Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

chaotic blocks of ice - like the Hinge Zone near Halley. Then we came to the Russian
depot, and the BAS depot. The crack in the Shelf which has been worrying people,
because it might lead to the loss of this depot, didn't look too serious. The German
Filchner Station we didn't see, but Drushnaya II was clearly visible - another small
village of container-type structures.
There was no shore lead along the southern border of the pack ice and when 70
miles away from the Peninsula, we began to climb to get above the cloud. Eventually
we came into clear weather over Southern Palmer Land - a vast snow plateau,
pierced by occasional nunataks and with distant mountains. Alexander Island came
into view across the Sound and we flew diagonally across to Fossil Bluff. There was
very little surface water on the ice in the Sound at that time. We landed at the Bluff ,
still in good weather, where Peter Stark (…) and Barry Finch (….) were waiting,
having made four fuel drums ready for us. We drove down to the Bluff for tea and
mince pies. It was looking very spic-and-span, clean and tidy and freshly repainted.
I had a quick look around. (While we were at the Bluff Ed Murton flew in with six
drums of fuel to re-stock the depot). Then we went on to Rothera, flying up the
Sound and across Marguerite Bay, with lovely evening views, to touch down at
Rothera in sunshine. John Hall (Field Operations Manager) welcomed us, looking
very well and allocated us bunks. It was about 8.30 pm so we had dinner that had
been kept hot for us: Director's soup, Salmon Pie and Spotted Dick! A beer or two
and talk. I was told that a Weddell seal had recently turned up at Ablation Lake - 100
miles from the sea and about 30 miles from the nearest tide pool at Carse Point. I got
to bed about 1 o’clock Halley time.
I had a disturbed night because the radio room was directly above my bunk and
there was a lot of traffic. I checked next morning and discovered that Maurice, the
Radio Officer, was a keen radio ham and happened to be night watchman that week!
We spent the morning talking with John Hall about field operations practice and
field parties. After lunch we went up to the skiway with Steve Garrett (geophysicist),
Howard Thompson (electronics technician), Eric and Charles. We were shown the
equipment for aeromagnetics and radio-echo sounding developed by Jim Turton.
This was very impressive and state-of-the-art. Steve and Howard demonstrated it to
us. It was an example of the interdisciplinary advantages within BAS. [in relation to
the airborne magnetometer - unexplained phenomenon explained by Mike Pinnock.
We had a cup of tea and talked with the air mechanics and Richard Hasler, one of the
three pilots, before returning to base.
We spent most of the morning and again in the afternoon inspecting the base with
John Hall. It was running very well and on the whole was in good shape. On our
rounds we stopped to talk on a wide range of topics as they came up. Afterwards
Charles, Eric and myself walked around the fuel dumps and up to the fuel bladders
and the memorial cross on the point. It was a lovely still evening, with a low sun that
was warming. We sat there on the point talking and taking in the view - which is
superb in all directions - until dinner time. After dinner I was going again for a walk
when John Bell (Doctor) said some of them were going boating and would I like to
come along. So I joined them. We took the two small plastic dinghies, with seagull
outboards. Vic was with us and Pete and Ron in the other. We had to pole our way
out through the brash into South Bay. Then we started the outboards and passed
around the point to the North Bay - through a number of grounded icebergs.
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