Charles Fleming’s Cape Expedition Diary: Auckland Islands, 1942-43

2006

Science QL31 F59 FK83

Wellington: McEwen Associates

‘Cape Expedition’ was the code name for the New Zealand government’s coast-watching scheme initiated during WWII. Groups of up to five men were posted on several islands in the South Pacific to act as ‘eyes and ears’ for the government who were suspicious that Germans were using sub-Antarctic islands as bases. Among the men who set up camp at No. 2 station in Carnley Harbour, Campbell Island, was Charles Alexander Fleming (d. 1987). Fleming was a scientist who had interests across many fields; he was a meticulous observer and recorder of scientific data. Fleming kept a diary while on Campbell Island and the scientific papers he subsequently wrote have been fundamental in the ‘understanding of the biology of the NZ subantarctic realm’.