16th of December
Historical
Antarctic Pictures and Events
1935 - Lincoln Ellsworth and Herbert Hollick-Kenyon reach Little America station after flying across Antarctica in the "Polar Star" in 5 hops involving 20 hours of flying over 11 days from the 23rd of November covering 2,400 miles (3,862km). They ran out of fuel with 25 miles (40km) to go and walked the rest of the way finding the station that had been abandonded several years earlier after 11 days of searching. They had no way to contact the outside world. The Australian and British governments launched a rescue operation after radio contact was lost, by the British research ship Discovery II which found them a month later on the 16th of January 1936 by the Bay of Whales.
Their ship the Wyatt Earp arrived several days later, the Pole Star was refuelled, flown to the Bay of whales and loaded abord to be taken back to the USA. It is kept at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, USA.
Robert Falcon Scott, British Antarctic Expedition (South Pole Expedition) on the ship Terra Nova, 1910 - 1913.
1911
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"Mt. Patrick. Dec 16.11 - 2 pm. Lunch Camp."
About a third of the way up the Beardmore Glacier. A sketch made by Edward Wison with Scott's South Pole Expedition on the way to the Pole.