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EA-Biography

(J. M. Scott)

JAMES M. WORDIE

        James (Mann) Wordie, C.B.E.M.A. (1889- ), one of the most experienced

and scholarly of modern polar explorers, has traveled widely both in the Arctic

and the Antarctic. James Wordie was born in Glasgow, the second son of John

and Jane (Mann) Wordie. He was educated at Glasgow Academy and Glasgow and

Cambridge universities. His first experience of the Arctic was a visit to the

Yukon and Yakutat Bay, Alaska, which followed the International Geological

Conference at Toronto in 1913.

        Wordie was geologist and chief of the scientific staff of Shackleton's

1914-16 Antarctic Expedition. He was a member of the Weddell Sea party and,

after the loss of the Endurance and after living for six months on drifting

pack ice, wintered on Elephant Island. Returning to Europe, he became a lieu–

tenant in the Royal Field Artillery in 1917-18.

        In 1919, Wordie returned to polar exploration, this time to the Arctic

as geologist and second-in-command of the Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate expe–

ditions of 1919 and 1920, initiated by Dr. W. S. Bruce. Wordie made geological

surveys in Spitsbergen in the Stor Fjord region and on Prince Charles Foreland,

climbing Mount Monaco in the course of his work. His general results were con–

tained in a paper read to the Royal Geographical Society in which he describes

the complicated tectonic problems on Prince Charles Foreland and the compara–

tively undisturbed history of the Stor Fjord region. The weather of the

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former is almost as boisterous as the latter is sedate. Wordie discusses

the glacier types and the widespread glacier retreat, and by contrast the

possibilities of coal mining development on a large scale. His companions

and assistants were recruited from geological students at the Scottish uni–

versities. He has stressed the importance of his experience gained in the

Antarctic before taking up Arctic work, and the very great advantage of

intimate knowledge of both regions.

        In 1921, Wordie led a small summer expedition of Cambridge men to Jan

Mayen. The plan had been originated by J.L. Chaworth-Musters and was

carried out in conjunction, as far as sea transport was concerned, with

Hagbard Ekerold, who was setting up a Norwegian radio weather station on the

island. The other members of the party were Richmond Brown, W.S. Bristowe,

T.C. Lethbridge and Prof. P. L. Mercanton. The Jan Mayen expedition was the first of the Cambridge Arctic expeditions,

just as Binney's visit to Spitsbergen in the same year was the first of the

Oxford expeditions.

        The voyage to and from Jan Mayen was made in the 24-ton sealer Polarfront .

Wordie, with Mercanton and Lethbridge, made the first ascent of the extinct

volcano Beerenberg, originally named Mount Hakluyt, the height of which they

corrected, by controlled aneroid readings, to 8,090 ft. (A more recent measure–

ment makes the height 7,450 ft.) Botanical, zoological, glaciological, and

geological work was intensively carried on during the party's stay on the island.

Bristowe made a notable collection of spiders, and Musters found many plant

species new to the island. The geological work was mainly concerned with the

two questions, the age at which the island was first formed and how long since

Beerenberg had ceased to be an active volcano. One may briefly summarize

Wordie's cautious deductions by saying that the island is probably of very

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EA-Biog. Scott: J.M. Wordie

recent geological date, while Seerenberg itself has certainly not erupted

in historical times. The last very minor ash eruption was that seen by

Scoresby near Vogt (Esk) crater in 1818. Apart from the unusually large

amount of driftwood and other jetsam to be found on its coast, Wordie con–

sidered Jan Mayen has no commercial value; its usefulness lies in the site

it offers for a weather station.

