Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

the sun was hidden it was a very beautiful sight. At 6 o’clock another Ross seal was
sighted at 72°30'S, 29°10'W, the third this voyage (it is one of the rarer seal species).
There was an emperor on a floe and crabeaters were more numerous - eight within
200 m of the ship over half an hour. I went up to the conning position at the
masthead for a while, from which one got a very commanding view all around.
During the day many crabeaters were sighted – a relative term because only 40-50
were seen; also another three Ross seals. They are very distinctive even at a
distance, with a definite edge between the dark back and the light belly, small
stripes on the flanks, the shape of the head and the lack of a neck. Their attitude
when disturbed is head-up as against the crabeater's level head. We also saw one
leopard seal at 2.30 pm in 73°50'S, 27°W. Another leopard and a Ross at 3.45 pm,
two more Ross seals at 4.55 and 5.20 pm (making nine Ross seals that voyage so far
- more than I had ever seen before). There was a number of flocks of terns, a few
snow and Antarctic petrels, one giant petrel and a whale which was evidently
asleep at the surface, was startled and dived - a minke.
For most of the day we were in bright sunshine, an unforgettable experience in
the glistening virgin white, blues, mauves and greens of the pack, the sun glinting
in the small pools and off the ice surface. There were some bergs around too. We
were still in sunshine when we sat down for dinner and a film afterwards - about
Al Capone - very much out of context! Then clouds appeared, but it was still very
crisp and pleasant in the extensive shore lead fringing the continent. It became
colder and we saw brilliant refraction and mirage effects, so that icebergs and
distant pack ice appeared to be high above the horizon. Finally we made out the
cliffs of the ice shelf when we were still twelve miles off (we had seen them earlier
on the radar) and also the inland ice, perhaps 30 miles distant. To the north was the
low shelf area and the tortured ice of the ‘Gin Bottle’, with the ‘Chips’ (inlets)
showing as lighter-coloured areas. We then saw the headlands appearing, first
‘High Headland’ and at about 10.30 pm the chimney - a 40 ft back tower of 40
gallon oil drums that the base have erected as a beacon - 12 miles away, came into
sight. We could also see the aerial masts and other structures of the base, as well as
flags and barrels marking routes over the ice surface - as we got nearer. At 11.30
pm we could see into ‘Second Chip’, one of a series of creeks that cut into the shelf
ice. This was where we expected to tie up and unload the cargo, so we noted the
fast ice in the creek, then turned away to sea, as it was a bit early to start going
alongside and tying-up. To bed at 00.15 am after an exceptionally interesting day.
On that Sunday morning we were up at 6.30 am and shortly afterwards the ship
nosed into ‘Second Chip’ and alongside the fast ice, which was about 7-8 ft thick
and represented one winter's accumulation. The chip was only a little wider than
the ship was long and so Tom Woodfield put the bow against one side and
somehow edged Bransfield alongside at 7.30 am. Lines were put ashore and Fids
landed by cargo nets on the fast ice. They hauled the thick hawsers inland and
attached them to ‘deadmen’ - 8 ft logs of wood - dug into pits in the fast ice. Parties
also went up onto the shelf ice and attached other lines at bow and stern. A
gangway was put down and unloading began, first the two muskegs tractors
needed for the cargo handling.
The BC, Roger Daynes, came aboard and we talked about Halley Base and the
problems last winter etc, and I arranged to inspect the base that afternoon. Then at
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