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

kill and post mortem some seals for the research (described later) and a heavy sea
arose quickly so that I judged it unsafe to return by boat. Unfortunately there was no
suitable beach on which to haul up the heavy boat so we left her moored in a
sheltered cove on the north side of the point. The heavy sea didn't subside for several
days and our boat was smashed to pieces; on the third day it had been reduced to
one plank, which was still tied onto the mooring rope! On 27 March we found a few
more bits of and one oar intact. It was bad luck and truly a disaster for us. I had to
prepare a report on the loss of course, but the Governor was very decent about it and
later a Norwegian pram dinghy was brought in from the Falklands to take its place.
Unfortunately the expected greenhouse parts had not all arrived with the ship.
The heating stove did arrive however, and the pipes which were to have heated the
greenhouse. I planned to install the stove in the laboratory and run the pipes through
into the new room we had begun to construct. It would be useful to have some more
space, as the hut got crowded at times, especially when we were all at home. We
installed the heating system as planned, and early April found John and I thawing
out the heating pipes with blowlamps and lighting the stove. All seemed to be going
very well but then we noticed a trickle of water coming from the boiler. It had
cracked in at least three places along the welded joints probably due to residual
water in the boiler, expanding earlier as it froze. This put paid to our plans for
‘central heating.’
In the middle of April I nailed my winter boots using up my own supply of Swiss
tricounis. My feet were very troublesome and that morning even while inside I had a
touch of frostbite! The floor temperature was about -13°C. Probably my feet would
have been all right if I had kept moving. I had a haircut that day and shaved off my
beard. Result - unrecognizable! Incidentally we made a practice of growing our
beards for about six months and then remaining clean-shaven for the next six
months; that way we introduced a little variety into our small society in the form of
new faces!
Another day early in July I burned my hands on the cooking stove and spent the
rest of the day working in the Nissen. I got through checking most of the stores. Next
day I spent some time digging out food crates buried under the snow, finished
checking the food stores and typed out lists in the evening. When I retired to bed at
10.30 pm I had a cold - contracted from the straw in the crates I supposed. I drew
plans of the new internal arrangement for the Nissen hut and started a new food
ration book scheme. I tackled the Post Office, dealt summarily with the stamp
collectors and began on the balance sheets. In August l949 I finished cataloguing the
negatives and started to copy the list into the photographic register; I also sorted out
and marked all the prints. This took a few days and then I began on the photographic
register, logging all the prints. Another day I spent some time digging out drifts and
a kerosene drum buried 6 ft down.
On 24 August 1949 I began writing the Yearly Report; it was going to be a long
job because we had achieved so much. Next day I worked on my seal report most of
the day. In September I did more work on the seal data and later began to write the
bird report. On 30 November I wrote up the biological register in the morning and
then worked on the snowy petrel report. Derek was working on his glaciological
report. On 8 December I spent most of the day sorting and packing specimens and
duplicating station lists etc. On 10 December we were all occupied packing
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