        Wordie had long been attracted to the incompletely known regions of

Northeast Greenland, and to this end the Jan Mayen expedition was a stepping–

stone. His first Greenland attempt was in 1923, when he led a Cambridge

expedition in the Norwegian sealing sloop Heimen , consisting of Lord Cawdor,

H. E. David, Lt. C. C. Duchesne, R.E., T. C. Lethbridge, Lt. R. H. Maclaren,R.E.,

and L. S. Mayne. The idea was to reach Franz Josef Fjord and the coast which

may have been Hudson's Hold with Hope, discovered in 1607, just as Jan Mayen

may have been "Hudson's Tutches." The sea-ice conditions were extremely un–

favorable and thick pack ice barred the coast. The ship was nipped and lifted

bodily on to the ice. She narrowly escaped disaster and a repetition of the

shipwreck of the Endurance in the Antarctic, and the attempt to reach Greenland

that year had to be abandoned.

        In 1926, however, a second attempt succeeded. Wordie's party con–

sisted of M. A. Barnett, radio, J.H. Bell, camp stores and equipment, C. de

Bunsen and A. Courtauld, cameras and survey, D. McI. Johnson, Eskimo archaeology

and doctor, G. Manley, geodesy and survey, and Lt. P. F. White, R.E., surveyor.

        The party sailed from Aberdeen on June 30 in the coal-burning sealing

sloop Heimland of 152 tons gross, with Lars Jacobsen of T r omeö (who had com–

manded the smaller Heimen in 1923) as captain, and made contact with the radio

station on Jan Mayen. Then, in foggy weather and after a blind but rapid

passage through very open pack ice, anchor was dropped, still in fog, on the

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south side of what proved to be Little Pendulum Island. One of the objects

of the expedition was to repeat Sabine's pendulum experiments made in 1823,

when Clavering in the Griper first discovered this part of the East Greenland

coast. While Manley made pendulum observations on the site where Captain

Sabine had made his gravity experiments one hundred and three years earlier,

the rest of the party sailed through Clavering Strait to Cape Berlin. Various

landings were made for geological and archaeological purposes and Mount

Huhnerberg was climbed. On the summit Courtauld found a record left by

Prof. Copeland of the Germania expedition on the same day and month in 1870.

Manley's longitude observations gave no support to the idea of continental

drift and the claim that Greenland had movedwestward since either Sabine's

time or Copeland's later determinations of longitude.

        Next, Clavering's survey of Gael Hamke Bay was extended and completed.

His work was found to be of remarkable accuracy, although for some reason the

great, broad Jordanhill Glacier, which Koch has since named the Wordie Glacier,

was shown on his map as open water. Wordie's party penetrated new ground and

discovered Granta Fjord to the west of Clavering Island. Working in separate

parties, the survey was extended to Loch Fyne and Jackson Island. Meanwhile

thorough archaeological examinations were being made and many old Eskimo sites

were found. It will be remembeeed that Clavering was the only man to record

seeing living Exkimos in this region, in fact, anywhere on the east coast

north of Angmagssalik. The winter houses of Clavering's Eskimos were found

by Johnson at Eskimo Bay, on the south side of Clavering Island. From their

observations, wordie and Johnson decided that there must have been an immigra–

tion of these Eskimos by a route round the very north of Greenland, a view

the reverse of that held by Knud Rasmussen.

        At the beginning of August, the hundred-mile-long stretch of Franz Josef

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EA-Biog. Scott: J.M. Wordie

Fjord was entered for the first time since the original discovery in 1899.

The party were impressed by the warm weather and the strikingly rich vege–

tation. The surveyors climbed peaks at the head of this remarkable fjord,

and sighted but could not reach Petermann Peak in the short time available.

Before leaving Franz Josef Fjord the ship penetrated to the head of the

tributary Musk Ox Fjord, to tie in with the Loch Fyne Survey. The most

important geological discovery was the finding in Andr e é e Land of overthrust–

ing of older rocks and the evidence of Caled onian mountain building on a

very large scale.

        The ship turned southward from the mouth of Fran s z Josef Fjord and,

working night and day, a plane-table survey of the outer coast was carried

to Davy Sound. A difficult and interesting part of this hiehterto hitherto unsurveyed

and unexplored coast was to reconcile what was seen at close quarters with

the features named on William Scoresby Junior's map, made in 1822 from some

thirtymiles offshore. In every case it was found that Scoresby's capes

represent high mountains standing well back from the coast. The survey was

concluded at Cape Simpson on Davy Sound, where Scoresby had found an abandoned

Eskimo settlement of unusual type. Before returning to Scotland the party

visited the newly established Eskimo colony at Scoresby Sound.

