William Speirs Bruce. A man, a Prince

In “The Career of a Navigator”, the Prince recounts an episode from the first expedition: “Delayed by the kind welcome which met its appearance at sea, the “Princesse-Alice” was not able to reach Tromsø early. The ship left the town, one of the most northerly in the world, on 28 July with a scientific team comprising: Dr Richard, head of my laboratory and Mr Neuville, from the Museum of Paris, for zoology; Mr Buchanan, from the University of Cambridge, for physics; Mr Brandt, from Kiel University, for certain research on plankton; Mr Bruce, a Scottish naturalist and veteran of several expeditions to the two polar regions; Mr Lovatelli, an Italian painter, who will devote his art to meeting some scientific requirements and depicting any picturesque scenes we may encounter on our travels.”

 

An expert on Svalbard, Bruce was awarded various prizes for his polar research, but never received the recognition he deserved, particularly from the Royal Geographical Society, probably due to his Scottish nationalism and weak public relations skills. Today, his work – both on the Scotia expedition and his contribution to polar exploration more broadly – has been re-evaluated.