Bay Harbour: August 02, 2023

Bay Harbour News Wednesday August 2 2023
16
TREASURES FROM THE PAST
Seaman’s tragic end aboard
Captain Scott’s Discovery
ON DECEMBER 21, 1901, the
Discovery, commanded by
Captain Robert Falcon Scott,
departed Whakaraupō Lyttelton
Harbour on the 1901-04
National Antarctic Expedition.
Discovery was accompanied
by the steam tug Lyttelton to the
heads and by HMS Ringarooma
as far as Port Chalmers in
Ōtākou Otago Harbour.
Discovery was the first British
ship built specifically for a
scientific expedition, and for
Scott’s proposed attempt on the
South Pole. The three-masted
wooden barque with a length of
52.1m and weighing 485 tonnes,
she was constructed in 1901 by
Dundee Shipbuilders Company
in Scotland, with a solid hull and
iron clad bows intended to cope
with the immense pressures of
the Antarctic ice-fields.
After her journey from
England and on her arrival
at Ōhinehou Lyttelton, which
would be her base port for the
southern expedition, Discovery
entered dry dock. The evidently
less than seaworthy condition
of the rigging, deck and hold
(which had filled with nearly 2m
of seawater on the journey to
Aotearoa New Zealand) required
urgent attention. Crew from the
HMS Ringarooma, a Royal Navy
Pearl class cruiser and member
of the Auxiliary Squadron of
the Australia Station, were
seconded to the Discovery to get
her shipshape and ready for the
coming rigours. Note that the
photograph of the “Discovery”
in dry dock is from her return
in 1904, after nearly two years
frozen in the ice at McMurdo
Sound.
December 21, the day of
departure, was marked by
huge fanfare, with a large
crowd on the wharves and
many cheering enthusiasts
aboard steamers escorting the
vessel to the harbour mouth.
Once outside the heads HMS
Ringarooma, and accompanying
Royal Navy warship HMS
Lizard prepared for a hearty
naval acknowledgement as the
Discovery passed between them.
A sobering message relayed
from Captain Scott stopped such
celebratory actions: “Please do
not cheer; a man has been killed
by falling from aloft.”
London-born seaman Charles
Bonner, 23, had joined Discovery
in Cape Town. Purportedly a
skilled seaman and popular
among the crew, his outgoing
nature found him atop the
mainmast that day, a great
position from which to wave to
the excited well-wishers. Official
reports indicate a supporting
spindle may have given way
causing his fall, while anecdotal
ones cited he was compromised
from imbibing some celebratory
liquor, as he was seen waving a
bottle on his perch. Either way,
OCEAN: Discovery leaving
Lyttelton Harbour for
Antarctica on December
21, 1901. PHOTO: TE
ŪAKA THE LYTTELTON
MUSEUM REF.14985.40 /
HTTPS://WWW.TEUAKA.
ORG.NZ/ONLINE-
COLLECTION/1136047
BERTH: Discovery in dry
dock at Lyttelton Port in
1904. PHOTO: TE ŪAKA
THE LYTTELTON MUSEUM
REF.14945.1 / HTTPS://WWW.
TEUAKA.ORG.NZ/ON-
LINE-COLLECTION/1135856
as the ship entered the swell
of the open ocean he lost his
footing and fell 36.5m to the
deck, hitting his head on an iron
reel, which killed him instantly.
Poignantly, the tiny figure
of Bonner is just visible in the
crow’s nest in the image to the
left of Discovery departing the
harbour, with tug Lyttelton to its
left and HMS Ringarooma to its
right. The photograph was taken
just minutes before his death.
The tragic loss of the young
seaman affected the crew
deeply, especially his noncommissioned
fellows, and
created a melancholy mood for
the two-day journey to Port
Chalmers. Flags flew at half-mast
and Bonner’s body, wrapped in
canvas and the British ensign
as per naval custom, was laid
out atop a table on deck. Upon
arrival in Port Chalmers, his
body was transferred to a coffin
and gun carriage. Attended
by crew of both the Discovery
and Ringarooma, and with due
naval and civic ceremony, he was
interred in the Port Chalmers’
cemetery.
Before departing Port
Chalmers for the polar regions,
Scott funded the later erection of
a suitable memorial – a 3m high
marble obelisk on a bluestone
base, inscribed with the words:
“In memory of Charles Bonner,
A.B., of the Antarctic exploring
vessel ‘Discovery’, who died
21st December, 1901. Aged 23.
Erected by the captain, officers,
scientific staff, and crew of the
‘Discovery’.”
Bonner’s death necessitated
his replacement in the crew;
Scott chose a strong and skilled
Irish seaman by the name of
Thomas Crean, who would go
on to play significant roles in
both Scott’s ill-fated 1910 voyage
aboard the Terra Nova and
Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-
Antarctic Expedition aboard the
Endurance, which resulted in
one of the most epic Antarctic
survival journey’s of all time.
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