The Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project
"I thought you would rather have a live donkey than a dead lion."
Sir Ernest Shackleton in a letter to his wife Emily after their unsuccessful attempt to reach the pole.
The Trust’s Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project (RSHRP) is a long-term, heritage project with an international team of experts contracted to work on the project. It presents many technical challenges including environmental issues such as katabatic winds, high relative humidity, temperature change, salt damage and light levels.
In 2003 and 2004 a team of heritage/conservation/polar experts compiled Conservation Plans for each of the four sites. The plans (reviewed by relevant international agencies) provide the proposed conservation for the sites. They are, to our knowledge, the most comprehensive heritage conservation documents ever produced for a polar heritage site.
All conservation work (while recognising the realities and constraints of working in Antarctica) follows international best practice and the ICOMOS Charter (Venice Charter 1964). Work is also carried out in line with the Antarctica Environmental Protection Act (Madrid Protocol 1991) and work is permitted through the New Zealand Government.
In 2003, with support from The Getty Foundation, World Monuments Fund, American Express and the New Zealand Government, work began on conserving the first of the four bases—Sir Ernest Shackleton’s base at Cape Royds.
Five years on (2008) we can report Sir Ernest Shackleton’s base at Cape Royds is structurally secure and weather-tight and a conservation programme to conserve the 4,500+ artefacts associated with the base is in its final stages of completion. The artefacts have gradually been returned to Cape Royds as they have been conserved and the balance are scheduled to be returned to Cape Royds this summer (2008/09).
This portion of the RSHRP is a world first for cultural heritage in polar climates and we acknowledge the efforts of our conservation teams who have worked year round in Antarctica on the artefact collections.
However, while Shackleton’s base is secure, saving Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s iconic base at Cape Evans is now the focus of our efforts and will be the second expedition base (as part of the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project) to be conserved. The work needed at Scott's base at Cape Evans is now urgent as unprecedented snow and ice build-up threatens to destroy the building.
With a matched funding challenge in place for the Cape Evans project every dollar raised will be matched up to £1M. That means every new donation is effectively doubled. Although the fundraising campaign continues to make excellent progress we still need your support. Click here to find out how you can help.
Click here to find out the project status of each of the expedition bases.
Related Links and Documents
Meet the Conservation Team working on the Project
Order a copy of the Conservation Plans for the Sites