SY Aurora

The Aurora ( also SY Aurora) was a steam ship under sail ( in English steam yacht ) that the Scottish shipbuilding company Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd.. was built in Glasgow, Scotland for the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company and completed in February 1877. Its original purpose was to whaling in the northern seas. It was strongly built to withstand the severe weather prevailing there and ice. This stress resistance also proved to explore Antarctica. Between 1911 and 1917, the Aurora made ​​five trips to the continent, both for exploration and for rescue operations.

Time before 1910

The Aurora rode 1876-1910 annually from Dundee to St. John's ( Newfoundland) for whale and seal hunting in the Arctic. In 1884 she participated in (unsuccessfully ) on the expedition searching for the polar expedition of Adolphus Greely. In 1891 she rescued the crew of the Polynia that had been crushed in the pack ice.

Douglas Mawson expedition

1910 Aurora by Douglas Mawson was bought for his Australasian Antarctic Expedition. The Aurora made ​​the trip in December 1911 by Hobart, Australia, from the island of Macquarie, Mawson's base and then on to Cape Denison, where she set Mawson and his companions. They then returned to Hobart and came only in December 1912 again, Mawson first met not in and let out a rescue team back. Shortly after the expiry Mawson came back in stock at the only survivor of a sledge expedition, but Mawson recalled Aurora could not record because of the weather. He stayed another year in Antarctica and returned in December 1913, the Aurora.

Endurance expedition

In 1914 she took part in the Endurance Expedition by Ernest Shackleton, where she put on as part of the Ross Sea Party depots. May 1915 it was in the ice and came only in February 1916 again. On April 3, she arrived in Dunedin. In January 1917 she returned to Antarctica to retrieve the survivors of the Ross Sea Party, which she had put ashore. The expedition was funded by the Australian, New Zealand and British governments, and Shackleton was on his return from the Antarctic on board, the sole command had but at the insistence of the governments of the captain of the Aurora, John King Davis (1884-1967), who had already captain of the Aurora had been on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of Mawson and before that commanded Australian troops transports in the First World War. Seven survivors ( out of ten) of the Ross Sea party were taken on board and taken to Wellington, where she arrived on 9 February.

Loss

On 20 June 1917, the Aurora left the port of Newcastle (Australia ) with a cargo of coal with the aim of Iquique in Chile. The ship has been missing ever since. There were suspicions that she had become a victim of the First World War. On January 2, 1918, the ship at Lloyd 's of London was declared to be lost.