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

oomed FIDS base hut. We were surrounded by dirty snow slopes, with black
ash slopes like slag-heaps sloping down to the shore. In the natural harbour
was an Argentine gunboat, the size of a small tug, and HMS ‘Snipe’; the
Governor was on board her making an inspection of his territory. Here the
aircraft was landed and the stores for the next year's party. As we turned to
unloading stores ‘Snipe’ sailed for Signy Island and South Georgia.
We unlashed the deck cargo again. First in order to gain access to the hold
we had to unload two large crates containing the de Havilland Hornet Moth
aircraft, which were blocking the entrance and a period of inactivity ensued,
while a method was worked out to get the aircraft ashore. The crew built a
large raft from ship’s life rafts (Carley floats) and empty drums. Then, most
precariously perched, the plane was taken ashore. (Sadly, the skis for the plane
still had to come from Canada and later on her second cruise ‘Snipe’ brought in
a case thought to contain them, but when opened it was found to contain only
stove pipes. Without skis the Hornet Moth in its crates remained on the beach
until it was taken back to Stanley a year later! )
Then the rest of the cargo was landed. We didn't have an opportunity to
explore the island, or even the vicinity of the base, and after a hectic three days
we left Deception at 10.30 am, on 8 February, passing under the huge basalt
cliffs of Neptune's Bellows and heading for Signy Island at last. We saw the
outer side of the island now - black beaches, caves and grotesque rock
formations and bizarre colouring. Livingston Island was visible to the
southwest. At 2 o’clock Cape Melville was 11 miles off, at 7 o’clock Penguin
Island near Admiralty Bay was 12 miles off and at 9.30 pm we saw Bridgeman
Island, an extinct volcano, which occasionally shows a trace of smoke. (It
looked like a large version of the Bass Rock). Then we passed the rugged, snow-
and ice-covered, Elephant and Clarence Islands. It was on inhospitable Elephant
Island that Ernest Shackleton's expedition had spent some months in 1916 living
under boats while Shackleton and five others others sailed 1450km to South
Georgia in a modified whaleboat too organize a rescue.
We were accompanied by large numbers of Wilson's petrels, many capepigeons,
black-browed and mature wandering albatrosses, a light-mantled
sooty albatross, grey giant-petrels and a few ghostly silver-grey fulmars. I saw
my first sheathbill. Also during the morning six killer whales were sighted a
mile away, and blue whale and fin whale spouts throughout the day. We passed
between large tabular bergs calved from ice shelves far to the south, with many
caves coloured in blues and greens. We called these ‘whale hangars’. The water
was blue at the foot of the ice cliffs, fringed by a shallow ram or ‘beach’. Brash
ice streamed or formed narrow lines among the icebergs. We disturbed a flock
of twenty silver-grey fulmars and cape-pigeons were abundant. I also saw an
almost pure white giant-petrel with only a few small black specks on the upper
wing. The ship’s noon position was 61° 47' S 54° 17´'W.
Next day we passed through many icebergs of all shapes and sizes. I have
never seen such a concentration since and the initial novelty soon wore off, but
they remain amongst the most beautiful sights of the Antarctic. It is only in
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