Sledge, D2006.56

This sledge is mostly made of timber. It has wide runners curved at the ends for travelling over snow and ice.
A level carrying frame is made with a set of timber rails, rectangular in section, which run parallel and above the runners. The rails and runners are joined by angular-shaped wooden supports attached with leather thonging threaded through holes in the runners and supports. Six crossbars, spaced approximately 420mm apart and made from a similar timber, are attached to the top of the wooden supports with leather strapping and rope binding. The crossbars are braced underneath with short metal brackets and the crossbars are covered with protective leather where they join the upper rails. Plywood sheets are placed on the central section of the sledge extending from one crossbar to another, down the length of the sledge. These sheets overlap and are joined together with lengths of wire and attached similarly to the crossbars, to form a floor or platform to carry the load.

Leather straps are wound the top rails. These have holes and buckles.

A wooden rail, round in section, extends around the front of the sledge and back to the first upright supports adjacent to the runners. Wide coiled towing ropes, of approximately 20 mm in diameter, are tied around the back and front upright supports of the sledge and joined with twine bound around both thicknesses.

Thought to have been brought back to Port Chalmers on the S Y Aurora

Used by the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition to Antarctica