Expédition Antarctique

These vehicles are called Sno-Cats; heavy machinery designed to withstand arctic conditions. They were used in the first Dutch-Belgian Antarctic expedition from 1964-1966.

The Belgians had been to Antarctica before, but money was a problem, so they asked the Dutch to participate. At first, the Netherlands didn’t feel like it, but eventually they agreed. On December 8, 1963 they left the harbour of Antwerp for their first expedition.

For the expedition, they used these special so-called Sno-Cats, made by the Tucker Sno-Cat Corp. in Oregon. Of the 3 vehicles in this shed, there is one type 740 Sno-Cat and two 743’s. Besides Belgium, other country’s were also using the Tucker Sno-Cats for expeditions in Antarctica.

In 1967, the last expedition left the King Baudouin base on Antarctica, taking back all their equipment. One of the expedition members got to take the 3 machines back home, to his barn. Today, these historic machines representing a forgotten era of South Pole expeditions should be standing for display in a museum. Unfortunately that’s not the case. They are standing in a shed, collecting dust. Over the years, some of the logos which were designed by the cartoonist of Tintin, have unfortunately been cut out and stolen.