This showcase is dominated at the back by a darkened wood ship’s steering wheel, with ten spokes. To the right of the wheel, running from the back to the front of the long showcase, is a 3 m long wooden sledge. The two runners are 50 cm apart, supported by four cross-pieces, and the runners curve up together at the front. There are still pieces of rope tied to parts of the sledge, and across the top of the sledge lies Mawson’s ice pick. The pick is just over a metre long with a two-sided metal blade of a point and a chisel-shaped tip.
Just in front of the ship’s wheel is a sledge meter; a wheel with a mechanical counter attached, which measured distance travelled. To the left of the sledge meter is a copper vat, about 80 cm long, 45cm deep and 45 cm high. It has a 20 cm circular hole in the top with three wingnuts set into the edge. Lying to the left of the hole is the circular lid, also copper and oxidised to green.
In front is a katana, a short Samurai sword 89 cm long, and its carved wooden scabbard, both resting on a wooden stand.
Further forward in the case is the skull of a crab-eater seal, about 30 cm long.
Next to the skull is a small transparent tray holding seven glass specimen bottles containing various specimens of sea life. To the right of the tray, between it and the sledge, lies a 1-metre-long taxidermied King Penguin, with a white belly and black feet, wings and back. Next to it sits a white King Penguin egg, 9 cm high.
Right at the front of the case, on the left, is a wooden cigar box with the brand ‘Hansa’, containing small bones. To its right is a small light grey meteorite from Adelie Land, sliced to reveal its interior. And to its right, just to the left of the sledge’s nose, is an important piece of Mawson’s equipment; a home-made sun compass, a circular piece of wood the size of a CD with a 7 cm metal point in the centre.