I thought when I saw the Catlin expedition and their faked biotelemetry on their website I had seen the epitome of stupid when it comes to polar publicity stunts. I was wrong.
Enter the new candidate:
Not only is it pointless, but misleading to nearly (see update below) the point of pushing a lie with the expedition name. Why?
Well you see they know they can’t make it to the real north pole at 90N, 0W, since there will be a formidable ice pack they won’t be able to row through. So what do they do? They aim for the magnetic pole and will tweet some caterwauling about the northwest passage being open (maybe) along the way.
Look at the proposed route:
I had to laugh though, when I clicked “The science” link on the homepage and read what the scientific justification was. Its as if nobody ever took salinity and temperature measurements in the Arctic before. Here’s what they say:
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A chance for gathering ‘world first’ data
The extreme weather conditions and its remoteness make field research in the Arctic difficult, so chances to gather data are relatively rare. That is why The Old Pulteney Row To The Pole voyage provides a vital opportunity to conduct much needed research.
David Mans, one of the crew, is an oceanographer and he will be leading the science programme to capture data on the open water crossed during the expedition. This will be first data captured from these waters and will provide a base line for all future studies.
Using specialist equipment, David will be measuring the salinity and temperature of the water at different depths. This data will then be sent to the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton where it will help researchers piece together a more detailed picture of the changing Arctic.
Once processed, the data will be useful for modellers seeking to project the pace and pattern of changes which are likely to occur in the future: not only in the Arctic, but in other parts of the world.
How the research will be undertaken?
- Data will be collected every 10 nautical miles throughout the voyage.
- A small probe, is lowered into the water down to a depth of 50 metres
- The probe will be lowered over the side around 8 times a day
- The probe will measure the conductivity, temperature and depth levels of the water
- The probe’s readings will be recorded along with the exact location from the vessel’s GPS system at each sampling position
- Boat GPS system accurately
records the location.
- The probe is lowered over the side of the boat
on a line released from a drum.
- As the probe descends it measures the conductance of the water,
indicating salinity and records the water temperature at each depth.
- The probe can take measurements every few metres
down to 50 metres or more.
With temperatures down to minus 15 degrees Centigrade, this will be hard and sometimes painful work to undertake as wet equipment in these temperatures can quickly freeze over.
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Gosh, “data useful for modelers”. And how do they reconcile this statement on the science page:
With temperatures down to minus 15 degrees Centigrade, this will be hard and sometimes painful work to undertake as wet equipment in these temperatures can quickly freeze over.
With this one at the top of the very same science page:
This once ice locked destination is going through rapid change as Global warming brings a great thaw to the region.
Hmmm. Too much Old Pulteney when they wrote this?
With the ‘world first’ data, I suppose this means the data gathered by NOAA drifting buoys and webcams since 2002 aren’t useful for modelers?
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/gallery_np.html
They actually start at the true North pole and relay thousands of data points as opposed to the few hundred points at best the row boaters might gather on the way to the magnetic pole.
In fact, there’s a whole bunch of satellite linked buoys in the Arctic operated by the US Military via the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory:
They measure data at depth too.
And then there’s the International Arctic Buoy Programme, which has a number of satellite linked buoys measuring sea water temperature and salinity, much closer to the actual North Pole:
So when the rowboat guys say:
A chance for gathering ‘world first’ data
I have to wonder what the “world first” aspect of the data is. It might be they mean this:
“Worlds first Arctic data gathered by a bunch of guys in a rowboat on a publicity stunt”
In case anybody thinks this isn’t a publicity stunt, meet the sponsor showcased on this page, http://www.rowtothepole.com/the-whisky/ Old Pulteney:
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UPDATE: I didn’t see this, because I was focused on the route map, but our sharp readers did. Not only is the expedition pointless, it’s now an outright lie. They aren’t even going to the North Magnetic Pole!
Under the route map, they say this:
The expedition to the Magnetic North Pole (as certified in 1996) will set off from Resolute Bay in July/August 2011, the crew plan to row for 450 miles before finally reaching the Magnetic North Pole at 78 degrees, 35.724 minutes North, 104 degrees, 11.915 minutes West.
From Wikipedia:
The Canadian government has made several measurements since, which show that the North Magnetic Pole is moving continually northwestward. In 1996 an expedition certified its location by magnetometer and theodolite at
78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W / 78.595°N 104.1983°W / 78.595; -104.1983 (Magnetic North Pole 1996).[8] Its estimated 2005 position was
Even drunken sailors could get closer than this:
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Pamela Gray says:
I have never understood the idea of putting water in with the alcohol. Mixed drinks yes, but why water down the whiskey when all you want is whiskey?
When you’re talking your typical bottle of Scotch or Irish Whiskey, I’m with you. However, a LITTLE water is good for cask strength – just a touch, to open it up some. It improves the aroma & flavor (as I understand it, it helps release some of the volatile esters – not quite sure of the mechanism)
Bourbon, which is another world entirely, benefits greatly from chilling IMO – thus, it’s good ‘on the rocks’. But I would never think to do that to good Scotch / Irish whiskey.
