Shackleton and the Edeophone.

[Robin Harrison]

I recall decades ago reading a book about Shackleton's journey to antarctica that referenced an English concertina and that it was an Edeophone.

           This morning a friend sent me this link to the BBC New magazine website......................and there it is on the shelf, above the picture of a penguin, image 5/15. Somewhat blurry but probably the metal-ended edeophone.

         Here is the link.....................reference was made recently on C.net to not posting links here..............I don't know a way of letting you know about this without giving the link.     If anyone else can, that would be great.

Robin

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34856379?fbclid=IwAR2wJ-oFJm_J3FoWACTPZnMdvIKGbniz2DEkM5IFIYVJ3d392-M6lF0qpSc

[Don Taylor]

 

 

 

Robin:

 

This picture?  Maybe two concertinas on the shelf?  (I just right clicked on the image, copied it's address and then pasted it into this post).

 

Parks Canada are investigating the Franklin wrecks and I was quite excited to read that they had found the remains of an 'accordion'.  I was hoping for a picture of it to be published, maybe it was a concertina but, so far, no picture has been published.  I should write to them.

 

The admonition was against posting anonymous links (like bitly links) with no explanation.  Your link would have been OK except that the actual url in your link sends the reader back to your own post.   The text in your link was to the BBC site but hidden inside is a self-referential link.  Pretty sneaky!

 

Don.

Edited March 8, 2020 by Don Taylor
Changed from an image insert to a link to the original BBC page

[Roger Hare]

I wonder if this could be the 'furthest South' record for a free-reed instrument?

 

Amazing picture - I presume it was taken on the 'Endurance'. There seems to be a boomerang

in there too, and I wonder if Carson's Dessert Chocolate and Yost typewriters are still available?

 

I guess the photographer must have been Frank Hurley.

 

There are a few of his photographs on the SPRI website, but I couldn't see any more 'interiors'

like this one. National Library of Australia also have photographs by Hurley, I haven't searched

this site.

Edited March 8, 2020 by lachenal74693

[John Wild]

In "South", the story of the loss of the Endurance:-  "The whole of the after part of the ship had been crushed concertina fashion."

[Theo]

Here is the link to the original BBC page https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34856379

[RAc]

which of the three objects North of the Penguin picture are we referring to? The rightmost one to me looks more like the bottom of a bottle. Or the two rightmost objects together could be visible parts of a vase or similar objct (see zoomed in attachment). The leftmost one to me is way too blurry to be doubtlessly identifiable as a concertina... but maybe someone has better tools to recover the details?

 

Edited March 8, 2020 by RAc

[Geoffrey Crabb]

I agree with RAc, very doubtful if any of those objects are concertinas.

Search ‘Shackleton‘ at concertina.com  to show a picture of three sailors aboard ‘Endurance’

possibly with the Lachenal English Edeophone in question.

Picture not reproduced here to respect copyright.

 

Geoff

[RAc]

34 minutes ago, Geoffrey Crabb said:

I agree with RAc, very doubtful if any of those objects are concertinas.

Search ‘Shackleton‘ at concertina.com  to show a picture of three sailors aboard ‘Endurance’

possibly with the Lachenal English Edeophone in question.

Picture not reproduced here to respect copyright.

 

Geoff

 

Thanks for the hint, Geoffrey... I just can't resist quoting the picture subtitle: "with a captive specimen held on deck." Given that the concertina is in the centre of the picture, the obvious question that comes to mind is where they captured it...

 

[wunks]

The object on the left looks like the "Pokey Little Puppy" either stuffed or in glazed ceramic.....?

[scoopet]

It looks like the sailors are holding a treble English edeophone. I wonder where that is now. Would be  amazing provenance........

    The only thing from the Antarctic I own is a stuffed rockhopper penguin.....!

 

[Bill N]

A colleague of mine was part of an international team of conservators who volunteered with the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust to conserve the turn-of-the-century exploration buildings, including Shackleton's 1907 expedition hut.  They were left furnished and stocked with supplies when the explorers left for home (or in some cases didn't), and the trust is conserving the buildings and contents in situ, just as they were left. I'll ask her if there was a concertina, although that's likely something that would have been carried back home.

[Anglo-Irishman]

What usually springs to mind when the Shackleton Expedition and Music are mentioned in one breath is Hussey's banjo. The expedition's meteorologist Leonard Hussey owned a Windsor zither-banjo, and used it to entertain the crew. Legend has it that, when each man was ordered to leave all personal belongings in excess of 2 lb behind for the foot march to the open water, Shakelton expressly ordered Hussey to take his banjo with him, because it would be a "vital mental tonic" for the men in the ordeal ahead of them.

(The lighter of my two Windsor zither-banjos, which is similar to Hussey's, is over 2.5 Kg without its case.)

A banjo believed to have been Hussey's Antarctic instrument still exists, and is kept in the Maritime Museum (see article)

 

Cheers,

John

 

[jdms]

On 3/8/2020 at 1:57 PM, wunks said:

The object on the left looks like the "Pokey Little Puppy" either stuffed or in glazed ceramic.....?

 

So it does.  This is what happens if you persist in digging holes under fences.

[Dan Worrall]

The photo of the Lachenal on board the Endurance has come up before on the Forum. The photo itself is on page 305 of my Anglo-German Concertina, A Social History, Volume 1, which can be read free on GoogleBooks. 

The concertina apparently never made it to Antarctica. Here from 2005, in a thread called "Concertinas and Sea Music," is what mikebmcnamara posted about it. It would seem that the original source material, with notes on the back of the photo, has disappeared, so we'll have to take mike at his word:
**********************************************************

Posted January 15, 2005

Re: Shackleton's Endurance Expedition and Concertina

 

Some time ago I came across a picture of four sailors on Endurance.

It was in the Hulton Archive, now part of Getty. I did a quick search today, and the picture was not returned. Don't know where it went.

I have the picture on my computer, but an unsure of my ability to share it

(copyright?). I will work further to find it again, and share info if I do find it.

 

One of the sailors had what looks to me like a 12 sided English concertina.

When I originally found the picture, there was information about the subjects, and the man who was listed as holding the concertina was discharged from the ship (with three others) in Argentina (for cause). Thus, he (and likely his concertina) did not accompany the expedition to South Georgia, the Weddell Sea, crushing, sinking, living on the ice, Elephant Island, etc.

 

There was a meteorologist named Hussey who played the banjo, and Shackleton

allowed him to keep it throughout the ordeal. The banjo playing is often mentioned as a morale booster in the accounts of the expedition. The banjo has survived, and I have seen it as part of Polar Exploration exhibits.

 

I have also read that Shackleton played the concertina (per The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music) , but have found no mention of it in any of my other readings

about him.

Posted January 15, 2005

Re: Concertina, Shackleton, Endurance

 

I was able to find the picture.

 

You need to go to

 

http://gettyimages.com

 

select editorial, then archival.

 

You'll have to register, no cost. Search for Image #3252971

 

(If you search for endurance, then people, then uniform you'll get there)

 

Good Luck, and enjoy the picture

**************************************************

 

[malcolm clapp]

Post regarding Lt Ninnis of the Mawson expedition deleted by request

 

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by malcolm clapp
Post deleted by request