        Wordie returned to the same area of Northeast Greenland in 1929 with

the object of enlarging the field both of topographical and geological survey

and also, if possible, of climbing Petermann Peak. His ship was again the

Heimland , but with Karl Jacobsen as captain, and his party was as follows:

A. Courtauld and R. C. Wakefield, surveyors; P. de K. Dykes, radio; V. S.

Forbes, geographer; .V. E. Fuchs, M.M. L. Parkinson, and W.F. Whittard,

geologists; and J. F. Varley, medical officer.

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EA-Biog. Scott: J.M. Wordie

        The passage through the pack ice was not made quickly or without

anxious moments, the ship being several times nipped by the pack ice, and

the rudder damaged. But after nearly a month of struggle in ice as heavy

and close as in 1923, Franz Josef Fjord was entered on August 5. Because

of this delay, the land work had to be pressed forward at an even greater

pressure than is usual on summer expeditions.

        The most spectacular achievement was the climbing of Petermann Peak.

The climbing party consisted of Wordie, Wakefield, Courtauld, Fuchs, Varley,

and Forbes. The main difficulty lay in finding a route from Kjerulf Fjord

to the mountain in the short time available, carrying not only food and camp

gear but also survey equipment. After making a survey of the Cambridge Peaks,

the party marched westward along the watershed south of the Nordenskiöld

Glacier, which flows into the head of Franz Josef Fjord, and down the Ptarmi–

gan Glaciers to lower levels. Then the great Nordenskiöld Glacier was crossed.

The Petermann summit was reached by Wordie, Wakefield, and Forbes on August 15,

nine days after the start of the overland trip. The height, by corrected

aneroid and boiling point readings, was found to be 9,650 ft. The return

journey to the coast was accomplished without incident.

        The important geological discoveries made during the 1926 expedition

were extended by Whittard and Parkinson while the mountain expedition just

described was in progress. Caledonian folding on [ ?] large scale was found,

and the thrust of the Franz Josef Beds over the underlying Metamorphic Complex

determined. In 1926 a major thrust had been located and examined at Junction

Valley on Andres Land, about 4 miles N.N.W. across Franz Josef Fjord from

Cape Mohn. In 1929 the region south of Franz Josef Fjord was examined down

to Antarctic Harbor in Davy Sound.

        The In 1929 expedition completed a trio directed to Northeast Greenland;

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EA-Biog. Scott: J. M. Wordie

the first had been turned back by the polar ice current, but the latter two had

both done good work. For his next two expeditions Wordie was now to turn his

attention to Northwest Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.

        On May 24, 1934, he sailed from Aberdeen in the Heimen , a recently

built oil-driven vessel of 129 tons gross, with Lars Jacobsen again as skipper

and a crew of ten and the following scientific party: P. D. Baird, surveyor

and geologist; C. T. Dalgety and H. P. Hanham, ornithologists; Lt. W. E. Fletcher,

R.N., navigator; Sir John Hanham, botanist; Dr. T. G. Longstaff, medical officer

and zoologist; T. T. Paterson, geologist and archaeologist; H.M.W. Ritchie,

photographer.

        The first object of the expedition was to cross Melville Bay and to reach

Cape York in June, during the nesting season, and later to cross to Ellesmere

Island. For the first part of the program an unusually early start and speed

were essential. All went well as far as Upernivik, the most northerly settle–

ment in West Greenland which can be reached with certainty early in the season.

Navigation beyond varies considerably from year to year, and in 1934 the ice

broke up late after a long cold winter. The party were held up at Upernivik

for ten days, passing the time in geological and ethnological work; Paterson

made a collection of about 30 string figures. They also climbed Sanderson's

Hope (3,560 ft.), from which it was possible to reconnoiter the extent of the

pack ice ahead.

