John King Davis
Captain John King Davis
| John King Davis was born in Surrey, England, in 1884, the only son of James and Marion Davis. James, his father, had previously taught at Sydney Grammar School for four years. He was raised in England but travelled with his father to Cape Town in 1900.
Davis joined the merchant service in that year, when his father was absent with the British Army, by becoming a steward boy on a mail steamer voyage to England. He promptly signed indentures for four years aboard the sailing ship Celtic Chief, during which time he visited Australia for the first time. He gained his first mate's certificate in Sydney in 1906 and his extra master's certificate in New Zealand two years later.
Davis had a chance meeting with Ernest Shackleton in London, which resulted in his first voyage to the Antarctic with Shackleton's 1907-1909 expedition, as Chief Officer of the Nimrod. On a subsequent relief voyage for that expedition he was appointed as Master.
In 1911 at the age of 28, having just completed winding-up of the Shackleton expedition, Davis sailed for the Antarctic again as Master of SY Aurora, second in command of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under the leadership of Douglas Mawson. The AAE landed wintering parties at Macquarie Island, Commonwealth Bay and the Shackleton Ice Shelf.
During the winter of 1912, Aurora undertook two oceanographical voyages in the Southern Ocean where dredging and sounding work was undertaken. In December 1912, Davis once again sailed for Antarctica to relieve the wintering parties at Commonwealth bay and the Shackleton ice shelf.
Aurora arrived at Commonwealth Bay on 9 January 1913. When he arrived, Mawson and two companions, Xavier Mertz and Belgrave Ninnis, were away on a long sledging journey to the east of Commonwealth Bay. When Mawson and his companions failed to return after a month's wait, Davis was forced to leave the base to to relieve the second Antarctic component of AAE, Frank Wild's wintering party at the Shackleton Ice Shelf.
Having lost his two companions, a solitary Mawson managed to get back to the base only to see the departing Aurora on the distant horizon. However, Davis had left a small party of six men at Commonwealth Bay for a further year, during which time Mawson was able to recover from his ordeal.
On his return to Australia, Davis immediately set out for London where he secured financial backing for the second relief voyage, to be carried out the following year. Davis made his third visit to Commonwealth Bay in January 1914 to pick up the seven remaining expedition members including Mawson.
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Davis volunteered for active service, and was put in charge of the troop transport Boonah, carrying troops and horses to Egypt and England. He was released in October 1916 to command the Ross Sea Relief Expedition sent to rescue Ernest Shackleton's party at McMurdo Sound, marooned at Ross Island after the failure of Shackleton's transantarctic expedition.
After resuming troop-carrying duties, Davis settled in Australia where in 1920 he became Commonwealth Director of Navigation, a post he held until his retirement in February 1949.
During this period, he also commanded SY Discovery (again under Sir Douglas Mawson) on the first BANZARE expedition of 1929-1930. It was during this and a subsequent voyage that Australian Antarctic Territorial claims were established over the coast line extending between Adelie Land and Enderby Land.
From 1947 until 1962 Davis was a member of the ANARE executive planning committee, and was extensively involved in the planning of the early ANARE expeditions.
John King Davis is remembered for his unstinting dedication to his task as ship's master, his great success as an Antarctic navigator, and his willingness to stand up for what he believed. His disagreements during BANZARE with Mawson, as strong-willed as he was, are legendary, as is the strong bond between the two.
Davis, who never married, died in Melbourne in May 1967. Most of his valuable collection of polar literature is now housed at the Australian Antarctic Division Library, Hobart.
In brief:
(19 February 1884 to 8 May 1967)
Nationality and occupation
English-born Australian explorer and navigator
Achievements
1907-09, served as chief officer on the Nimrod on Shackleton's Antarctic expedition
- 1911-14, captained the Aurora and was second in command of Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition
- 1916, rescued Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition
- 1929-30, captained the Discovery during Mawson's British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition
- 1947-62, involved in planning ANARE voyages
- 1957, Davis station in Antarctica was named in his honour
|
