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

Chapter 6
Signy Island : Settling in
Base H, Signy Island
I
landed on Signy for the first time on 11 February l948. It was very dull and
cloudy with a fresh breeze from the sea and the base was barely visible
through the mist and rain. Dr Fuchs had been ashore at 6.0am. When he
came back he described how, as he went ashore, he had seen a pile of apparently
dead elephant seals on the beach below the base - and wondered what on earth
the Fids had been up to. But when he landed he was relieved to discover that
they were alive - noisy and smelly - when disturbed.
A Hasty Relief Operation
I was able to go ashore at 7.0 am, and I met Gordon Robin, the outgoing
Base Leader, for the first time. He was an Australian physicist, employed as a
meteorologist, who had intended to do research using radar techniques for
mapping. But the previous year his radar equipment didn't arrive and so he
turned his hand to plane-table mapping of the island and making various
observations on its biology and geology. His companions were three Falkland
Islanders.
The base hut measured about 20 feet x 14 feet in area and stood on a
peninsula, above Factory Cove, in Borge Bay on the East coast of Signy Island. It
commanded very fine views of the mountainous south coast of Coronation
Island to the north and of the North-east coast of Signy. After a quick visit to the
tiny base hut, I spent most of the day heaving stores ashore, as the boat, under
'Tanky' Scadding, brought scow loads of stores in to the boulder beach. It was
heavy and tiring labour, but every one worked hard and effectively as a team.
There were crates of all shapes, sizes and weights, including ponderous 45gallon
drums of fuel, and about twenty tons of anthracite in 56 pound hessian sacks.
All had to be brought ashore to a temporary small floating jetty and then
manhandled across the boulder beach. The base was near the crest of the ridge
118