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James Ross led an early expedition to the Antarctic from 1839 to 1843, aboard the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. After his voyage, nearly thirty years passed before the next Antarctic expedition.

I've been able to find plenty of information about the clothing worn by the late 1800s and early 1900s explorers, but I haven't been able to find anything about the clothing on the Ross expedition.

What sort of cold weather clothing did they wear on the Ross expedition?

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  • There doesn't seem t have been any technological advance between Ross's expeditions and later (ant)arctic expeditions of the late 19th and early 20th century. The clothing was predominantly wool underclothes for warmth, supplemented with canvas over coats for protection from the wind. This worked surprisingly poorly because of the extreme dryness of the Antarctic continent. rte.ie/tv/tomcrean/assets/kids-corner-clothing.pdf Jan 20, 2016 at 7:53
  • @PieterGeerkens, that sounds like an answer to me.
    – Joe
    Jan 20, 2016 at 15:28

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There doesn't seem ot have been any technological advance between Ross's expeditions and later (ant)arctic and antarctic expeditions of the late 19th and early 20th century. The clothing was predominantly wool underclothes for warmth, supplemented with canvas over coats for protection from the wind.

This worked surprisingly poorly, in the Antarctic particularly, because of the extreme dryness of the Antarctic climate. It was usual to don wet (from sweat)frozen overcoats each morning that only slowly thawed through the day to allow greater freedom of movement, which then refroze each night.

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