Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

Underneath it was stained a dark ‘Van Dyke brown’. It made several mock
charges at us, growling and showing its teeth, and then moved towards the water
making subdued whimpering sounds. It stopped about four yards from the sea
and lay down again, looking quite undisturbed. I took a number of photos.
Humphrey saw it there later in the day. As we returned to the boat we saw a
single macaroni penguin. There was a particularly interesting sky that night, with
high cirro-cumulus clouds looking like aircraft vapour trails. Probably this
heralded the approach of another depression.
Returning to base I left again after smokoe on another elephant seal count,
making my usual tour of the coastline of Borge Bay. The skuas were particularly
aggressive and persistent and in spite of an ice-axe held high I was painfully
buffeted about the head. There were several male fur seals about and Humphrey
later reported 6, including the golden one, on Gourlay. The elephant seal count
was 1632, about 90% females, comparing with 3532, 86% female, on 26 January
l948 and 2158 on 20-29 January l949. There seemed to have been a reduction in the
numbers of females hauled out.
On 26 January I heard the news of the Uganda coup by Idi Amin over the
radio; it was very remote from my present circumstances. Two days later I went
diving again with Ray and Barry between Cam Rock and Mirounga Cove - on
Mike's sampling site. We anchored the boat and I went down to 35 ft with no
trouble; I didn't even need to clear the mask. The bottom was soft and with weed
patches and a variety of crustacea. We surfaced and moved to Billie Rocks, where
we dived to about 38 ft on the south side - down a steep rock face covered in
seaweeds. to a sandy-mud bottom that sloped away to deeper water. Barry was in
some difficulty with his Fenzy and Ray left me to help him. I had no trouble and
was really enjoying it - no trouble with my ears either and I felt very comfortable
with it. Later I had another dive in the Cove with Ray, collecting cores for Pete.
The next few days we kept to the base and planned the projected landings and
marine sampling from Biscoe in detail. I had another dive on 31 January with
Mike, Owen acting as boatman. We dived just off Mirounga, but it was
exceptionally murky and after a couple of attempts we gave up. On this dive,
which proved to be my last, I was wearing Ray's suit, which fitted me better than
any to date. There were no trickles of icy water from leaking seams at neck and
crutch! I realized then how comfortable one could be diving with proper
equipment. However as it was a little large for me, it held some air and I found it
more difficult to get to the bottom. I had done over seven hours diving on these
first ventures in the sea and lakes, to a depth of 38 ft.
Monday 1 February turned out to be a fine clear day, later becoming sunny
and hot. The Biscoe appeared through Normanna Strait at about 10.30 am and
anchored off about 11 o’clock. I went out in Desmarestia to talk over plans with
John Cole, returning to base for lunch and taking my gear out to the ship. The
mail was welcome, including several letters from Maureen. Unloading was
finished the following morning and Eric, Ian, Pete, Mike and Bob came aboard for
a trip and we moved out to a position in the deeper channel in Normanna Strait,
cut the engines, and did some grab sampling as we drifted. The Baird grab was
working well in about 130 fms and bringing up samples of the clayey ooze and
the animals living in it. Ian and Pete were delighted with their finds. The grab
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