The Heroic Story of SY Aurora The Heroic Story of SY Aurora  

Frozen Witness: Aurora’s Polar Voyages brings to life the extraordinary story of a remarkable vessel– a timber whaling ship turned Antarctic explorer – whose legacy spans sealing, science, survival, and ultimate sacrifice.

Built in 1876 in Dundee, Scotland, the 580-ton SY Aurora was originally designed for Arctic whaling. But the ship’s destiny lay far to the south. Over four decades, Aurora became a silent witness to some of the most dramatic chapters in polar exploration, including the heroic expeditions of Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Aurora spent most of its life in the icy waters of Newfoundland and Greenland in the last decades of the seal and whale industry. One well documented voyage from Dundee in 1884 under Captain James Fairweather returned 28,000 seals for their fur and oil, a catch which foresaw the decline of the industry in the early 20th century.

But in 1911, the ageing vessel was purchased for £6,000 by John King Davis, Australian geologist and Antarctic veteran Sir Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE). Refitted in London and sailed to Hobart, Aurora carried scientists, supplies, and 40 Greenland huskies to the frozen continent.

Over three Antarctic voyages, Aurora supported the establishment of bases at Macquarie Island, Commonwealth Bay, and Queen Mary Land. The expedition’s achievements were immense: over 6,400 km of land explored, groundbreaking scientific discoveries, and 22 volumes of research reports. Yet tragedy struck when Mawson’s sledging companions perished, and he famously missed the departing Aurora by mere hours, surviving another harrowing winter before rescue.

In 1914, Aurora was again called to duty – this time as the Ross Sea supply ship for Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Under Aeneas Mackintosh, the Ross Sea party laid vital depots for a crossing that never came. Famously Shackleton’s Endurance was lost in the Weddell Sea, and on the other side of the continent, Aurora too became trapped in ice, drifting over 1,200 miles for nine months.

Miraculously, Aurora survived. Under First Officer Joseph Stenhouse, the ship reached New Zealand in 1916. After refitting, the veteran polar ship returned to Antarctica to rescue the stranded sledging party, bringing seven survivors home in early 1917. Three of the expedition’s men including its leader Aeneas Mackintosh had perished on the ice, laying depots for the crossing party who would never arrive.

On 20 June 1917, Aurora departed Newcastle, Australia, bound for Chile with a cargo of coal. The vessel did not make it. Theories abound – a mine, a collision, a storm – but the truth remains unknown. Only one relic was ever found: a lifebuoy, recovered months later, bearing the ghost lettering of her Antarctic voyages.

This lifebuoy, now a centrepiece of the Frozen Witness exhibition, is more than a maritime artifact. It is a symbol of the courage, sacrifice, and scientific ambition that defined an era of exploration. It also honours the 21 souls lost with Aurora – including its captain – whose story continues to inspire.

In the 1930s, the lifebuoy was presented to Sir Lionel Hooke, who had been a young wireless operator aboard Aurora during the Ross Sea expedition. His technical brilliance helped signal the ship’s survival during its ice-bound ordeal. Hooke would go on to lead Amalgamated Wireless Australasia (AWA) but never forgot the ship that shaped his early career.

Alongside the lifebuoy, this small exhibition features a selection of evocative objects and images from the National Maritime Collection, and other public collections, including Museums Victoria, Royal Australian Navy Heritage Collections, Canterbury Museum and the Maritime History Archive at the Memorial University of Newfoundland as well as early vision from the National Film and Sound Archive.

The exhibition is presented with the support of the great-grandchildren of one of SY Aurora’s early Arctic masters, Captain James Fairweather, in memory of their father James S Fairweather (1926-2015).

Senior Curator Daina Fletcher said, ‘This small exhibition features a selection of historic objects donated to the National Maritime Collection from family members which will thrill visitors through the drama, ambition, expertise and poignancy they embody. Overall, the story of this vessel, SY Aurora, touches lives and keynotes from the early history of Antarctic exploration and Australia’s part in it, in expeditions, especially that of Sir Douglas Mawson, which contributed to Australia’s territorial claim to more than 42% of the continent in the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.’

Frozen Witness: Aurora’s Polar Voyages invites visitors to rediscover this remarkable vessel and the people whose lives were entwined with it. Their story is one of endurance, innovation, and the power of the human spirit in the face of the unknown.