JK Davis
A Man of Quiet Power
What started out as a video documenting the “Rededication Ceremony of the Grave of Captain John King Davis in the Melbourne General Cemetery, & the ANARE Club 75th Anniversary of Remembrance, at the Mission to Seafarers on the 19th February 2026”, turned into a 36-minute mini-documentary celebrating the life of the greatest sea captain of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.
In his auto-biography High Latitude, Davis captured the beauty and dangers of polar exploration at the time when sail was giving way to steam and diesel-powered ships. He was a man that shunned the limelight. Our challenge was to capture the life and contribution of JK Davis beyond the erection of a gravestone.
His story began at a chance visit to an exhibition of polar equipment in London where Davis met Ernest Shackleton. He was appointed Chief Officer on Shackleton’s British National Antarctic Nimrod Expedition 1907-09 where he formed a lasting friendship with Douglas Mawson.
He was appointed captain of the Aurora on Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic (AAE) Expedition 1911-14, establishing winter bases at Macquarie Island, Commonwealth Bay and on the Shackleton Ice Shelf.
In 1916, Davis commanded the Aurora on the Ross Sea Relief Expedition to rescue the seven surviving members of the Ross Sea Party. Later he commanded Discovery on the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) 1929-30 under the leadership of Mawson.
Mawson and Shackleton were aware that the financial viability of their endeavours depended on publicity. They employed Frank Hurley, a young stills and motion-picture photographer who revelled in high adventure. His flickering images of Mawson’s & Shackleton’s expeditions still eclipse the impact of today’s movies of the frozen south. Hurley gave us the material to capture the epic contribution of JK Davis to polar exploration and Southern Ocean seamanship.
JK Davis – A Man of Quiet Power: Produced and Written by David Parer; Edit, Colour Grade & Sound Mix by Alan Ryan for the ANARE Club Inc. The documentary can be viewed on the ANARE Club website.
