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

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Swedish-British expedition so as to give them some dogs. So I didn't expect they would try very hard to get to us, and if they did they wouldn't stay long. On 14 December we realized that Biscoe was north of King George Island and steaming at 7 1 2 knots through fog, course 054°; apparently she had now developed engine trouble. On 7 January we overheard a signal detailing the movements of the Biscoe but were little the wiser and on 11 January Ralph came up on R/T for a chat, but still no news of the Biscoe's plans. My diary doesn’t say much about the summer period December to February, when I was immersed in my field researches. Then, on [23 February 1950] the John Biscoe arrived at our island with HE the Governor on board. She departed on [28 February], with Derek, John, Charlie and me on board, first call Port Stanley. During the five days, which passed very quickly, I had several discussions with Miles [Clifford] about my work and plans, which involved spending six months at Cambridge, writing up and preparing for a year at South Georgia, to study elephant seals and the sealing industry there. I also joined in the relief operation, again helping to transport many tons of stores and supplies by hand 70 feet up the rocky slope to the base site. It had been decided increase the complement to 5 and to rebuild the base. Bill Sladen was the new Base Leader and I handed over to him. With him were John Cheal (Surveyor), Eric Salmon (Meteorologist), Ron Worswick, and Dave Duke (radio operator). While the handover and re-supply went ahead the materials for enlarging the base, incorporating our old home, were unloaded and building began. It had also been decided to remove the husky dogs from Argentine Islands base and three teams were put ashore at Signy. During my research we had collected a supply of seal meat for dog food, we helped with the feeding process, and got to know them. We envied our successors their luck in having these splendid animals to keep them company and make winter travel easier. They were to help with the geological and topographical survey of Coronation Island until 1964. A journalist, Douglas Liversidge, was on the ship and conducted several interviews with me. I also demonstrated aspects of my field work and collecting methods, which later led to several articles and a book by Liversidge. During this time too the John Biscoe visited Sandefjord Bay at the western end of Coronation Island, where a base had been constructed in February 1945. (The original intention had been to establish a station on Signy Island in 1944, but this was not achieved and the hut was erected instead at Sandefjord Bay, in February 1945, although there were insufficient personnel to occupy it. Instead a new hut at Cape Geddes, Laurie Island replaced it in 1946. Both the Sandefjord Bay hut and the Cape Geddes hut (especially) were vastly superior in size and comfort to our primitive little home on Signy. ) We went ashore, on the way seeing at close quarters a leopard seal killing a penguin in the brash ice. We discovered that the base hut had been erected inside a dense penguin rookery. Apart from the noise there was a pervasive smell – particularly oppressive in the pure Antarctic air – and having climbed the cliffs into the rookery we were spattered by penguin faeces as birds fleeing from us threw up shit with their flippers and spattered our clothes. When we got back to the ship I was standing on the main deck when, from above the jacket of a suit followed by a pair of trousers, fluttered into the sea. Looking up I saw that it was Douglas, who had foolishly worn a suit to visit the base hut, and evidently now considered it was permanently ruined! 241
Then at the end of February just over two enjoyable and exciting years after we had first landed on Signy we departed, as I then thought probably for ever, heading directly for the Falkland Islands. We were disappointed to have no opportunity of seeing either the Antarctic Peninsula, or South Georgia. 242
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LARGE ANIMALS AND WIDE HORIZONS: AD
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FOREWORD When Richard M. Laws retir
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we might say today and led to deep
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We collaborated with the Royal Navy
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Chapter 1 Northumberland: Boy on th
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occasional nugget for money. The po
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to the cheers of the supporters. Cr
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from the allotments. I can still ta
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From my perspective local politics
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Because we returned each year for s
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uined abbey and a castle on a rocky
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a new lightweight "Raleigh" bicycle
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Chapter 2 Exploring the Lake Distri
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snow, catching the light and shadow
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keen climber and member of the Fell
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irds; stones and rocks abounded and
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The old school buildings were in Cu
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on mycorrhiza (the beneficial close
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inculcated self-reliance and practi
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who came by boat across the lake. S
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need of rest from the incessant air
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matter!" One Saturday in May l941 I
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straightforward until we came to th
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was still another 2 1 2 miles acros
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very strange as he was evidently a
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anything like it, hadn’t the fain
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Chapter 3 A Cambridge Student I tra
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stodgy dried egg omelettes late at
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never saw him because he cut most o
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patrolled the DR. At the end of eac
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Cultural influences at that time Sy
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Reading parties and vacation work I
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Holme, Ken Ashby, Alan Cock, Elspet
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Brian had done some novel work on p
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went up to Topsham and sampled the
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Office. Brian and Colin were biolog
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Islands and the Debenham Islands (i
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observations of their behaviour. I
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I was sorry to miss my elder brothe
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suspected it might have been the re
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The menu was: Soup - Turkey Sage an