I think this is heading a bit OT, and I need to stop at the store on the way home 🙂
This has perhaps already been remarked, but where they’re going isn’t far from the 1996 location 78.595N, 104.198W (dixit Wiki).
Must also point out that the boat is designed so that it can be manually pulled over the ice. So in theory they could just tow the thing all the way
Check out the picture
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jun/12/rowing-to-magnetic-north-pole
The four man pull
And just less than a week since NASA sent up the Aquarius satellite. The key instrument, will study ocean salinity, the concentration of dissolved salt on the surface of the sea.
From Delingpole’s latest column on the 10 Reason to Be Cheerful About the Coming New Ice Age
“3. As the starving polar bears march southward on the new sheet ice now extending from the North Pole to Gibraltar, desperate citizens will be forced to make tough decisions about which sacrificial victim should be fed next to the ravening beasts so that they leave the rest of us alone. ”
I think we have some new candidates who are being quite proactive.
http://www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/oldpulteneyiceboat.htm
The only thing “new”or “groundbreaking” about this farce that I could find on the website is the construction of the boat, and even that isn’t that new. Clearly a publicity stunt by a second class distiller…
So – should a hungry poley bear see them as nice, easy dinner, would they feel forced to shoot that bear in self defense
—
Given the background of these guys, I would be surprised if they even owned a gun. If they did happen to bring one along, I suspect that if they do try to fire it, they would pose more of a danger to each other and their boat, than they do the polar bear.
RE: Ben H says:
June 15, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I see in the photo that they are all in T-shirts so I don’t think their equipment is going freeze too soon?!
=======================================================
It’s hard to tell from the photo exactly where they were rowing when the photo was taken. However based on the s___ brown flat water my guess would be the mouth of the Thames.
Does this, or does this not, beg for a poll??
.
Earnest Shackleton must indeed be turning over in his grave…
His mission was audacious on a scale not imagined by “modern” explorers – to sail to the coast of Antarctica, then trek to the South Pole and return, leaving caches of provisions for another expedition that would start the crossing from the opposite side. Oh yes, and then sail home through the ice – after two plus years of being trapped in the ice, watching their ship smashed, trekking many miles to find open water towing their lifeboats over the ice, eating their dogs and finally sailing to a rocky outcropping on Elephant Island, whereupon Shackelton and a selected crew set out to sail to South Georgia Island, 800 miles by dead reckoning across the Antarctic Ocean in a twenty-something foot boat. Upon reaching the island, they were forced to trek across a glacier in the middle of the island to reach the whaling station. Shackleton later returned to Elephant Island with a rescue expedition and all – that is ALL of the men who started with him survived. They just don’t make them like that any more.
Excellent story and pics here: http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/Ernest%20Shackleton_Trans-Antarctic_expedition3.htm
Just in case you thought crossing the Antarctic Ocean in a small sailboat was easy, consider this:
On may 5th, the eleventh day out at sea, the sea became much rougher, Shackleton was at the tiller:
“I called to the other men that the sky was clearing, and then a moment later I realized that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave.
During twenty-six years’ experience of the ocean in all its moods I had not encountered a wave so gigantic.
It was a mighty upheaval of the ocean, a thing quite apart from the big white-capped seas that had been our tireless enemies for many days. I shouted ‘For God’s sake, hold on! It’s got us.’ Then came a moment of suspense that seemed drawn out into hours. White surged the foam of the breaking sea around us. We felt our boat lifted and flung forward like a cork in breaking surf. We were in a seething chaos of tortured water; but somehow the boat lived through it, half full of water, sagging to the dead weight and shuddering under the blow. We baled with the energy of men fighting for life, flinging the water over the sides with every receptacle that came to our hands, and after ten minutes of uncertainty we felt the boat renew her life beneath us”
So I say, let the Old Pulteney guys just drive up there in a Volvo with the guys from Top Gear and not embarrass the good name of men with real balls.
” sophocles said: ‘The end of a magnet which points (roughly) north is historically known as the ‘north pole’ of the magnet, and the other end is known as the magnet’s “south pole”. Because opposite poles attract, the Earth’s South Magnetic Pole is physically actually a Magnetic North Pole. This means the ‘Row to the North Pole’ crew are really rowing to the Magnetic South Pole which is the magnetic pole in the North instead of the Magnetic North Pole which is in the South.’
DCC says:
I’ll have to ask you for a reference for that. I had always assumed that a magnetized compass arrow took all that into account. IOW, the south pole of the arrow is the one pointing north.
Nope. The magnet ends were known and named hundreds of years before the magnetic field was understood (sic).
