2017 Julian Davey from Cumbria, UK spotted an ESSE Fairy (circa 1930) during an expedition to Detaille Island in the Antarctic.
ESSE has a long-standing association with British exploration of Antarctica. Both Scott and Shackleton relied upon ESSE heating products for their pioneering expeditions and many of these cookstoves remain at various bases across the continent.
A team from the British Antarctic Survey recently returned from a visit to Rothera Research Station, Antarctica, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, and found ESSE cook stoves still in situ at Port Lockroy and Deception Island.
The temperature in Northern Antarctica hovers around 0˚C in December - and that’s in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere Summer!
John Hamilton, purser on the icebreaking research and supply vessel RRS James Clark Ross said: "I thought it was amazing that British Engineering helped British science and environmental studies in such far-off places. In these hostile environments, where everything else disintegrates, the stove remains."
A couple of thousand miles to the west on this huge landmass, the stove chimney at Shackleton’s Base at Cape Royds is actually visible on Google Streetview (simply key in ‘Shackleton’s Hut, Antarctica. There’s no postcode…) and there are more images here.
If you spot an ESSE whilst on your travels, please capture a photograph and send it to us through social media @ESSE1854 or email to enquiries@esse.com.
2 май 2024
