William G. Burn-Murdoch, the Scottish artist and traveller, was, among his many other accomplishments, a piper, as were several others of the crew-members on the Scottish whalers and polar exploration ships of around a hundred years ago.

Piping in the polar environment, and the reactions of the wildlife there, seem to have held a great fascination for those involved. Burn-Murdoch himself, for example, drew (directly on to frosted-glass lantern-slides) a series of three cartoons depicting the responses of polar bears to the bagpipes.

Here we see the cartoon "Air ... 'There's no place like home - home sweet home'", in which the piper is evidently supporting the sentiments of the song as actively as possible!

©SCRAN/Royal Scottish Geographical Soc.
Air - 'There's no place like home'