        After further delays at Nutarmiut and at the Duck Islands (which were

surveyed), the Heimen reached the entrance to Melville Bay [ ?] on July 7.

But here the party was held up for the remainder of the month by unbroken

winter ice which barred the way northward. This was a month beyond the usual

date of crossing Melville Bay by Dundee whalers in the nineties. Like them,

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Wordie had hoped to push his ship across the bay in June.

        The most spectacular achievement during the long delay was the climb–

ing of the Devil's Thumb by Longstaff and Baird. The ascent of this remark–

able landmark, a 600-foot flake of gneiss projecting, to all appearances,

vertically from a steep 1,200-foot shoulder of the same rock, was technically

described by these two experienced climbers as more than "difficult" and less

than "severe."

        After failing to cross to Cape York and Ellesmere Island, Wordie decided

early in August, as the main objective could not now be realized, to retreat

to Upernivik and cross south of the "Middle Ice" to Baffin Island. This was

done, and the remainder of the expedition's time was spent in exploring and

charting Eglinton Fjord and Clyde Inlet. From a high peak Baird and Ritchie

discovered a hitherto unknown icecap in central Baffin Island. At the end of

August, after three months of continuous activity, the ship turned for home,

arriving in Aberdeen on September 15.

        It will be remembered that in the course of the expedition just described

Wordie had been induced to make a radical change of plans, unbroken winter ice

in Melville Bay making a visit to Cape York and Ellesmere Island only possible

so late in the season as to be of little value. The alternative program in

Baffin Island had been valuable enough in itself, but Wordie, who has never

been satisfied with half-success, decided to return to the same area in 1937.

His party was as follows: H.I. Drever, petrologist; E. G. Dymond, physicist;

R.W. Feachem, assistant surveyor; I.M. Hunter, radio; E.D.W. Leaf, assistant

archaeologist; T. C. Lethbridge, archaeologist; T.T. Paterson, geologist;

A. H. Robin, surveyor.

        He sailed from Leith on June 27 in the Norwegian motor sealing vessel

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Isbjorn of 177 tons, with Bergerson as captain. Since on this occasion

there was no intention of crossing Melville Bay to reach Cape York in the

nesting season, an early start was not necessary and advantage could be taken

of the improved late summer sea ice conditions. But, as fate would have it,

this particular year was so remarkably ice-free compared with 1934 that the

geographical part of the program could probably have been carried out much

earlier in the season. Very briefly, the Isbjorn's course was north along

the coast of West Greenland, with stops at Godhavn, N u û gssuak, the Ryder Islands,

and Thule, and then across Smith Sound to Cape Sabine and Bache Peninsula;

then southward by the east coasts of Ellesmere Island and Baffin Island as

far as the newly discovered Cambridge Gulf; then southeastward across Baffin

Bay to Godhavn, and so home.

        Mapping and charting was carried out at the little-known Cary Islands,

but the most important geographical discoveries were on the Baffin Island

coast around Cambridge Gulf, between latitudes 71° and 72° 30′ N., where a

deep fjord system with 600 miles of new coast line was explored and mapped.

Six fjords up to 60 miles in length cut southwestward through a high mountain

land to lower levels. The fjord walls were up to 3,000 ft. in height, but

above was an old land plateau or peneplain, covered in places by icecaps

which spilled down the fjord walls in numerous cascading and valley glaciers.

The outer fringe of this newly discovered region had been frequented by

Dundee whalers in the latter part of the 19th century, and wrecks and wreckage

were frequently found, as well as traces of occasional recent visits by Eskimos.

        The geologists made important discoveries at N u û gssuak and Ubekjendt

Island. Interesting work was also done on the Thule Sandstone at the base

of the Cambrian system.

        The main archaeological investigations were made at Turnstone Beach in

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Buchanan Bay, Ellesmere Island. Attempts were being made to locate Eskimo

remains on the route by which they must have originally reached Greenland.

