From John Scott Keltie   17 October 1895

Keltie apparently sent a similar letter to W. Potter, 22 October 1895 (See W. Potter to J. Keltie, 10 December 1895, Royal Geographical Society archives).

The Times (London), 9 October 1895, p. 11, commenting on an article by Clements Markham in the October issue of the Nineteenth century. In this letter Borchgrevink refers to the extracts from an account by Potter and accuses Potter of making a number of errors about the voyage of the Antarctic, during which a first landing was made on the Antarctic continent: ‘[Potter] has first of all in his report made a mistake in regard to our landing at Cape Adare. When he writes that Captain Kristensen [the commander] “took” Mr. Bull with him ashore he proves that he was completely unaware of the fact that Mr. Bull, the business manager, also was part owner of the vessel, and thus to a certain extent master of the situation, in so far at least that he could join any land party when he liked himself. When he writes that Captain Kristensen jumped on shore first, he is also in error. Captain Kristensen was the first dry man who put his foot on South Victoria Continent, but a soaking wet man put his foot there before, and that man was myself. As soon as the order was given to stop pulling, and my duty at the oar was done, I saw the bottom and jumped over the side of the boat, thus killing two birds with one shot — first relieving the boat of 12st. [80 kg] weight, allowing the boat to float near enough to the beach to let the captain get dry ashore; and next, I was the first man to set foot on the South Victoria Continent. ...

Mr. Potter did not know that I landed on Possession Island. When he showed me his manuscript in Melbourne he had put down that Mr. Bull landed there, and I remember that I corrected him; he has also left out that when I landed I gave a speech for the illustrious Briton, Sir James Clark Ross, and with hat in hand, we gave him three cheers.’

The letter complaining about Potter was not the first disputatious letter concerning the voyage to appear in The Times.Kristensen wrote on 6 September1895, p. 4, to complain about Borchgrevink’s account of the expedition given at the International Geographical Congress, where Borchgrevink was reported to have said that he ‘had to ship as an ordinary seaman, and was given no opportunity of taking with him instruments’. Kristensen wrote that he had tried to arrange to take ‘two scientific men under the auspices of the Geographical Society of Melbourne’ but was unable to do so, because shipboard accommodation was not suitable and there was no time for arrangements to be made. Bull suggested that they should take a man who ‘understood the preparation and stuffing of birds. I agreed with him, particularly if a man could be got who could also assist as a sailor.’ An advertisement was placed; Borchegrevink was chosen, and took ship ‘with wages as a hunter’. He did not, Kristensen wrote, ask to take instruments, and it was at Kristensen’s suggestion that Borchgrevink ‘daily took the temperature of air and sea and read the barometer, using the ship's instruments. ... That Mr Borchgrevink was a scientist, or claimed the title of a scientist, I neither knew nor heard of till we again were back in Melbourne.’ Kristensen concluded his complaint by saying that Borchgrevink was ‘highly wanting both in tact and consideration, when he, in his address in London, uses dates and information only obtainable through my ship journal without giving either source or acknowledgement for the use of them.’

Borchegrevink refuted Kristensen’s claims in a letter the following day (7 September 1895, p. 7), accusing Kristensen of falsehoods, included a supporting statement from crew members, and quoted from a Hobart paper in which Borchgrevink’s scientific aspirations were reported to have been described in Kristensen’s presence during a visit by the Antarcticwhile on their way south. Borchgrevink ended his letter by threatening legal action against Kristensen ‘if he persists in his insulting writings against me’.

See also a letter to the editor from C. Markham, 11 September 1895, p. 6.

The ‘prefixed letter’ has not been found.

The correspondence between the Royal Geographical Society and Borchgrevink (Royal Geographical Society, London, Archives, RGS correspondence, 1881-1910, Borchgrevink, C. E.) and Bull (RGS correspondence, 1881-1910, Bull, H. J.) shows that accusation and counter-accusation about the capacity and behaviour of Bull and Borchgrevink were being made. Bull was accused of being a drunkard: ‘Since I saw Mr. Markham H. J. Bull has come on the scene in the same state as when I last saw him in Australia that is “drunk”.’ (Borchgrevink to Keltie, undated but before 21 September 1895). Bull found ‘the conflict that has been carried on between Mr Borchgrevink and Capt Kristensen, even in London papers’ ‘utterly out of place and very inconsiderate’ (H. Bull to J. Keltie, 28 December 1895).

See also letters to the editor, The Times, 5 November 1895, p. 2 (from the director of the whaling and sealing firm that commissioned the voyage, Svend Foyn); 25 December 1895, p. 10 (from H .J. Bull); and especially 6 January 1896, p. 14, in which W. Potter rebuts the accusations made by Borchgrevink about the authorship and status of the report of the voyage, and 8 January 1896, p. 13, in which Potter quotes from the minutes of a meeting of the Antarctic Committee held on 2 December 1895 at which the committee unanimously carried a resolution moved by A. C. MacDonald and seconded by M which ‘confirm[ed]the statements in Mr. Potter’s letter of reply’ [i.e. that published on 6 January]. See M to J. Keltie, 1 December 1895, where he stated that he thought that ‘it does not seem that the antarctic Committee here is directly concerned in this more particularly personal dispute’ and that he was ‘reluctant to be involved in this public discussion’.

Borchgrevink (1896).

There was no united Colonial expedition. The earliest active Australian exploration was by participation in the British 1907 expedition under Shackleton; this was followed by the 1911 Australian Antarctic Expedition led by Douglas Mawson.

The portrait of M by R. Wendel and published by Troedel & Co., Lithographers (Melbourne) in the Royal Geographical Society’s collections (PR/026715) is probably the one included. This image is known to have been distributed from at least 1892: a copy now in the State Library of Tasmania is inscribed: ‘To his generous friend F. Abbott Esqr. F.R.A.S. from Ferd. von Mueller, Jan. 1892’.

The letter has not been found, but the file contains a [draft?] letter from Keltie to W. Potter dated 21 October 1895, thanking him for the copy of the report and apologizing for the delay in acknowledging it.

Despite an announcement in The Times,1 January 1896 p. 8, under the heading ‘Publications today’, of the Journal, notes and addresses of the Norwegian S.S. Antarctic to the south polar seas in the years 1894-95, edited … by Macdonald … [and] … Potter. … (Melbourne: M’Kinley and Co.), only ‘rough advance proofs’ have been found. In addition to the copy described in the notes to M to J. Keltie, 1 December 1895, a copy exists in the RGS Library. In addition to Borchgrivenk’s account, Kristensen (1896) and Bull (1896) also published books giving an account of the voyage. The RGS catalogue entry for Bull’s volume contains the following note: ‘Mr. Bull here gives what may be termed the owner’s account of the Norwegian whaling expedition to the Antarctic regions sent out by the late Svend Foyn, to whose memory the book is appropriately dedicated and a sketch of whose biography serves as introduction. The narrative is direct and interesting. There is no map, and the author appears to have suffered the not uncommon misfortune of losing confidence in the captain and differing in opinion from the other member of the crew who had previously described the voyage.’