Edgar Lucas Adams
1883 - 1928
Biographical notes

Boatswain - Aurora 1911-1913

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Edgar Adams - Eddy
b.17th September 1883, Cape Town South Africa
d. 2nd April 1928, Sydney, New South Wales

At the time of Edgar's baptism, the family was still attending St. Mark's in District Six, Cape Town.

Shortly after his first birthday, Edgar and his family emigrated to New South Wales, Australia. Like his brothers he would have started his education in South Australia after learning some basics at home. He became a sailor possibly at a very young age, at this time it was common for boys as young as 10 to go to sea. Unlike his brothers William, Tobias and George, Edgar did not serve in the First World War, his occupation as a mariner was considered an essential service.

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Edgar was the boatswain (bo'sun or bosun) on board the Aurora during Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914. He would have sailed from Australia to Antarctica via Macquarie Island and possibly other sub-Antarctic islands to deliver men and supplies for the expedition and then back to Australia again perhaps visiting islands en route. The Aurora made three such trips during Mawson's expedition in the summer months, going back north again when winter started to arrive.

Crew members like Edgar (known to his family as Eddy) were often not included on lists of the ship's personnel which only tended to list the ships officers, expedition scientists and the support personnel who spent their time on the base. There is no official record of him that I have seen about the Aurora, like nearly all of the other crew members. The details on this page have been sent to me by a family member living in Tasmania, Australia who has transcribed some of the diary entries made by Edgar during his voyages in 1911-13 and kindly allowed me to publish here.

"Although his writing is easy to read, he didn't use any punctuation. I am inserting relevant full stops and correcting spelling areas."

Diaries such as this one are very rare. Selling the story of an expedition to the papers or for publication in a book or on return was a common and effective way of paying off the debts incurred and possibly of fund raising for the next expedition so crew members were often dissuaded from even writing diaries at all let alone publishing them.

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Diary Entries

Monday 3rd June 1912

Again we are steaming before a fair wind with a head sea and again we are steering NE by E on our way to Macquarie Island. We have given up searching for the supposed islands then another thing this is the best thing to do in such a sea and wind. We set the lower topsail about 10:30. The wind is increasing to a light gale. The seas are getting very big like what we had coming back from the ice last March. The cinematograph man has been busy all the forenoon taking pictures. He took the sea water on the ship's deck, the crew setting the foresail at 12:00. We have been taking some heavy water on board all day. About 1 pm we shipped a big sea. There must have been 30 tons of water in it. It washed the whole length of the ship. I was standing talking to the cook when I saw it coming. I stood up on the lee rail to avoid getting wet but it washed over the deckhouse and over the boats drenching me through to the skin. I then decided to assist the steward to take the dinner aft. The water that was on deck came up over my seaboots. It did not matter as my sea boots were already filled. I then went below to change and was surprised to see all hands baling out water that big sea had found its way down to the crew's quarters. 

We have no doors to our companion way and can't prevent the water from going down. My room was awash, the cook and steward's room was about 1 foot deep. The forecastle drained quickly as we are deeper by the stern. This is something disgraceful. Every place below here is quite wet. We have no dry clothes so are running along to the engine room drying some. I had just come up from changing into dry cloth whilst going forward as seas came over one each side and again wet me through. The second mate on the bridge stood and laughed at me. I had a pair of dry socks on my pocket that happened to escape the water. I took them out and said I still have dry socks. They laughed some more and so did I. I don't think the chief steward was the next he got a nice ducking. The cook is quite happy and he came and gave us a pull on the foresheet weather one and got wet and still he is happy. 

We are having plenty of snow squalls. They are very heavy but don't last long. If this wind holds good we will be in Macquarie Island Wednesday some time as we only have 400 miles to go. I don't think that we will be able to do any trawling down here. The weather is far too rough . Hands standing by all day unable to do anything in the shape of work. The apples are going rotten so the crew are stealing them rather than see them go to waste. Temp 34. The nights are very dark.

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Tuesday 4th June 1912

Morning broke bright and clear with a strong fair wind and big sea which has moderated a great deal. We started the day by setting the upper topsail, the first time since we left Sydney. It is a beauty about the only sail that I have seen in the ship that fits her. Towards 12 am the wind dropped altogether but not for long. As the afternoon went by the wind is getting stronger. I have been corking the deck over my room today. I hope this will stop the leaking. I think it will. Crew have been pumping the ballast tank all day. 5 pm the wind is still getting stronger with rain squalls. This makes things miserable cause one cannot keep dry. We have done a good days run. I expect it must be close on 200 as we have had a fair wind all through at sea. The donkey man is kicking up a row - his bed clothes are all wet including his bunk and room. He is going to sleep on top of the engines tonight. Mr. Haines the scientist has just completed stuffing a fine big albatross. He measures from tip of wing to tip 12 feet across. I would like to lift this one. We are bowling along now 8 pm with a strong westerly wind and all sails set. Steering E 1/2 N. Has not been so cold today. Temp 36. Still cold enough. The skipper was up all night well until 4 am. He cannot put too much trust in the second and third mates as they have never in in sail before. The sky is overcast and it looks like that we are going to have another blow. I hope not. I think not as we have had enough of it from the time we left Sydney. An AB was caught by the 2nd mate stealing apples. I hear today that the skipper told the steward that there was a lot of stores taken on shore in Sydney and if it happens again he is going to take this one to court. If this was the case it must have been done by one from aft nor forward as I saw the steward on steward that we had taking things on shore on three different time.

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Some of it isn't politically correct these days but need to be read as the language used at that time. For example, there was an incident between the cook and Edgar:

We had the cook locked in his room. When the old man came on board it was reported to him. The cook was called aft and logged and told to fight like a Britisher not a d**o such as the cook is if he wanted to fight any other way. He the Captain would do that and if he used a hammer or a knife again he would fill his body full of lead. I wanted the Captain to chain him up as I have been with his sort before but he would not do that. I believe he has to go when we get to Wellington.