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Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition

research expedition involving an international team of scientists (1949–1952)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 2, 2024
Entity authorityQ1747153 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition (also known as NBSX or NBSAE) (1949–1952) was the first Antarctica expedition involving an international team of scientists. The team members came from Norway, Sweden and the British Commonwealth of Nations.

History

The Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition was the first expedition to Antarctica involving an international team of scientists. The expedition was led by John Schjelderup Giæver, a Norwegian author and polar researcher. The expedition had the goal of establishing whether climatic fluctuations observed in the Arctic were also occurring in the Antarctic. A base known as Maudheim was established on the Quar Ice Shelf along the coast of Queen Maud Land in February 1950. This expedition laid the groundwork for the following Australian expeditions to Antarctic from 1954 to the early 1960s.

Transportation

The expedition was transported aboard a 600-ton sealer named Norsel that was powered by a German U-boat diesel engine. This ship was used in conjunction with a 24,000 ton whaling factory ship named Thorshovdi. The larger ship was needed because the Norsel was too small to carry all the needed equipment and supplies for the Antarctic expedition.

Editorial summary

“Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition” enters the record as research expedition involving an international team of scientists (1949–1952). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Norwegian, British and Swedish can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1949, 1952, 1950, 1954—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Norwegian, British and Swedish.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Norwegian, British and Swedish provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q1747153. VIAF identifies the subject as 134148995744859750472. Authority coordinates are -71.050, -10.917. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1952, 1950 and 1954.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition primary sources, Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition archive and Norwegian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.