Letter from Lionel Hooke to Mrs Jack
Author
Sir Lionel Hooke
(Australian, 1895 - 1974)
Date2 May 1916
Object number00055430
NameLetter
Mediumpaper
DimensionsOverall (page measurements): 260 × 202 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from Maria Teresa Hooke OAM and her sons John Max and Paolo in memory of John Hooke CBE and Sir Lionel Hooke
DescriptionA letter from Lionel Hooke to Mrs Jack, mother of expeditioner Andrew ‘Keith’ Jack, who was on board the SY AURORA during its Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition. Jack was an Australian physicist in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Atlantic Imperial Expedition who had been abandoned at McMurdo Sound when the AURORA broke it’s mooring and drifted for nine months in an ice flow. It was later repaired in New Zealand and returned to rescue the seven survivors, including Jack.
In the letter, dated 2 May 1916, Hooke describes how the expedition is going, how are they obtaining supplies and the morale of the rescue expedition.
HistoryHooke wrote this letter to 'Keith' Jack's mother to ally her fears of Jack's welfare after he was marooned on the ice with nine others when AURORA tore its moorings.
Hooke and Jack had been sledging partners. Jack had not yet returned from a sledging trek at the time of the dislocation. Hooke outlines the status of the expedition supplies as 'ample stores in addition to seal meat', 'seal blubber' for fuel, and her son Keith's welfare. With the company of 'splendid fellows', 'a gramophone and splendid selection of records', despite the shortage of clothes there is 'no occasion for worry' he reassured.
At that time AURORA was in dry-dock in Port Chalmers (Dunedin) NZ under repair in preparation for the Relief voyage to the Ross Sea in the summer of 1916/17. Lionel Hooke was not on the Relief Voyage. He sailed to England to enlist in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve amid tensions over the command of the Relief voyage between the funding parties - the governments of Australia, Britain and New Zealand. Stenhouse was dismissed and the highly experienced Antarctic veteran John King Davis appointed commander, with Shackleton as a supernumerary.
AURORA reached McMurdo Sound in January 1917. Of the ten men marooned, only seven survived the ordeal, including Andrew Keith Jack.
SignificanceThis letter from Sir Lionel Hooke to Mrs Jack, the mother of a fellow Melbournian expeditioner physicist Andrew Keith Jack is an important first-hand account of the pivotal events on the Imperial Trans- Antarctic expedition when the SY AURORA broke its moorings on 6 may 1915. In it he outlines the state of expedition supplies and morale. It is also important as a reflection of the effects of isolation of expeditioners on family and friends eager for news about their loved ones.Only a few weeks before AURORA had arrived safely in Port Chalmers (Dunedin) on New Zealand's South Island after 11 months imperilled in ice. When Hooke wrote this letter the vessel was under repair and negotiations were underway to organise the relief voyage to pick-up the ten men left behind on Ross Island, including Keith Jack.
