British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-04. A silver plat...

Hammer

£750

British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-04. A silver plated fork engraved 'Discovery 1901' formerly the property of Louis Charles Bernacchi: 20.5cm long. *Notes- Louis Charles Bernacchi was born in Belgium in 1897 to Italian parents who subsequently emigrated to Australia. Attending Melbourne Observatory in 1895 he developed an interest in Antarctic exploration and joined Carsten's Borchgrevink's Southern Cross expedition (1898-1900) when he was just 22 years old. This was the first expedition to spend the winter on the Antarctic continent and the first to sledge towards the South Pole. Louis then joined Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition (1901-1904) and was the only man on board the Discovery who had previously been to the Antarctic (in relative terms he was a ''veteran'' of the Antarctic) . As one of the scientific officers on board his role was to collect geomagnetic data as they approached the South Pole, something that had not been studied to any extent before. Scott was Louis's best man at his wedding. He was awarded the Polar Medal and the French Legion d'honneur amongst other awards. *Provenance- By direct family descent.