You can look here:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/magnetic/elemag.html
for a succinct summary, and of course (if you feel you can trust it) there’s always the wikipedia entries on magnetism, bar magnets, magnetic poles and the Earth’s Magnetic Poles. Lots of textbooks (elementary physics) in your local library you can check, too.
Magnets were originally known as “lodestones” before they were known as magnets. The compass was developed hundreds of years ago, long before magnetism was understood. Lodestone was regarded as magical because one end of a needle made from it always pointed roughly North. When the polarised nature of it was discovered, the end pointing north was called the North Pole (‘cos it always pointed North) and the other end was called the South Pole (coz it always pointed South). Like poles were discovered to repel and unlike poles were discovered to attract. Once the magnetic field of a bar magnet was discovered, the planetary magnetic field and the planetary magnetic poles were deduced from these physical facts, and their positions calculated before anyone went to find them. The actual polarity of the planetary poles is, therefore, obvious.
Mark Wilson says @ur momisugly june 16, 2011 at 9:57 am “Don’t beat yourself up too badly. We have our share of idiots on this side of the pond as well. Just look at Moderate Republican.”
Now Mark, that sure sounds like a personal attack. It certainly doesn’t have any science content…
Moderate Republican was full of angry bile, repeatedly telling everyone he disagreed with that they were “wrong.”
Then he got put in his place by Anthony and gota time out by the moderator, and now he’s all kissy-face and polite. He brings to mind the Eric Hoffer quote:
“People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.”
@biddyb
‘I was just wondering whether it was safe to go swimming in the waters around the UK anymore as it is probably so acid it’ll burn off my swimming costume but I suppose it’ll be good to have a skin peel at my age – cheaper than going to a beauty parlour.’
Rest assured that no matter how much the alarmists squeal about ‘acidification’ (correct term = neutralisation), the waters of the ocean will remain resolutely alkaline. There just isn’t enough CO2 – nor ever can be – to turn them acidic. Currently seawater everywhere is mildly alkaline. In the future it may be even slightly less alkaline.
Do not allow the alarmists to fool you with unsicentific scare stories about ‘acidification’.
But you’ll probably have to save your pennies for that beauty parlour……. ;-(
Salinity varies all over the map depending. On the year and time of year. You can drinkk the water from the surface layer during the melt period. This year’s will be different than last’s
Areas of open water are no new thing, this is an article from the NYT August 12th 1905 about just that, from the Ziegler Polar expedition and its rescue in 1905, note the bit about finding “much open water.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=2&res=9A00E0D61738EF32A25751C1A96E9C946497D6CF&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
They are going to take readings every 10 miles and take 8 readings a day. If math still works the way it did when I was in school, that comes out to 80 miles per day in a rowboat. Bravo for them. I hate to invoke my own name, but they sound like future recipients of the Darwin Award
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Nuff Said
PhilinCalifornia @ur momisugly 8.07
I have noticed the same thing on flights. Nobody bothered to look at the Maldives as we flew over them a year or two back; I think the cabin crew thought I was mad for being glued to the window watching them. The same again when flying over Greenland and NE Canada; the snow and ice seemed to go on forever…just wonderful. The same when flying along the Iranian mountains in February…miles and miles of beautiful snowy mountains. What was everyone else doing?…watching a dreary old movie or dozing!
Interviewed on CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/06/15/exp.nr.rowing.north.pole.cnn?iref=allsearch
“Adventurer Jock Wishart discusses the dangers he will face trying to be the first to row a boat to the North Pole”
Whilst I am a bid advocate of free speech I think you guys should cut this crew some slack. May be a little appreciation that what they are trying to achieve wouldn’t go amiss – not so much the science but the adventurous spirit and pioneering go get it attitude. If the world was full of synods it would be a much less interesting, not to mention far less progressive place and I for one admire their courage and determination to push the boundaries of exploration and physical achievement. I wish them luck and will follow their progress with pride as they attempt to get to a position they have clearly stated is not the modern day mag north pole…a fact that appears lost on some of you
Anthony – you and your rather sad family of followers have got way too much time on your hands.Get off your backside and go and do something of some benefit, instead of merely criticisng others who are trying to make the most of their lives.
I actually cannot be bothered to find out what the magnetic north pole is now, BUT it has been shown that it has shifted by a small number of degrees since the earthquake in Japan. (I don’t know how that is possible, but some scientists far cleverer than me claim this to be the case). Is it possible that this shift accounts for how the co-ordinates that this mission is aiming for seems not to tie in with your data which is at its most recent, from 6 years ago?
Sensible discussion aside, I really do have to laugh at the audacity that you have to slate this mission. The men involved may have an aim that you don’t see the point of but you have no right to call it a “publicity stunt”. They will be risking their lives doing this.
[Snip. ~dbs, mod.]
Oh finally, as a “scientist” I’m sure even you can appreciate that the POLE of the planet is called so because of the location of the magnetic north & south POLES of the planet. So you’re comment that they are lying because they are aiming for the magnetic and not the geographic pole is totally inaccurate.