Herbert Dyce Murphy

Herbert Dyce Murphy (18 October 1879 – 20 July 1971) was an Australian adventurer and raconteur. He was perhaps best known for his participation in the Australasian Antarctic Expedition.

Early life and family

Murphy was born 18 October 1879 at Como, South Yarra, Melbourne, son of Alexander Dyce Murphy and his wife Ada Maud Florence nee Hopkins. Herbert attended Cumloden school, Melbourne Church of England Grammar School (1889–90), and went to Tonbridge School, Kent (1894–95). As a schoolboy he went on three Arctic voyages on the yacht Gladiator with his uncle Sir William Waller. He matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, in May 1900 and passed Responsions.[1]

Early adventures

During university he was a navigator on the Dundee whaler Balaena on a voyage to Franz Josef Land. He was a seaman on the Hope which transported reindeer from Norway to Russia.[1]

Australasian Antarctic Expedition

Murphy was principally tasked to be in charge of stores at the Cape Denison base at Commonwealth Bay. He led the supporting party (together with Hunter and Laseron), which had the job of laying down stores at intermediate points for the later expedition on sledges to the South Magnetic Pole undertaken by Bage, Webb and Hurley.[2]

In a letter to his parents in January 1912, he described of portion of the voyage south from Macquarie Island to Commonwealth Bay:

The ship went down to Caroline Cove, at the south end of Macquarie Island, and we went ashore to get water. It was most beautifully light all night. There were high hills, with tussock grass and myriads of penguins. We only got a little water, for early in the morning the ship's anchors dragged. She bumped on to the rocks, and was nearly wrecked. We thought for an hour or so we should lose the ship, but she came off about 5 in the morning. We had a splendid run down, bright and warm in the sun almost until we met the first ice. It was foggy on December 29 in the afternoon, after a fine morning, and about 3 o'clock it got very cold, when all at once an iceberg suddenly appeared, and there were lots of little pieces of ice all over the perfectly calm sea. We passed upwards of a dozen 'bergs' in the first few hours, and thousands of pieces of ice of all sizes, and at about 9 p.m. pushed through a couple of miles of floating ice. The blue tints in the icebergs were very beautiful. When we tried to got to the land marked on the maps by Wilkes, in 1840, all we got to was an ice barrier 30ft or 40ft high, extending for miles — a most extraordinary sight. We had a two days' hurricane there, but hardly felt it, as we just kept under the lee of the barrier, but the snow, blowing off the top of this huge wall over the ship's mast-heads, was an indication of what the wind must have been like up there. It is not so fearfully cold, 28deg. Fahr., but always snowing or overcast. We only have had one day's really fine weather since December 29, but that was gorgeous. We are now somewhere — we don't know quite where, as we have not had an observation for days, but we are close on some land, if we could only see it.[3]

Personal life

Murphy lived for many years at a property that he owned at Mount Martha, Mornington Peninsula.[2]

On 13 February 1934, Murphy married Muriel Idrene Webster at St. John's Church, Toorak.[4]

Murphy Bay was discovered in 1912 by a member of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition and named by Douglas Mawson after Murphy.[5]

References
  1. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murphy-herbert-dyce-7705
  2. http://mawsonshuts.antarctica.gov.au/cape-denison/the-people/herbert-dyce-murphy
  3. "ON THE AURORA". The Sydney Morning Herald (23, 146). New South Wales, Australia. 19 March 1912. p. 9. Retrieved 15 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "SOCIAL NOTES". The Argus (Melbourne) (27, 279). Victoria, Australia. 22 January 1934. p. 4. Retrieved 15 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=128

Further reading
  • Australian Antarctic Division. Home of the Blizzard; Herbert Dyce Murphy (webpage) Online
  • Ayres, Philip. Mawson: a life (1st ed. Melbourne, 1999) Trove NLA Google Books
  • Cool Antarctica. Herbert Dyce Murphy - Biographical Notes (webpage) Online
  • Cormick, Craig. In Bed with Douglas Mawson: Travels Around Antarctica (New Holland Publishers, 2011) TroveGoogle Books
  • Friends of Mawson. Friends of Mawson. (Website) Online (excellent reading list and newsletter archive)
  • Griffiths, Tom. Slicing the silence : voyaging to Antarctica (UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007) Trove NLA
  • Murray-Smith, S. Australian Dictionary of Biography; Murphy, Herbert Dyce (1879–1971) Online
  • Mawson, Douglas. The home of the blizzard : an Australian hero's classic tale of Antarctic discovery and adventure (Electronic edition) Online (Includes full PDF)
  • McLean, Archibald Lang. Dr Archibald Lang McLean diaries, 2 December 1911 – 26 February 1914 (McLean, Cape Denison, 1911)
  • McLean, Archibald Lang. The Adelie Blizzard (Friends of the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 2010)
  • O'Neill, Ward. Illustration: Herbert Dyce Murphy (webpage) Online
  • Riffenburgh, Beau. Racing With Death: Douglas Mawson - Antarctic Explorer (Bloomsbury, London, 2008) Trove NLA Google Books
  • Roberts, Davis. Alone on the ice: The greatest survival story in the history of exploration. (W. W. Norton, New York, 2014) Trove Google Books
  • Rossiter, Heather. Lady spy, gentleman explorer : the life of Herbert Dyce Murphy : the most extraordinary Australian you've never heard of (Random House Australia, 2001) Trove NLA
  • Watson, Moira. The spy who loved children : the enigma of Herbert Dyce Murphy, 1879-1971 (Melbourne University Press, c1997) Trove NLA
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