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Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion At Victoria University College, Wellington, N. Z. Vol. 24, No. 4. 1961

Vacation in the Antarctic

page 5

Vacation in the Antarctic

Contributed by J. C. Home, a graduate in chemistry from Victoria University, who applied for and got a job with the D.S.I.K. party working at Scott base.

Leaving Wellington on December 27 on H.M.N.Z.S. Endeavour wan a moment we had been preparing for for month. Besides the 40 crew members there were 18 passengers, seven to be dropped at Campbell Island to do a wild-life and botanical survey and the remainder going on to Scott Base for the summer months.

The first land after New Zealand was Campbell Island, where the Meteorological Station at the head of Perseverance Harbour looks warm and comfortable compared with the bleak, storm-lashed Island. In an eight-hour stop there we offloaded the survey team members and their three tons of cargo, using the ship's whaler as ferry, and enjoyed a welcome respite from the continuous rolling of the open sea.

Four days later, creeping along in an eerie fog, we passed the first iceberg, which appeared as a faint outline In the murk 200 yards away. From then on ice, ranging from tiny pieces to bergs hundreds of feet long, became more and more frequent until many miles north of Scott Base there was more ice than sea visible. Though the ship had an escort of birds all through the trip, It was not until the ice was reached that we saw wild-life in great quantity, because the season round the continent, like tropical seas, are teeming with life. In one day in the loose pack ice we saw many scores of Adelie and Emperor penguins, seals and killer whales, with skua gulls, the scavengers of the Antarctic, in all directions.

In the 14-mile channel cut in the 10-foot thick bay ice by U.S. icebreakers were two icebreakers, a tanker and a transport, all over 6,000 tons, which made our 1,000- ton wooden ship seem smaller than ever. The heavy accumulation of broken ice brought Endeavour to a standstill half-way down the channel, and so she berthed there and did one day's unloading. However, a brisk southerly wind the next morning swept the whole channel clear of ice and she was able to move up the channel reducing the journey to Scott Base from 10 to four miles. Unloading was carried out with the ship's winch and derricks, which put slings of cargo directly on to 16ft. by 4ft. sledges, of which the 200 h.p. Snocat can pull four when loaded with one ton each. The Snocat brought eight empty sledges out to near the ship's side each trip and waited till four were loaded before returning to the base. All shunting of empty and full sledges was done with an ordinary farmer's Ferguson tractor modified for Antarctic use by adding tracks, a special low temperature battery and lubricants, and using kerosene in the radiator instead of water.

My job as "cargo monitor" during unloading was to note each item as it went on to a sledge with the aim of seeing that everything that went aboard in Wellington arrived at Scott Base. To enable me to do this I was employed at Antarctic Division, D.S.I.R., for eight weeks prior to sailing, packing some cargo, learning the packing case codes and preparing a complete manifest of the 120 tons of cargo which Endeavour took down.

Work on the ice was pleasantly warm unless the sun was on the opposite side of the ship or there was a wind, so in the best conditions the necessary clothes were woollen shirt, trousers and socks, with ordinary leather boots. On a bad day, these items were required together with gloves, balaclava, jersey, windproof trousers and overalls and special cold weather mukluks in place of boots.

Scott Base

After four days, working 16 hours per day, unloading was completed so I moved over to Scott Base for a month to help arrange the winter's supply of food and general stores so that anything required could be found with a minimum of bother. Up to 14 men winter-over at Scott Base, each man having his own tiny bedroom equipped with bunk, table, chair, drawers, two lights and a window, 8ins. by 8ins., made of two layers of glass for insulation. During the summer months there may be as many as 60 men at the base and then accommodation becomes a real problem. The Base consists of seven huts (average 700 sq. ft.) joined by a "covered-way" of corrugated iron which removes the necessity of putting on special clothing to go from hut to hut. Besides these there is a garage for the bulldozer, four Fergusons and Weasel, a hangar for two Otter aircraft, three small huts for scientific gear and a maternity home for the husky bitches.

When the survey parties returned from the field they brought 36 huskies, bringing the total number tied up on the ice in front of the base to 70. These friendly, hardy animals stay outside throughout the winter in temperatures as low as minus 60 deg. F., living on four pounds of sealmeat and a little snow per day.

The food at the base is really good in quality and quantity, though, because everything is frozen, flavours are not as strong as usual. For a new arrival, the normal procedure seems to be to eat enormous amounts of food for the first week while his body builds up extra fat, and then his appetite drops down to its New Zealand level.

Mcmurdo

The U.S. base, McMurdo, which houses 800 men in summer and 150 in winter, is two miles easy walk from Scott Base. Because of its size, it is arranged like a small town, with huts on either side of the streets and not joined by a "covered-way" as are the huts at Scott Base. Prices of most goods at the McMurdo ship's store are very attractive; for instance, a £25 camera costs $23 and 200 cigarettes cost seven shillings. There are six bars at the base where six o'clock closing is unknown and where memorable parties occur each night of the week. However, no party compares with the Scott Base farewell to Endeavour, which lasted, more or less, non-stop for 20 hours, starting at the base and ending up at the ship's side in a snow storm. Seven miles from McMurdo, out on the bay ice, is Williams Airfield, consisting of two ice runways at right angles, sleeping and working huts for 150 men, and an impressive array of planes ranging from Globemasters and Hercules to Dakotas and Otters.

The greatest impression I have of Antarctica is the tremendous scale and beauty of the scenery. Only 30 miles from Scott Base is 13,300 ft. Erebus, an active volcano, whose plume, which can be seen hundreds of miles away, acts as a homing beacon for aircraft coming from New Zealand or returning from the South Pole Station. Fifty miles across McMurdo Sound the impressive Royal Society Range rises to over 13,000ft., and to the south is symmetrical Mt. Discovery, a 9,000ft. extinct volcano. With 24-hour daylight during the summer, there is plenty of time for sight-seeing and photography from after work right through the night. This stark, barren, beautiful continent offers endless opportunities to the keen photographer who takes care to see that his camera doesn't freeze up and his film-money doesn't run out.

Sketch of two men talking in doorway