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adjust the binocular focus to watch
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On New Year’s Eve it was extremel
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them off the ship, into the launch
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and the others followed in quick su
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in South Georgia and today the stew
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Of bawdy laughter penetrate Unto th
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Will be safe to step on and drink B
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anaesthetic - Pentathol - required
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After a very enjoyable and noisy ev
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chorus girl from Leicester. David a
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The Falkland Islands Then, at 4.45
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Next day I was on galley duty so th
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anchiae, and a large encrusting spo
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meet Derek. They were out but I fou
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was a black terminal band to the ta
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midsummer when some begin to get di
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ehind, about 70 feet above sea leve
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times during l929-1937. In l931/32
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leading to North Point is more or l
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seldom below -12°C. In terms of hu
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the ice faces of the peaks and the
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filled the gaps with wood wool and
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Work continued on the fitting out a
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Hill (907ft). This is the highest p
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A fortnight later, we decided to go
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Giant petrel colonies were numerous
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We cut across Orwell Glacier and ro
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more we set off down - but not befo
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Derek and I had a look at a rock ex
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145
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"the thing that strikes you is that
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Fuchs to arrange for us to be sent
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As to rubbish disposal, the site wa
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lively, questioning mind. He fitted
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specimens, clothes etc. and there w
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ut healed fairly quickly. I caught
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presence of others got one down. In
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Cooking. During the winter we were
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irthday. The birthday cake was very
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11 February l949 was the anniversar
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Edward Wilson, the biologist with C
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fortunate, as apart from a few nove
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4 ft., banking up snow behind some
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173
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eflected in the writing. Summer l94
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1.2°C and +1 °C, there was a cont
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was a touch green in hue. A few sno
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completely broke up the ice in the
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then shot up to -4°C overnight, fa
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sudden deepening from 2 ft to 5 ft
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accessible. We had breakfast and lo
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its fore-flippers. I took a series
Page 192 and 193: fine sunset effect on the Coronatio
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Page 196 and 197: full of brash ice and small growler
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Page 200 and 201: was fitter than the others because
Page 202 and 203: immatures had been absent for some
Page 204 and 205: possible to lie full length, even d
Page 206 and 207: should provide about 4 500 calories
Page 208 and 209: as was standard practice, because o
Page 210 and 211: journey of about the same duration
Page 212 and 213: journey, asking for details. Derek
Page 214 and 215: It was a misty day when I looked ou
Page 216 and 217: to my bosom, while Derek fiddled wi
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Page 220 and 221: On 1 August the temperature was -14
Page 222 and 223: sledge. He was bleeding from one or
Page 224 and 225: sledge slightly differently, with t
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Page 228 and 229: In mid-July we listened to the FIDS
Page 230 and 231: We heard that the "John Biscoe" had
Page 232 and 233: The ships left on 5 December. I was
Page 234 and 235: 18!); also various thermometers, st
Page 236 and 237: to study a very large established e
Page 238 and 239: year. In May 1949 I pursued the pro
Page 240 and 241: specimens back myself under my pers
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Page 246 and 247: Signy. The leopard is supposed to b
Page 248 and 249: possible. The shore here was deeply
Page 250 and 251: and it was then time for lunch. The
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Page 254 and 255: unpleasant and salutary incident il
Page 256 and 257: while I watched for an hour in a sn
Page 258 and 259: the webs. As Ralph walked away all
Page 260 and 261: Cow ‘green 7’ flipped snow onto
Page 262 and 263: (medical) stretcher to weigh the el
Page 264 and 265: another bull approached to some 60
Page 266 and 267: the harem. From this it appeared th
Page 268 and 269: Weddell - probably a 3-yr old femal
Page 270 and 271: cleaned the skin; lighting a fire a
Page 272 and 273: Two other females seemed to be ‘e
Page 274 and 275: proved to be pregnant. Next day a m
Page 276 and 277: mother had a large bloodstained sca
Page 278 and 279: attle-scarred males. There appeared
Page 280 and 281: side to side on the pup’s body as
Page 282 and 283: the young Weddell pups. We put flip
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Page 286 and 287: The only other birds were the Antar
Page 288 and 289: In the next few days we watched Dom
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shrimping net. He put up the terns,
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one's fingers are anywhere near the
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wings. The undersurface of the body
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notice. It was restless, scratching
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I began to construct what I called
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A week later, penguins were still a
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fish's? There was a lovely tern chi
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e sure of identification in future.
