The Pabodie Expedition was a fictional scientific survey mission to Antarctica, undertaken in 1930-31, whose disastrous outcome is told in H. P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness.
Overview[]
The primary objective of the Pabodie Expedition was to research the continent's geological history using a highly advanced (for the time) drilling apparatus alongside more traditional dynamiting techniques. They also expected to discover fossil evidence of Antarctica's previous inhabitants during this process. It was primarily funded by the Nathaniel Derby Pickman Foundation and organised by Massachusetts' Miskatonic University.
The organisers expected the expedition's duration to be one, or at most two, Antarctic summers; if it lasted for two, the intervening winter was to be spent "hunkered down" in a specially constructed base camp while their ships went back for supplies.
Members[]
- William Dyer, Professor of Geology and expedition leader.
- Frank Pabodie, Professor of Engineering.
- Lake, Professor of Biology.
- Atwood, Professor of Physics and a meteorologist.
- Danforth, a graduate student.
- Fifteen other graduate students.
Specialist Equipment[]
- A custom drilling rig designed by Pabodie.
- Blasting equipment.
- Devices to prevent the fuel and engines of their aircraft from freezing in the extreme cold.
Transportation[]
- Two former whaling vessels -- the Arkham and Miskatonic, captained by J. B. Douglas and Georg Thorfinnssen, respectively -- reinforced against ice pressure.
- Five modified Dornier transport aircraft (four being used as forward exploring aircraft, with one being left at the initial basecamp at Mcmurdo Sound/Mount Erebus as backup). Custom-built to withstand extreme Antarctic weather conditions and for transporting crew and drilling/blasting equipment.
- Fifty-five Alaskan sledge dogs and at least four sledges.
History[]
- Main article: At the Mountains of Madness