Saturday, September 22: Dundee

I woke up this morning, planning to go to Dunblane, which looked interesting, and then saw Dundee in the next entry in the guidebook.  Dundee’s attractions included the ship Discovery in port, with an associated museum.  The ship had made a 2-year voyage to the Antarctic in 1901.  Sold!  Of course, it helped that Dundee was a place important to Ron’s family history and was just 1.5 hours away by train.

We arrived at Dundee Station and I searched for the usual freebie maps of the city.  There were none.  I left the station and wandered, looking for a store that might sell maps, but the small shops I checked didn’t have them.  I walked into a large department store and found it was part of a giant mall.  Since it was lunchtime, I settled in with a sandwich and coffee and opened my phone to do some research.   The Discovery Museum, I found, was practically next to the train station.  On the way out of the mall I found a Customer Service booth with- freebie maps.  Finally!

A Gay Pride Parade.  I encountered one in Reykjavik last year, too!

The museum was full of exhibits with fascinating details. As the ship left New Zealand, one crew member waving goodbye to the crowds from a high perch on the ship fell into the water and died.  The crew discovered that penguin meat "tasted like shoe leather steeped in turpentine" but that penguin eggs were tasty.  Laundering clothes was a luxury, between the need for water and the need for heat to dry clothes before they froze.  One group including Scott and Shackelton went out on an expedition by sledge and didn't wash their clothes for 95 days.  The ship was not to return to England for three years, and nearly had to be abandoned after multiple failed attempts to free it from the surrounding ice.

Exterior

Provisions. Note the grog barrel emblazoned with "God Save the King, the scotch whisky and the giant tin of Colman's Mustard.

Underwater sea creature collected and preserved by the scientists on board.

Another view of exterior.  The ship is now dwarfed on one side by the new Victoria and Albert Museum, which opened the day I was there. 

We were pretty much free to explore the entire ship.

Shackelton's Quarters

The Foremast, as seen from the lowest deck.

Detail of interior.

When I was in Paris a few days later, I realized how far we’d come in 100 years.  An ad in a magazine for Ponant, a luxury cruise line, offered cruises to Antarctica from Argentina.

Here's the link.
https://us.ponant.com/destinations/antarctica#advanced_search


It starts at about $13,000 per person, double occupancy and excluding airfare to and from Argentina.  Oh, yeah- add about another 75% for the Single Supplement.  The magazine ad showed one couple enjoying a sumptuous meal (including penguin meat?) on board.  The woman was wearing a sleeveless dress.  I’m grateful for my generous travel budget but it’s not THAT generous.  And what would Scott and Shackleford say about that sleeveless dress? 

At the Discovery Museum I was offered a ticket that included Verdant Works, the museum on the site of a former jute mill.  It was a pleasant walk from the waterfront but I was glad to have the map. 

The jute industry in Scotland had an interesting connection with my last major destination: for years, jute was grown in India and sent to Scotland for processing into products such as flour sacks, sand bags and carpet backing.   The panel below describes the terrible working conditions in India.

Gradually, plants in India took over production as well, with cheaper labor, and eventually most of the Scottish jute mills closed.  Our guide told is that they’re still using 150-year old machines, built in Dundee, to process jute in India.

The guide near one of the machines.  These aren't full-size; they were used for training new workers.  They were still extremely noisy, even when only one at a time was running.  Little wonder that many workers in Dundee ended up deaf.

The little bits of jute dust under the machine could also interfere with it running properly, so children as young as 9 were responsible for prying all the lumps out.  They frequently developed "mill fever", a respiratory disease, from getting the dut in their lungs.

I arrived back at Waverly Station at 7 PM; it was a totally different experience from my arrival on Wednesday since the weather was pleasant and I knew where I was going.  It was interesting to see the buildings in the waning daylight and watch the partying begin in the pubs on the Royal Mile.  I took a couple of shortcuts I’d learned, down long, steep staircases, and marveled again at how skillfully the city had been built around all of the steep hills, using stairways, bridges and passageways so people and vehicles could navigate them.