Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

Next day I was on galley duty so the time was virtually wasted, but with
Bill I did manage to get over to see the Hamilton's. Mrs Hamilton, who was
charming, came from Newcastle and we had a long talk. Dr Hamilton, known
as ‘shag’ Hamilton, (from his ornithological interests), a fellow biologist, was the
Government Naturalist, and was formerly employed in the ‘Discovery’
Investigations. He gave me information on dolphins but was not able to meet
my need for a microscope. I had a long zoological talk with him. I also met Mrs
Arthur (wife of the Colonial Secretary) and was invited to "cockers"(cocktails).
Mike Green and Bill, who were with me left early in order to take advantage of
a lorry that was going to the head of the Moody Valley. So I was left to finish the
work in the galley on my own. I spent the afternoon writing and David
arranged for us to go riding after tea with ‘Toothy’ (another naval term for the
government dentist - Gerald Roberts). We went along to the Club dressed for
riding but no horses were forthcoming, so we went back and changed. While
David was at the ship I arranged for us to go out to dinner with Jimmy Sladen,
the Doctor. This was an interesting meal, the other guest being Mr Creece the
Manager of the Falkland Islands Company. We learnt a great deal about the
islands, the way of life there and the sheep-farming settlements in ‘the camp’.
After supper we returned to the club and played liar dice.
On 27 January we all met at Government House in the morning for a stern
talk by Fuchs on ‘fraternising with the crew’. Last night there had been more
trouble - two barrels of rum smuggled ashore by the crew. The Bosun was
again very unmanageable and abusive to the Chief Engineer. It looked as
though he would be discharged – which would be a very good thing.
Afterwards we called at the Treasury to draw £10 spending money and in the
afternoon we did some shopping. A plan by Tankey to borrow a boat to sail
over to Sparrow Cove did not come off. I posted some mail and David obtained
a set of Falkland Islands stamps and had them postmarked. We met ‘Toothy’
later and he informed us that riding was off again. At the same time we met
Doc Arthur, who invited us up to "cockers" with him. This proved to be quite a
party, with the Captain and Mr and Mrs Hamilton present. Mrs Ham was a
very interesting person and had a great sense of humour. We walked back to
the club for a few G & T's and met the Second Officer who we invited to supper.
Back to the Club again for more G & T's, a very short appearance at the dance,
owing to a definite lack of talent, and back to the ship at 1.0 am.
Next day the frigate HMS 'Snipe' arrived early in the morning, bearing HE
the Governor. David and I had arranged sandwiches for lunch to enable us to
take the whole day out and Derek and Ken were going riding. Bill was
unattached and asked if he could come with us. We began at 11 o’clock from
‘the Globe’ having had a beer. There we met Dickie Dawes (the Naval CPO)
again, talking about his "pink mullet" and "forty thousand f*****g gnomes" and
"boozers gloom" at the w/t station. He had frequently experienced DT's and
wasn't at all reticent about the fact. We went up hill and after turning east at the
top hailed a lorry, which took us, together with five kelpers to the hayfield,
where they were going to work. The road ran over a peaty bog and moorland
such as one can see in most parts of the Western Highlands of Scotland.
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