The open year gave exceptional opportunities, and the digging of old sites

yielded rich results. In the course of the digging an unexpected find was

the discovery of Dr. Cook's winter quarters in an abandoned Eskimo hut at

Cape Hardy (Cape Sparbo) in Jones Sound.

        The most original and interesting scientific work was that concerned

with cosmic ray investigations. To assist this unusual work with balloons,

the Royal Society had made a special grant of £ 800, and the Physics Depart–

ments at both Cambridge and Edinburgh universities had also contributed. The

Geomagnetic Pole (Magnetic Axis Pole) being to the east of Smith Sound, about

two degrees north of Thule, the course of the Isbjorn offered valuable

opportunities.

        Observations were made by apparatus lifted on balloons to exceptionally

high levels. Two different types of apparatus were used. Carmichael had

designed and constructed one in the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. This

consisted of a light-weight ionization chamber with electroscope and a small

camera which recorded the latter at work, the air pressure and temperature

being also recorded on the slowly revolving film. Recovery of the apparatus

was obviously necessary at the conclusion of the flight. Dymond's apparatus

was a triple-coincidence Geiger counter set with wireless transmission both

of the counts and the barometric pressure. Thus recovery was not essential.

Both types of apparatus were lifted by a pair of balloons and parachutes.

One of the former would collapse at the extreme altitude of the observations,

leaving the remaining balloon to descend slowly with the apparatus and the

steadying parachutes.

        Six successful flights were made. Two of these proved particularly

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valuable, one with the wireless apparatus to a height of over 12 miles in

magnetic latitude 88, and [ ?] the other with the lighter ionization appara–

tus in magnetic latitude 75 to a height of about 18 miles. It was found

rather unexpectedly that cosmic radiation near the Magnetic Axis Pole is not

very much stronger than at lower magnetic latitudes. Some twenty pilot-balloon

flights were also made to heights of between 12 and 20 miles (20 to 30 kms.).

        Since 1937 Wordie has so far made one further journey to the polar regions,

this time to the Antarctic. In January and February, 1947, under the auspices

of the Colonial Office, he visited the South Orkneys, South Shetlands, and

Graham Land to advise on the program of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey.

        Wordie is one of the outstanding British figures in all matters which

concern both the Arctic and the Antarctic. His experiences have been acknow–

ledged by the Royal Geographical Society's Back Award in 1920, by the Founders'

Gold Medal in 1933; the Bruce Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1926,

and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society's Gold Medal in 1944.

        He is also well read in polar history and a specialist in glaciology

and geology. His post as Senior Tutor and Fellow of St. John's College,

Cambridge, has enabled him to assist and influence many young explorers,

notably Gino Watkins. He has been Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical

Society from 1934 to 1948, and is now Foreign Secretary; he has served on the

Mount Everest Committee, on the Discovery Committee of the Colonial Office

since 1923, and is chairman of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Scientific

Committee. He has been chairman of the Scott Polar Research Institute since

1936. He is vice president of the British Glaciological Society and a member

of the Alpine Club. These numerous and varied duties show how extensively

his wide and gently expressed influence is felt in all that concerns the

polar regions.

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---

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. M. Wordie. "Present-day Conditions in Spitsbergen," Geog.Journ . Vol.58,

N.1, July 1921.

----. "Jan Mayen Island," Geog. Journ ., Vol.59, N.3, March 1922.

----. "The Cambridge Expedition to East Greenland in 1926," Geog.Journ .,

Vol.70, N.3, Sept. 1927.

----. " [ ?] Cambridge East Greenland Expedition, 1929: Ascent of Petermann

Peak," Geog.Journ ., Vol.75, N.6, June 1930.

----. " [ ?] An Expedition to Melville Bay and North-East Baffin Land,"

Geog. Journ ., Vol.86, N.4, Oct. 1935.

----. "An Expedition to North West Greenland and the Canadian Arctic in 1937,"

Geog. Journ ., Vol.92, N.5, Nov. 1938.

----. "The North West Passage since the last Franklin Expedition," Geog.Journ. ,

No.106, Nov-Dec. 1945.

       

J. M. Scott