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| Sunderland student plots the Arctic's melting ice | Sunderland student plots the Arctic's melting ice |
| (8 days later) | |
| Sir Ranulph Fiennes' prudent withdrawal from Antarctica comes in the same week as the successful return from the Arctic of a student at Sunderland University, which has an interesting niche in Polar research. | Sir Ranulph Fiennes' prudent withdrawal from Antarctica comes in the same week as the successful return from the Arctic of a student at Sunderland University, which has an interesting niche in Polar research. |
| Matthew Ayre, who is 25 and from Tynemouth, has been working on ice melt, both contemporary and historical, on board the United States icebreaker Healy during a five week voyage in the Arctic Ocean. | Matthew Ayre, who is 25 and from Tynemouth, has been working on ice melt, both contemporary and historical, on board the United States icebreaker Healy during a five week voyage in the Arctic Ocean. |
| He got the billet because Sunderland has made a speciality of the study of captains' logs, or sea-going diaries, from whaling expeditions mounted from North Sea ports in England up to 250 years ago. These are now considered important to modern studies of climate change because of the detailed observations of ice and sea conditions made by men who were seldom academics but had immense practical experience. | He got the billet because Sunderland has made a speciality of the study of captains' logs, or sea-going diaries, from whaling expeditions mounted from North Sea ports in England up to 250 years ago. These are now considered important to modern studies of climate change because of the detailed observations of ice and sea conditions made by men who were seldom academics but had immense practical experience. |
| Ayre's work is part of the university's ARCdoc project which already has data from some of the most celebrated of the sea captains, including Sir William Parry's expeditions in HMS Hecla to the North West Passage and the North Pole. Hecla became a famous Arctic vessel on account of her weight and strength, originally designed for her previous role as a heavy artillery platform used to bombard Barbary Coast pirates in their main refuge at Algiers. | Ayre's work is part of the university's ARCdoc project which already has data from some of the most celebrated of the sea captains, including Sir William Parry's expeditions in HMS Hecla to the North West Passage and the North Pole. Hecla became a famous Arctic vessel on account of her weight and strength, originally designed for her previous role as a heavy artillery platform used to bombard Barbary Coast pirates in their main refuge at Algiers. |
| The archive material also includes logs sent to search for Sir John Franklin's doomed attempt to find the North West Passage in 1847, as well as the detailed records of many ordinary commercial whaling voyages including those run by the Palmer fleet based in Newcastle. Ayre has been focussing on 60 log books belonging to whaling vessels between 1750 and 1850, which include whalers from the north east and Yorkshire describing sea ice advancing and retreating and conditions on the edge of the pack ice, where they often set up camp during whale hunts. | The archive material also includes logs sent to search for Sir John Franklin's doomed attempt to find the North West Passage in 1847, as well as the detailed records of many ordinary commercial whaling voyages including those run by the Palmer fleet based in Newcastle. Ayre has been focussing on 60 log books belonging to whaling vessels between 1750 and 1850, which include whalers from the north east and Yorkshire describing sea ice advancing and retreating and conditions on the edge of the pack ice, where they often set up camp during whale hunts. |
| The work involves a different sort of research, into the vocabulary used by the sailors including local slang for technical terms which has since been lost. Ayre has drawn on sea ice terminology from the books of the Whitby whaler William Scoresby Jnr (1789-1857) to recent satellite data. The result will be the first 'sea ice' dictionary to carry both archaic and contemporary definitions of the same thing. Ayre says: | The work involves a different sort of research, into the vocabulary used by the sailors including local slang for technical terms which has since been lost. Ayre has drawn on sea ice terminology from the books of the Whitby whaler William Scoresby Jnr (1789-1857) to recent satellite data. The result will be the first 'sea ice' dictionary to carry both archaic and contemporary definitions of the same thing. Ayre says: |
| On board the Healy I recorded what was happening with the ice, making observations every six hours using Scoresby's ancient definitions, in parallel with the Healy's researchers' own daily records. | On board the Healy I recorded what was happening with the ice, making observations every six hours using Scoresby's ancient definitions, in parallel with the Healy's researchers' own daily records. |
| The old records describe, for example, various types of ice from 'loose' to 'heavy' and using all the data I was able to map the ice edge, which has never been done before in any great detail because it melts and freezes every year and that is happening further and faster than ever before. | The old records describe, for example, various types of ice from 'loose' to 'heavy' and using all the data I was able to map the ice edge, which has never been done before in any great detail because it melts and freezes every year and that is happening further and faster than ever before. |
ARCdoc's director Dr Dennis Wheeler has won funding for the three-year study from the Leverhulme Trust and is working with the Scott Polar Research Institute, The Meteorological Office's Hadley Research Centre and Hull University's Maritime Studies Unit. He said: | ARCdoc's director Dr Dennis Wheeler has won funding for the three-year study from the Leverhulme Trust and is working with the Scott Polar Research Institute, The Meteorological Office's Hadley Research Centre and Hull University's Maritime Studies Unit. He said: |
| The whaling log books are the most interesting of all that we use given that the crews were not trained naval officers, and they often ventured farther north than any others. The Arctic environmentally is a hugely important area, but we need to know how it behaved in the past in order that we can assess how it's going to behave in the future; you can't look forward without looking back. | The whaling log books are the most interesting of all that we use given that the crews were not trained naval officers, and they often ventured farther north than any others. The Arctic environmentally is a hugely important area, but we need to know how it behaved in the past in order that we can assess how it's going to behave in the future; you can't look forward without looking back. |
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