Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

15. A case could be made for a surface tractor workshop, even though the base
was sub-surface, to avoid the labour involved in repeatedly digging out the ramp.
On 22 January it was time to leave and the ship cast off at 7.30 am. We
experienced some trouble initially, because a small iceberg had drifted in to seaward
of us and the fast ice was breaking up near the edge. We steamed up the coast to
inspect the ice edge, first to Piggott Bay and the Gin Bottle, where we found no iceramps
at all. A huge new iceberg in Piggott represented part of the ice shelf that had
broken off and tilted. We saw about 50 emperor penguins and 50 crabeater seals in
Piggott Bay. There was still plenty of fast ice in the bay and some pack, very sharpangled,
where it had broken up. That morning I was delighted to see and elephant
seal (c 6 yr old male) on an ice floe - an unusual sight in those latitudes. Then we
moved on down the coast again. Robin Plumley (Second/Officer?) was charting the
shelf ice edge again. There had been little general change, but small local changes in
the creeks and other small-scale features. The base had moved [1-6?] nautical miles
in two years, but was still 2 nm from the edge. We could see stains in the ice cliffs at
various levels, representing the remains of the original International Geophysical
Year (IGY) base (built l956); the deepest were about 60-70 ft below the surface.
We saw about a dozen minke whales, one breaching - its belly a perfect shining
white. We counted about 20 emperor penguins, the largest group comprising six.
We passed on south to the Dawson-Lambton Glacier and turned back on reaching
76°S. On all this stretch of coast there were no places suitable for a relief operation
(no creeks and no ramps) and the fast ice was extensive in Precious Bay and to the
south. When we returned to Mobster Creek the fast ice, although 7-8 ft thick was
undulating in a heavy swell and one could see ripples travelling along its surface.
The base members were waiting back at the thicker and safer 3-year old ice and we
put the bow in and let down a rope ladder for them to come aboard. At 6 o’clock we
really had to leave and they climbed down onto the ice, which was breaking up by
then, and ran back to the thicker ice. As we left they set off some of the pink smoke
flares and a bright cloud rolled down the creek towards us. They also fired red
signal flares and the ship returned the salute with some parachute flares. The sun
was shining brilliantly as it had done throughout a very successful relief operation.
We steamed northwards past apparently interminable ice cliffs beyond the low
shelf. There the ice shelf extended much further to the west than the satellite chart
showed. Then a marvelous experience ensued: a remarkable concentration of whales
in groups of up to 20 appeared, each attended by flocks of feeding Antarctic petrels,
flying at about the same speed as the whales were swimming and evidently able to
see the whales under the surface. These were minkes - some partly breaching - often
in line abreast, their position marked by a line of 'puffs’. It seemed clear that the
birds were using the whales as indicators of food. Naughtily, Stuart chased some of
the whales to get a closer view and Bransfield easily overtook them at about 12 knots.
The colours were breathtaking: bergs to the west of us had pale Reckitt's-blue cliffs,
purple-pink tops, and lemon yellow sides where facing the sun. All were made
mysterious by the mirage-refraction effects. The colouring of the sky was graduated
through pink at the horizon to yellow-green-blue on high, with alto-cumulus clouds
a pale beige. The mainland cliffs continued as a deep yellow wall and whales were
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