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Re: Cape Belsham, At Last!!
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2017 Feb 15, 09:52 -0500
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2017 Feb 15, 09:52 -0500
David
I noticed the same thing, but we must take Worsley at his word. He states that he assumed his position from Nordenskjold's chartlet. Of course, that's just my opinion. The evidence at this point is fairly strong. We have the chart Worsley claimed to use.
You asked
how did Shackleton/Worsley know that the Cape they had come ashore next to was called Cape Belsham.
That has been my question for many years now. To ask it one more time, Which pile of rocks was Cape Belsham, it's not as if there was a sign post on the island.
My current answer to that, subject to change by new evidence, is simply that they didn't. Just as Worsley assumed his position, he assumed that the next peninsula over was Cape Belsham.
The maps from 1822 through 1912, to include Nordenskjold's map of 1901, are uniformly atrocious. The best statement that Worsley could have made is that Cape Valentine is the eastern most point and Cape Belsham is the northern most point, yet he would have to have had access to an extraordinary library of Elephant Island facts. A place he never intended to visit.
Brad
On Feb 15, 2017 7:20 AM, "David C" <NoReply_DavidC@fer3.com> wrote:
I interpret Worsley's shorthand to be forNordenskjold, Otto: "Antarctica: Or Two Years Amongst the Ice of the South Pole", 1901There is a copy of this online. I searched Nordenskjold's Book for any references to Elephant Island, Cape Belsham and any charts. Findings1) No references to Cape Belsham2) One reference to Elephant Island, page 415 (the index has this as 416, not significant). That reference indicates that they could see Elephant Island in the distance, but did not visit it.3) There IS one chart which included Elephant Island. I have attached the entire chart and the Elephant Island Detail.Unfortunately finding Nordensjold's book creates another question. Given the inaccurate, small scale map of Elephant Island how did Shackleton/Worsley know that the Cape they had come ashore next to was called Cape Belsham? This suggests to me that Belsham was mentioned in other books. These other books may not have contained any charts.
