During the last three days, Latin American historians of the Antarctic have gathered in the virtual space to share their work and during the first day, a short homage was paid to Santiago M. Comerci, a historian of Antarctica from the Argentine Antarctic Institute who left this world on August 21 this year, at the age of 97.
The Swedish reader might ask: who is Santiago Comerci and why would he appear on Melting History? The answer is: Comerci is one of these few men thanks to whom the Snow Hill Hut still stands. Without him and Ricardo Capdevila, the ice would probably have cracked the building from the inside long before CHAQ got there.
Argentina claimed the hut in 1954 and Argentine Navy visited Snow Hill even in the 1970s, but the building was a pack of ice and remained so until Comerci, the then head of the Museum division of the Argentine Antarctic Institute, and his team of two experienced military officers as logistic support, arrived here on February 4th, 1980. The house was so full of ice that the door could not be opened and the first job consisted in smuggling in a pick-axe from the barely 20-cm door opening and secure the access to the building. By the way, not being covered in ice from inside is something new for the building: also José Maria Sobral talks about the ice sheet on the ceiling and walls which on warmer days melted a pool into his bunk bed….
1980 was a year of vicious weather and the work days were few. When the skies cleared in February 22, the men were picked up by high functionaries of the Argentine military junta of the time. A large number of objects was removed from the hut for their display and conservation in Buenos Aires. Next year, Comerci returned, and this time they managed to clean the whole house and took back even more objects. For years to come, his work on Snow Hill was followed by Ricardo Capdevila who continued with recovering the walls with tar paper, reinforcing the hillside and other works. Inventory of the Esperanza Hut made by Comerci in 1978-79 served as a bases for Capdevila’s later works at Esperanza Bay. The conditions of this work were often climatically very severe and materials scarce - not at all comparable to the comforts of the 21st century museum laboratories.
Comerci would continue as the director of Museoantar - the museum section of the Argentine Antarctic Institute - until 1996 and continued to actively write Antarctic history for many years into his retirement.
Below you can watch a short homage to Santiago M Comerci, compiled by Pablo Fontana from the Argentine Antarctic Institute. You will also see some of the objects recovered by Comerci during these first years on Snow Hill (Cerro Nevado).
