NINNIS (BELGRAVE EDWARD SUTTON) - AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1911 Series of three manuscript journals kept by Second Lieutenant Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis, Royal Fusiliers, prior to and during Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911, dating from March 1908 to November 1912, written in lined ledgers, comprising: Volume One (1908-1910): titled 'A subaltern officers 'grouse' book', daily entries beginning with his commission into the Royal Fusiliers and arrival in Cape Town, describing life in camp including parades, training drills and manoeuvres, sports, entertainments ('...the usual uneventful day... Bored to distraction...'), his sweetheart ('Sweetie'), etc., transfer to Mauritius, much on news of forthcoming Antarctic expeditions and his attempts to join one, interspersed with two line drawings, five photographs and press cuttings; the last 12 leaves reversed with c.25 items of correspondence affixed relating to Ninnis' attempts to join Scott's and Shackleton's expeditions, including typed letter signed ('E.H. Shackleton'), August 1909 ('...I have no intention of going on another expedition for some time to come...'), letters from Francis Drake (1910 Antarctic Expedition) and the Royal Geographical Society, autograph letter signed ('Clements Markham'), agreeing to speak to Scott on his behalf ('...you might make an assistant to Dr Wilson... Your father is an old friend of mine. I went with the 1875 expedition...'), 9 October 1909, autograph letter signed ('Edward A. Wilson') considering his application, December 1909, Scott's final decision sent to Ninnis' father ('...he is unable to include your son...'), series from the War Office giving him leave to join Shackleton's expedition, with telegrams and ephemera (printed visitor pass to the Terra Nova), all pieces annotated by Ninnis, 345 numbered pages plus stepped index at front, dust-staining and marks, one leaf detached, marbled ends, half roan, worn, folio (324 x 202mm.), South Africa, Mauritius, London, 11 June 1908 to 2 April 1910 Volume Two (1910-1912): daily entries beginning 5 November 1910, beginning with his inclusion on Mawson's expedition ('...a veritable Red Letter day...'), taking a surveying course, discussion of potential ships ('...if it can possibly be done, to try and get hold of the old 'Discovery'...'), that they will take a biplane ('...unholy excitement...'), on Amundsen's plans ('...seems an impossibility...'), lunch with Anna Pavlova and showing her round the Aurora, much on final preparations ('...Dads experience in small ships, and in the Arctic Expedition, is invaluable...'), final goodbyes and the voyage, noting daily weather conditions and ship's position, naming and looking after the dogs ('...a fatigue in more senses than one...'), conditions on board ('...all those dogs... the coal on deck... vaste [sic] number of flies... accumulated indescribable filth...'), the monotony of the journey, painting and maintaining the ship ('...with the energy and zeal of Royal Academicians...'), stopover in Hobart (dogs and preparations, kit, provisions, delivery of sledge flag, etc.), set sail for the Antarctic on the Toroa, rough seas and dropping off the Macquarie Island party, erecting wireless lines, charmed by penguins ('...extraordinarily funny...'), Christmas Day ('...I expect next Christmas we shall be sledging...'), Wild's plans to attempt the Pole should Scott and Amundsen fail, sighting icebergs ('...the most beautiful cobalt blue... we stand for hours...') and an ice barrier '...never before seen by man...', landing at Commonwealth Bay, the departure of the Aurora, moving into Winter Quarters, building the hut in a blizzard ('...among the beams of the roof with the wind simply cutting through us... a hell of a job...'), much on everyday routine ('...Life is very pleasant despite uninterrupted hard work...'), meals ('...I get a bit of blubber somehow... the taste lingers in the mouth for the rest of the meal...'), and pastimes ('...splendid collection of records...'), the landscape ('...I defy any one to be quite the same again...'), Inauguration Day ('...Hurley cinematographs the scene... We have formally added our newly discovered land to the list of British possessions, and one more blot of red will be added to the map...') and dinner ('...the strawberry ice pudding would not freeze! Surely the only thing in Adelie Land to exhibit this noteworthy peculiarity...'), much on the dogs and their characters, their illnesses, deaths and puppies, the idiosyncrasies of his fellows, noting Hurley photographing a '...ripping ice cave by the sea...' and '...our faces coated with ice...', blizzard conditions and digging out tunnels to connect the huts, and much else; illustrated with a manuscript plan of the wardroom of the Aurora and map of Boat Harbour, interspersed with press cuttings, several announcing his appointment; schedule of addresses and dates at front; each of the three last leaves with the signatures of the expedition members headed by 'Douglas Mawson', weather observations on back free endpapers reversed, 424 numbered pages, dust-staining and marks, marbled ends, half roan, worn, folio (318 x 202mm.), London, voyage to the Antarctic, Hobart, Commonwealth Bay, Winter Quarters at Cape Denison, Adélie Land, 5 November 1910 to 18 April 1912 Volume Three (1911-1912): titled 'Winter quarters of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911- Commonwealth Bay/ Adelie Land/ Antarctica', daily entries beginning 19 April, continuing in the same vein, on the weather, arrival of puppies, frostbite, various birthday celebrations ('...a ripping meal...'), on Mertz ('...impossible to exaggerate my admiration for him...'), the aurora ('...flickering and chasing one another hither and thither...'), much on training dogs to the sledge and making harnesses, Midwinter Day celebrations ('...All don our white quilted cardigans... Dinner is magnificent...'), his 25th birthday ('...one of my greatest ambitions at last satisfied...'), Mawson reading the South Polar Times ('...produced on Scott's first expedition...'), preparing sledging kit ('...making a collar of 'japara' (a kind of very closely woven wind proof calico with which we patch our Burberries)...'), much technical information on sledges, equipment etc. ('...the polished runner sledge runs ten times as easily...'), foray with Mertz carrying stores to 'Aladdins Cave' ('...no expedition would have thought of departing in such a wind, but for us it was comparatively light...'), dealing with starving dogs left at Greely Camp, 'man-hauling' provisions (Mertz saving their ginger nuts from an upturned sledge '...crawling carefully but greedily out over the crevasse to recover them...'), the return of the Western Party ('...Vociferous cheers were exchanged...'), putting on a show ('...funnier that anything I have ever seen...'), a wireless mast destroyed by the wind ('...as if struck by lightning...', the page headed 'Wind 202 to 250 miles an hour' in large letters), Mawson's announcement of the sledging programme, more preparations, his last entry on 9 November ('...We and the Southern Party leave tomorrow. I must close my writing now, maybe for two months, maybe for good and all... I hope we shall pull through all right and join up with the 'Terra Nova' farthest; now I will stop...'); including photograph of the crew in their hut ('My bunk marked East End') probably taken by Hurley, and ephemera from Ninnis' birthday celebrations affixed including signed notes from the crew, home-made flag 'Birthday Greetings/ Nin/ 22/6/12' ('The decoration on the cherry pie'); ownership inscription ('B.E.S. Ninni For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing