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

the mail and two men who were to join me, along with a radio operator for the next
year.
Of the newcomers to base Jim Chaplin was to be the meteorological officer (Derek
remaining for the summer) and Charlie Skilling, a Falkland Islander, was employed
as a handyman and general assistant. Jim, a Navy meteorologist during the war, had
been a keen Boy Scout; he knew one or two people that I knew. Charlie was young,
only l9, and I wasn't sure how he would settle in. No replacement radio operator had
arrived and so we were left without one until the ship called in again. We would be
able for a time to keep in touch by listening to BBC programmes but unable to send
anything out. It was a little worrying as we were now to be completely cut off from the
outside. If the ship didn't manage to get in again, we would remain so until next
season, late 1949. Although this was most improbable, the lack of medical advice if
anything went wrong in that line was a rather worrying aspect.
It was good to see new faces. The officers of the Sparrow invited us on board for
dinner and we had a good time. They had a stock of good South American wines,
which provided a very enjoyable change to palates anaesthetized by whisky and gin
(all we had). [??] The dinner was good and afterwards we sat around and chatted
and then saw a film ‘Cluny Brown’ – this only served to make civilization less
desirable, but was quite amusing as we were in the mood to be amused after ten
months of making our own entertainment. The Surgeon-Lieutenant was a very
friendly type and showed me around his surgery, supplied me with a pound of
Barneys Punchbowl tobacco, some Field magazines, twelve-bore ammunition and
some anaesthetic (local) in case I had to do some tooth extraction. He also showed me
around the ship – and took me up onto the bridge, the first time I had been around a
warship. He also offered to do some tooth-pulling, but as a dentist was reputed to be
coming around on the second trip, and the surgeon made it plain that he was by no
means expert, we didn't risk it. I had broken a tooth opening a bottle of Enos Fruit
salts at the beginning of the year and it had given me a little trouble. The molar was
flush with the gum – what remained of it. We all had problems from time to time
with fillings that fell out.
Commander Waterhouse the Captain, was a charming man – and very worried
for the safety of his ship in all the ice. He had had a lot of experience of ice in the
Arctic, but said that it was quite different down South. In the north one meets the
pack before the bergs, but in the Antarctic the heavy stuff comes first and is much
more dangerous. In addition the fog which usually surrounded the South Orkneys at
this time of year made it doubly difficult to navigate. The purpose of this trip was a
show of force to impress the Argentines and Chileans that Britain meant business.
The only Argentine warship I had seen up to now was a small thing like a Tyne
tugboat, which was in Deception Island harbour when we arrived there nearly a year
ago. There was an Argentine base about 50 miles from Signy Island, on Laurie Island,
but of course we never saw them. It was possible that they would send a gunboat or
a cruiser down as a show of force – in which case as Magistrate I would have to
deliver a formal note of protest. Major Ken Pierce-Butler, FIDS Secretary, or SecFids,
was on board the Biscoe and gave me my new instructions on the political situation. I
had been afraid that a new policy might be to restrict the activities of the small bases
in view of the accidents of the past year, but this was unfounded.
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