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

photographs. My agreement with the Colonial Office provided for me to retain the
drawings for my own use "for a reasonable time after my return to England." I sent
one to Brian Roberts so that he would be aware of their quality, so they would send
me more materials when I ordered them!
In that first winter Ralph was busy making a cabinet or chest of
drawers/dressing table; it was a beautiful piece of miniature work, in walnut from a
packing case. I made a sealskin tobacco pouch one evening. Ralph also built a model
aeroplane and a matchstick model - of what I don’t recall.
Radio programmes: On 26 March l948 we heard on the radio the usual preliminary to
the Boat Race - interviewing the boatmen. At 11.45 am, next day we listened to the
commentary of the race. Cambridge - of course - won easily by six lengths in the
record time of 17 min 50 sec (cf the previous fastest time of 18 min 3 sec in l934). They
caught a crab at the start but picked up very well and rowed home easily.
We heard the BBC Overseas Programme News when ionospheric conditions
permitted but this varied with the seasons.
One night we listened to Eric Barker and Co. in ‘Merry-go-round’. This was most
amusing and somehow Sir Adrian Boult had been induced to take part. He was most
amusing but one felt that this might be the thin end of the wedge; next thing would
be Bernard Shaw in ‘Itma’. The comedy series ‘Much Binding in the Marsh’ set in a
RAF station was a regular favourite. We also listened to serious talks; one I recall was
a very interesting talk by the scientist John Hammond on ‘artifical pregnancy’. We
heard readings from literature, for example John Buchan's ‘The Three Hostages’. We
listened to the various FIDS programmes on the radio and enjoyed the record
requests. We heard several entertaining or interesting programmes on the BBC
World Service on the radio and ‘Ring up the Curtain’, a selection from Sadler's Wells
ballets, including ‘The Gods go a Begging’ I remember.
I noted that one evening in March we listened to Beethoven's 7th and Mozart's
39th Symphonies; later that month, when there was heavy snow outside drifting up
to the windows, we listened to Schubert's ‘Unfinished’ - the only symphony we
possessed on record. We heard some Easter music from a South American station. By
May the days were becoming very short and we enjoyed a Sibelius quartet and two
Beethoven sonatas and in June I went to sleep with Schubert's fifth on the radio. In
September we listened to Leonora no. 3 and the ‘Haffner’ Symphony on radio one
afternoon. Another afternoon we listened to a Beethoven Prom - Leonora no.3, the 1st
Piano Concerto and 4th Symphony. It was good to have these reminders of
civilization, though the pianist was not very good and reception was poor.
We were completely ‘off the air’ for 6 weeks from November l948 to January l949
when the generator broke down, so we greatly missed the radio programmes and
had to rely more on our records. However this was a time of year when we were
very much occupied with field-work. But one consequence was that we were
completely out of touch with the outside world, and it left gaps in our general
knowledge. For example the Berlin airlift began in June l948 and lasted to 30
September l949; during part of this politically formative time we were off the air.
Reading. A small library of a less than a hundred books was provided from a ships’
library service. Derek and I had brought down some books with us, which was
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