MEET THE AUTHORS

Ed Emering is a Chicago-based author, researcher

and collector. He is a frequent contributor to JOMSA

on a wide variety of topics and last year received

two OMSA Commendation Medals for his OMSA

monographs. Ed also maintains the free research site

(www.themedalhound.com), which welcomes comments and submissions.

Bill Pawson began collecting medals in his Army brat

childhood over 45 years ago. During the last two decades

the focus of his collection has been medals attributable

to his surname. This theme led him to take up genealogy

as an adjunct avocation, tracing out almost 250 years

of his family tree. In writing for publication he often

combines both these hobbies. Bill is a seven-year Navy

veteran. After leaving the Navy in 1981 he engaged in a

family locksmith business in Dallas, Texas, for a number

of years. Bill was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in

1989. He is pastor of Westminster Community Church

in Canton, Ohio, where he also serves as a volunteer chaplain with the Canton Police Department. In addition,

Bill is a chaplain in the Civil Air Patrol. His wife Elizete,

a native of Brazil, is a registered nurse. Jacob, Betania,

and Juliana complete the family.

Lieutenant Colonel Larry J. Redmon is an Army Special Forces Officer assigned to the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia Pacific Security Affairs, South and Southeast Asia Directorate. He is the Country Director for Southeast Asia. His previous assignments include a tour in Afghanistan with the NATO Special Operations Command and Control Element; four years as the United States Special Forces Military Advisor to the Royal Thai Army Headquarters, the Royal Thai Army Special Warfare Command, the Prime Ministers Counter-terrorism Committee and Operations Officer for the United States Military Advisory Group, Thailand (JUSMAGTHAI). Colonel Redmon also served in the 1st Special Forces Group as a Special Forces company commander during Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines and with the 1/10th Special Forces Group in Germany. He holds a Masters of Arts in Advanced Military Studies specializing in revolutions and insurgencies and attended the Royal Thai Army Command and Staff College. He has been awarded the Order of the White Elephant 4th Class by the King of Thailand, and the Bronze Cross for bravery by the Republic of the Philippines.

Glenn "Marty" Stein has researched and written about polar history and worldwide polar awards over the last 25 years. His primary objective has been to interest and educate the public in polar history- which he sees as vital

if people of today and the future are going to appreciate and preserve not only human cultural and historical sites, but the vast variety of plant and animal life in the polar regions. He is a life member of the American Polar Society, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society. A regular contributor to specialist journals, in 2006 Stein became the Polar Historian for the International Polar Year 2007-2008 website (www.ipy.org).

Henri Veyradier was born in 1952 in Aubenas in the Ardeche, south-eastern France. He has a degree in History from the University of Grenoble and teaches this subject in various academic institutions. He lives in Valr6as, the capital of the Enclave des Papes, part of the ancient Comtat Venaissin (papal lands), near Avignon. He is a member of many cultural associations concerned with history and heritage and with the Archaeological Museum in Le Pegue. Specialising in phaleristics (the study of medals), he is the author of many publications on this theme. In collaboration with Daniel Werba, he has recently published a book on the awards given by the French Dioceses, which itself has received an award from the Acaddmie Francaise (Prix Comte de Saint- Priest d’Urgel). Henri Veyradier is a rector of one of the last brotherhoods of Penitents in France, a knight of the Palmes Acad~miques, the Mdrite Agricole and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

OMSA CONVENTION 2009

August 13-August 16, 2009.

Amway Grand Plaza Hotel and the

Devoss Place Convention Center 187 Monroe NW

Grand Rapids, Michigan 616-776-6400

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GUNNER GEORGE PORTER~ R.M.A.: SLEDDING TOWARD DESTINY

GLENN M. STEIN

Gunner George Porter’s life forever changed when he embarked on H.M.S. Alert on April 16, 1875, soon to be destined for the Frozen Zone. By the last days of May, the Alert, accompanied by H.M.S. Discovery, left familiar shores under the command of Captain George S. Nares (Alert). The expedition explored northwest Greenland and northern Ellesmere Island in the high Arctic (Figure 1) and was equipped for a wide range of scientific studies.

being absent without leave to "Losing Rammer overboard through carelessness when at Gun drill" - the latter cost him 10s 5d, the price of a rammer!

