful ascent of Mount Erebus was one of the first accomplishments of the expedition. Six men, among them Douglas Mawson, measured the crater. They quickly descended by sliding down the 5000 feet in four hours).
The others tended to their specialties: Adams wound the chronometers, checked instruments and did other meteorological work; Marshall, the surgeon, tended to medical needs and exercised ponies; Wild, the storekeeper, issued food to the cook, opened the cases of tinned food and dug the meat out of the snowdrifts (penguin, seal or mutton); Joyce fed the dogs and trained them for sledge-pulling; David spent time on geological studies; Priestley and Murray worked at dredging; Mawson studied the aurora, ice structures and measured atmospheric electricity. south-pole.com on the NIMROD Expedition, 1907-09
Die Nimrod-Expedition (offizieller Name: Britische Antarktis-Expedition 1907–1909) war die erste der drei Forschungsreisen in die Antarktis unter der Leitung des Polarforschers Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton beabsichtigte mit dieser Reise vor allem, als erster Mensch den geographischen Südpol zu erreichen. (…) Im Bug und Laderaum wurden neue Mannschaftsquartiere eingebaut und das Schiff erhielt einen Motor mit nominell 60 PS, mit dessen Hilfe es unter Dampf 6 Knoten erreichte und bei ruhigem Wetter täglich vier Tonnen Kohle verbrauchte. Der Kohleverbrauch in Verbindung mit der geringen Ladekapazität beschränkten die Reichweite der Nimrod im Motorbetrieb, was erhebliche Auswirkungen auf die spätere Durchführung der Expeditionsreise hatte. de.wikipedia.org
