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

We heard that the "John Biscoe" had sailed from England on the 14 October.
Bernard Stonehouse came up on the radio; he had found a king penguin colony on
the Dion Islets. This was very surprising, because they are sub-Antarctic penguins.
Next day there was an official message from Dr Fuchs: "150 king penguins found on
Dion Island, south of Adelaide Island. Will confirm whether king or emperor". In the
event they were of course found to be emperors.
A week later we overheard wireless conversations – that a sledge party had
returned to base at Lockroy and a sledge party from Base E (Stonington) was
expected to be out for another 3 weeks. In the evening Ralph tried to contact radio
hams on R/T, but had no luck. There was a message from the Colonial Secretary that
interested me: A Government Naturalist would be appointed in l949, a sealing
license was being issued – and then he dealt with other affairs. The Falklands were
acquiring two Auster aircraft for public transport about the islands. United Whalers
would share facilities at Deception Island.
I sent a message to Jim Chaplin (meteorologist) who we had learnt was to join us
at Signy) asking him to bring 4 drawing blocks and 6 octavo notebooks. I also sent an
enquiry to the Colonial Secretary re the Government Naturalist post. There was a
message from the Governor asking for ice reports at 1 o’clock daily; evidently the
Biscoe was getting closer.
Tragic news came to us in November when we learned that Eric Platt (Admiralty
Bay geologist) was dead; he had been one of us on the first John Biscoe voyage. Later
we overheard further details. It appeared that he and Jack Weir went over to Cape
Lion's Rump to collect penguin eggs and on the way back Eric had a heart attack and
became almost unconscious. Jack managed to take him to a point 3 miles east of base
and at midnight decided to go to base for help, but Eric was dead when they
returned. So very sad.
The 1948-l949 Relief was approaching. On 16 November 1948 a Radio message
informed us that we could expect the John Biscoe on the 30th. A few days later we
talked to F (Argentine Islands) in the evening and they were all drunk! A week later
a message from Terry Randall casually mentioned that the 22 set (radio) should be
taken to G (Admiralty Bay) by Ralph when he transferred. Another case of Signy left
out in the cold! Fuming, I managed to get this reversed, because we would need it
when we went sledging. I wrote a recommendation for Ralph to the RSGB (the Radio
Society of Great Britain).
On the 28th we heard that the John Biscoe would leave Stanley next day in
company with HMS ‘Sparrow’ (a frigate – sister ship to the Snipe, which had made an
Antarctic cruise down our way last year). All this was exciting, the first potential
break in our nine months of isolation. The two ships steadily approached us and
eventually came out of the fog on the morning of 3 December. The Biscoe had been
refitted and now looked quite different from the glorified barrel in which we sailed
down. They had trouble with icebergs and brash ice; to cope both were fitted with
radar but the Biscoe's set was not functioning. We had been in radio communication
with them for some days and knew more or less where they were all the time until
we saw them. At one point it appeared likely that they would have to turn back, the
ice was so thick, and the usual heavy fog shrouded everything. Both HMS Sparrow
and the John Biscoe anchored just off Berntsen Point and sent boats to the shore with
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