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

might have to get up during the night to open the window. Some mornings we
would find that the stove had burnt out overnight due to the wind, but we cooked
breakfast on the primuses.
Many days passed quickly just doing odd jobs. At the end of June the chimney of
the cooking stove collapsed due to rusting. Ralph and I spent much of a morning
seated on top of the whaling digesters and taking it in turn to saw through a length
of old 6 inch iron piping, which we needed for its repair. We carried it up the hill
after knocking the accumulated moss and rubbish of 20 years from it. Then we
erected it with Derek's help. Though crooked it turned out to be a great
improvement. Another day we took the water tank outside to clean it, quite a job for
the three of us, as it required careful maneuvering to move it at all.
In July we received a message from Dr Fuchs about the coal sacks - they were
valuable @ 5/6d each - and should be carefully husbanded!
One spring day in October it was mild and wet and we spent the morning
clearing up; I dug the drift from the laboratory, duckboarding and porch and took
the door of the lab out to dry. We made a bonfire of rubbish and removed some junk
from the lab. Derek meanwhile tidied up around the door of the hut, the thaw
continued and it was very soggy outside. One November day my diary notes that I
had a lot to do so remained behind when the others went out. I was cook that week,
so did the usual chores associated with the cooking - emptying gash bucket, refilling
stove, removing ashes and cleaning the Esse cooker. I carried water, washed clothes,
baked bread, developed a film, attended to the small ‘aquarium’ we had built to hold
marine life temporarily (and took the sea temperature), etc. It all took time. Next
morning I cooked, carried water, did washing etc. Ralph put a pane of glass in the
generator hut, smashed when the starting cord broke and he fell over into it. After
that he began to scrape out the dory, prior to re-painting it. Derek was typing out the
results of the triangulation and plotting it on the map. Later I filled in new data on
my graphs and worked out a framework for the annual base report. There were other
reports to write before the ship arrived, a general clean-up, stores inventories etc.
Early in November I began the annual report with the compilation of tables of
data and over the next 2 or 3 weeks we were all occupied on writing reports and
other papers for the relief. Derek worked on the survey report. I was preparing
graphs etc. for the elephant seal report and writing and typing it. I also wrote a Bird
Report and catalogue of ‘Paintings and sketches’. Then we worked several evenings
on stores inventories etc. in the Nissen hut until supper. I helped Ralph with the
Nissen hut cleanup and we had a bonfire. Ralph was working on the canteen stores
and bills and typing stores lists. My personal telegram account worked out at £8.3.0; I
had sent 22 of them. Writing reports went on until the end of November and on 3
December the ship arrived.
After the Relief. In early December after the ship left we had lost Ralph to Base G,
Admiralty Bay and acquired John Kendall and Charlie Skilling. John was a
Yorkshireman, grey haired and much older than the rest of us, with few interests
other than his work. He had been a nurse in a mental home (or ‘asylum’ as they were
called in those days), a quiet man, with some gruesome stories to tell. He was now
our Radio operator and seldom went out, having no interest in the wildlife or scenery
it seemed. Charlie was a slim, dark haired 19-year-old Falkland Islander, with a
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