It is not only the Argentines who sent a rescue expedition - Sweden, too, sent out their boat that was supposed to collaborate with corvette Uruguay and carry out rescue works together. But Captain Irizar maintained that by October 25th, 1903, he had still not received a confirmation about the whereabouts of the Swedish rescue mission and as he was concerned for the time passing, he had decided to venture to South on their own, eventually rescuing the entire Nordenskjöld’s expedition. The Swedish were clearly not happy about not having anyone to rescue and were not treated particularly kindly after their return in Sweden. It was considered shameful that men from the warmer latitudes, who “had not seen ice anywhere other than in their cognac or whiskey glasses”, would have got there first.
The Swedish rescue expedition was the first one to arrive at Snow Hill after Nordenskjöld and his people had left. Their archival material is being kept in Sjöhistoriska museet (The Maritime Museum in Stockholm). Those who can read Swedish, can have a look at the great description of the expedition and its visual material prepared by Melissa Rydquist (Sjöhistoriska Museet) on Digital Museum platform. Even those who cannot read Swedish should take a look at the photographs, among them the first shots of the Snow Hill house as it was left behind, with boxes and wood laying around.
Klinckowström described the house as follows:
“Just below us laid a small pool filled with half-melted slush and there, behind it, just about a shot away from us, was winter station - silent, gloomy and abandoned. Scattered boxes, bottles and empty cans laid scattered in a mess all around the tiny house. Penguin bodies and seal heads were hanging on the walls and slight breeze brought a disgusting smell of seal oil and rotting flesh. And nowhere we looked, was there any sign of life. So it was late! Slowly we unstrapped our harnesses, left the sledge on the hill and ventured carefully over the glen, up towards the house. It looked even gloomier from a closer distance. The dark house, scattered cans, instrument stands - all seemed to tell us a horrible story of a heroic but fruitless battle against the overwhelming natural forces. We arrived at the house. Around the corner laid a dead dog - perhaps the last surviver. “
House as it looked like when Blom, Bergendahl and Klinckowström reached it on December 4, 1903. Fo276989, Sjöhistoriska museet.
“The door stood slightly open, so in we went - in to where the answer to the mystery was waiting us! A dark porch, half buried by snow. Then another door, also slightly open. We stood in the living room - small, low, cluttered with instruments and tools. One of us suddenly catches the sight of the table in the room. There, on the yellowish white wax cloth it is written: “The house was evacuated on 10th of November 1903 at 10.45 a.m. / Gösta Bodman, S.A Duse, K.A Andersson, E.Ekelöf, José M. Sobral.””
(Translated from the text quoted by Melissa Rydquist on Digitaltmuseum.se)
Photo of the wax cloth with the text. Sjöhistoriska museet, Fo277112.
CHAQ2020 thanks Melissa for this beautiful text and for mentioning CHAQ in its last paragraph!