DEVON SLAND

Figure 1: Ellestnere Island (high Arctic).

Nine years previously, the 18-year-old Porter joined the Royal Marine Artillery at Birmingham, fresh from civilian life as a varnisher. Hailing from Coleshill, Warwick, the blue-eyed lad stayed clear of trouble for the first few years and earned his first Good Conduct Badge in October 1869. But between December 1869 and May 1874, he was eight times entered in the Defaulters’ Book, having his Badge deprived, and then restored. Porter’s youthful exuberance led him astray and his offences varied from

Figure 2: Arctic Medal 18 75- 76 to Gunner George Porter, R.M.A., H.M.S. Alert (courtesy DNW).

George Porter was one of only seven R.M.A. men on this historic voyage; and in fact, he was one of a mere 15 R.M.A. men entitled to Arctic Medals for all the 19th century British Arctic expeditions (Figure 2). They were trained to handle canisters of gunpowder and blast frozen obstructions, along with crafting ice docks for the ships’ winter quarters - berths for the wooden walls of England. Porter was also a member of a giant ice saw crew, which laboriously moved jigsaw pieces around ice floe puzzles (Figure 3).

Artillerymen a quarter-century before had searched in vain for Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition, and a rare glimpse into their training and equipment found its way into the pages of The llustratedLondon News in 1852:

Mr. Hay, lecturer on chemistry at Portsmouth Dockyard, has instructed, at Woolwich, the four bombardiers of the Royal Marine Artillery attached to the Expedition [under Sir Edward Belcher, CB, RN], in the mode of adjusting the plates, covering and attaching the copper wires, and manipulating the sulphuric acid used in galvanic batteries; it being intended to take to the Arctic Regions a number of tubes charged with 20 lb. of gunpowder each, to be used in bursting the ice, in order to force a passage up Wellington Channel with the steamers of the Expedition.

Vol. 60, No. 2 3

Figure 3: Cutting out of winter quarters with the ice saw ~he Illustrated London News, May 29, 1875).

The cases will be discharged fi’om a galvanic battery, the parties operating being at a safe distance on board the vessels, as long coils of wire will be supplied, covered withguttapercha [a natural form of rubber]. Mr. Hay, after instructing the Bombardiers, gave lectures on the galvanic battery, and the uses to which it may be applied, in the presence of the whole of the officers of the Expedition.

Another commonality Porter and his fellow marines shared with their Franklin search brothers was duty as servants to naval officers on the Alert and Discovery (Porter’s master being Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich). The marine caused his naval superior much amusement, as Aldrich wrote in his journal on August 8:

My Servant "Porter" is a character. He has just been telling me of a dinner he has had of the heart of a Walrus, which he captured this morning. I expressed

a hope he would not be ill after it... "That is if it is good to eat" says he, alluding to a remark he had made about its being better than some sheep’s liver we had the other morning!.., and then he finished up with "I eat a tidy lot of it Sir"... "this ’Eart was ate too Sir". ¯. I am to have some this morning though somewhat doubtful in the subject it is nevertheless a good thing to find out what we can actually devour with infinity in case of future requirements...

Aldrich also knew there were difficult times ahead on the sledding trails, as did Captain Nares, who sledded during the Frankin search: snowblindness from the glare of the sun reflecting off the ice and snow, frostbite blistering the skin, extreme thirst caused by inhaling cold, dry air and exhaling moisture.

By August 25, the ships reached Discovery Harbor, on the northern side of Lady Franklin Bay, Ellesmere Island, the site chosen for Discovery’s winter quarters. The Alert continued up Robeson Channel, reaching Floeberg Beach at 82° 82’ N - the highest latitude reached by any ship up to that time - and established winter quarters there on September 1. Autumn sled parties established depots northward at Cape Joseph Henry, for extended journeys the following spring.

The New Year started off right for Porter, as he added a second Good Conduct Badge to his service record on January 1, 1876, but it was hardly a portent of things to come for the artilleryman. In the spring, three major sledding parties (two from Alert and one from Discovery) set out to explore toward the North Pole and along the north coasts of Ellesmere Island and Greenland. During the 1850s, one Arctic officer wrote that sledge traveling was far more dreadful than going into battle,

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