About JOSÉ MARÍA SOBRAL

Ensign José María Sobral

When the Swedish expedition led by Otto Nordenskjöld arrived in Buenos Aires aboard the "Antartic" on December 16, 1901, the 21-year-old Ensign Sobral was appointed to accompany them on their navigation and wintering to Antarctica.

In this way, the request of Lieutenant Ballvé, head of the New Year Island Observatory, off the island of the States, was fulfilled for a Navy officer to accompany the expedition.

In three days he had to prepare to leave, that is how he went shopping to provide himself with the necessary clothes to spend a winter in Antarctica. In Argentina no one had experience in it and polar teams did not exist, this is how he decided to buy: “three very thick suits and a cap, five pairs of thick boots, two or three guanaco skins, ½ dozen thick wool underwear the best, a waterproof canvas bag, a blouse made of the same canvas with a hood, woolen clothing, gloves and stockings ... ”. Then he verified that only underwear was useful and luckily the experience and goodwill of his companions helped them to last two winters in the absence of one.

On December 21 he sailed from Buenos Aires and began to slowly get used to the Swedish way of life, with their different foods and a language in which he became an expert, meanwhile they had to speak English with him.

During the stay in Cerro Nevado he served as Nordenskjöld's assistant, collaborating in meteorological and magnetic observations. He made several marches across the Peninsula.

The return to search for the group failed, as the Antartic was destroyed by the ice and the three groups of Swedes were separated by the wreck of the "Antarctic".

In front of Paulet Island in the Weddell Sea, 20 men of the crew took refuge with the Norwegian captain Karl Antón Larsen, (a whaler, who had operated in the area at the end of the previous year, collecting some plant fossils that demonstrated the existence of plant flora typical of a warm climate during the Tertiary); There the castaways built a hut with the abundant slabs of the place and the timber and canvas of the ship imprisoned and destroyed by the ice of the semi-frozen Weddell Sea.

Three other men from the expedition, Andersson, Duse and Toralf Grunden, had disembarked before the shipwreck in the northeastern part of the peninsula with the intention of reaching Cerro Nevado by land, where the Nordenskjöld group had remained, while the ship sailed to Malvinas already Ushuaia for refueling; The three men, unable to reach Cerro Nevado because they unexpectedly found the Prince Gustavo canal thawed that prevented their passage, returned to the Bahía de la Esperanza to re-embark, and when they did not see the ship, just as those of Paulet built, also with lajas, a hut where to winter, from which the original elements that are exhibited in the sample were rescued.

Meanwhile in Cerro Nevado (Snow Hill at that time) Nordenskjöld and his five men, Sobral among them, had a comfortable and warm wooden house, prefabricated in Sweden, 6.30 meters long by 4 meters wide, with double walls and externally lined with tarred cardboard. Two packs of dogs, one Falkland Islands and the other Greenlandic, made up the teams that were to transport the expedition members on their reconnaissance and investigation patrols. All of them worked intensively until they were rescued two years later in 1903, and returned with collections of fossils, plants and animals and important meteorological and gravimetric data. It was the first exploration by sled in the Weddell Sea and on the eastern coast of the peninsula. Antarctica.

In Buenos Aires he continued in the Navy and requested permission to go to study Geology in Sweden. Unfortunately, upon receiving a negative response, he requested the discharge, which was granted on December 30, 1904. Obviously it was a mistake for both parties. In Sweden, in addition to receiving a Phillosopher Doctor and Master of Arts in Geology, he married. He returned to Argentina in 1914 with his wife, four children and his Geology degree, dedicating himself fully to the profession in the General Directorate of Mines, Geology and Hydrology, of which he was Director until 1931. Then he was Consul in Norway to retire as a geologist of Fiscal Oil Fields. He was recognized internationally both in Sweden, Norway and the United States for his scientific work. He died in Buenos Aires on April 14, 1961 at the age of 81.

(Antarctic Museum. Rooms 1 - 2 - 3 and 17)