Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

were quite different in this respect. There were bergs offshore and some brash, but
otherwise a bright blue sea. I retired at 00.30 am expecting to reach Vahsel Bay and
Shackleton Base next day.
I woke at intervals through the 'night' and looked out of my port to see the coast
of Antarctica going by. On the whole this was a rather dull stretch with rounded
contours and few icefalls. But the grounded bergs were there in great variety. The
sun should have set at 1.15 am, but I was asleep then and the rest of the 'night' it
was broad daylight. I was called at 7.30 am and went up on to the bridge. Our
passage had been delayed by pack ice, but we expected to reach Vahsel Bay (78°S)
by 11.0 o’clock. A great feature of that day was the frost smoke, which made the
sea appear to be boiling - dense clouds of 'steam' arising from the surface and even
more in the turbulent wake of the ship. It seemed that choppy seas and rougher
water enhance it, as evidenced by the effect of the ship's passage. It gave rise to
some very beautiful lighting effects, with the coast and bergs appearing ghostlike
through the haze. The air temperature went down to minus 18.5°C, which was of
course the main reason for the prolific 'smoke' production. Once it enveloped us as
we approached Vahsel Bay we saw the coast either faintly through a haze or not at
all - but it showed up on the radar screen.
Just before Vahsel Bay was a bay covered by fast ice with some ice falls in the
hinterland. Weddell, crabeater and leopard seals were hauled out and three killer
whales swam close to the ship. There were also a few emperor penguins; snow
petrels and Antarctic petrels were the only other birds. On we went through the
frost smoke along the fast ice, then low shelf ice, merging into shelf ice. We came
close to the shelf near Shackleton and could see its radar reflection very clearly
about 3/4 mile in from the sea. It was minus 20°C and a wind of about 25 knots was
blowing. Tom put the ship bow-on to the ice at a point where the cliffs were just
higher than the bow. It was running at half-speed on automatic pilot, which kept it
bow-on to the cliff. Roger Daynes took out a rope up the slope above the cliff and
the first party of Fids set out for Shackleton Base, armed with shovels to dig out the
entrance shaft. I followed with the second group, over hard sastrugi in a bitterly
cold wind, beards and moustaches freezing white from people's breath. Over the
shelf to Shackleton, which was clearly marked by an array of radio masts. Down
the entrance shaft we scrambled to the loft, dusted by the fine accumulation of ice
crystals; then on down a ladder to the ground floor. It impressed me as very
spacious and strongly constructed, much larger than I had expected. One plywoodcovered
wall was covered with signatures of the original members of the team and
those of later visitors. Unfortunately the place had been ransacked by visitors and
little portable equipment remained. We spent some time looking around and then
climbed up the entrance shaft again and walked back to the ship, seeing a good
‘paraselene’ (sun bow?) through the drift. It was much more pleasant walking
down wind.
We were back by 3 o’clock and at 4.30 pm Bransfield backed away from the cliff
and headed back to Halley Bay. About 20 miles north of the Filchner Ice shelf the
frost smoke had gone and we headed up into the Weddell Sea through a fine sunny
evening, passing through occasional belts of pack ice and groups of grounded
bergs. After dinner there were beautiful skies with salmon-pink clouds. A clear
sunny morning followed with calm sea and temperature up to minus 6.1°C. By 8
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