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lew about all over the place. They
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appeared to be formed but occasiona
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gentoos and Adélies - stopping and
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first skua egg near Balin Point. Th
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we helped with the feeding process,
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in order to introduce the species t
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wine, examples of Madeira needlewor
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and visited each other in our respe
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several years published a short pap
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about obtaining registration for th
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She had been thinking about visitin
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got up to go he said, "Oh, by the w
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a grazing tussock beetle was the cu
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showed up startlingly. We put the s
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‘hairy’ fringe over the cliff e
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New Island, Beaver Island and Wedde
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where we still hoped to land, weath
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The evening passed quickly with tea
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and then headed towards Albemarle R
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were towed back to the station and
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This was the first station to be es
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dryers, the guano store, would be f
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Hestesletten of Mt Paget (2915m) an
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and the light administrative duties
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on the rocks. We launched the dingh
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(formerly to Lever Bros.). The wind
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Most of the charts of South Georgia
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flensed from the seal in eight stri
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However, the chart appeared to be s
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to the almost landlocked inner bay.
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lock of rock. We erected the two te
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ow back to Grytviken along the oute
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the cows red-tail. Two of the cows
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(bull O) had 14 cows and 2 pups. Bu
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In area 10 there was one harem of 2
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1 October was a fine morning with l
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In area 6 several cows had hauled o
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them a most interesting monster - S
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There were two harems in area 11, o
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the cows and creates a bank in the
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Then the pup slid out in a rush at
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Discovery Point and more extensive
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depart on the first visit of Biscoe
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of it, although her motor boat made
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The South Georgia Survey team had h
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397
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for lunch on the way for steaks and
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An Arctic Voyage. A friend from ear
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We did three bottom temperature cas
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gone to a dentist in England - anot
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As the trawlers lay all night gutti
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At that time FIDS had no future job
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411
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cutters of 30 to 40 tons that were
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eginning of April, but since Novemb
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and 316 kg of meat and bone meal. F
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the total annual catch. But a decli
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were stable and natural mortality r
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population - the initial cohort - w
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so far. In fact the average oil yie
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In 1963 sub-let its lease to the in
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In the event, when I became Directo
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departure was delayed and we weren'
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There was not too much to do and I
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On 30 November, a few hours sailing
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equivalent to one blue whale, two f
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sperm whale work. Worked till eight
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time on the whaling grounds. We had
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from the stern. One was hauled aboa
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oil and yesterday the expedition
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say, to avoid going over the side,
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was a bitterly cold wind on deck. I
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long low black cloud on the horizon
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uoy, with a wire loop through which
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managed to avoid the ice floes; had
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word because they told me that it s
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Then to Haut Bay, which was very be
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keen sense of humour and stimulatin
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Taking a picnic we drove to Carvoer
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illiantly coloured and the calcite
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Because of the Navy's great interes
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Arthur Stride, was a marine geologi
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work on Balaena. and would be bette
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In l958 I was an invited speaker at
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Molde and had lunch at the hotel. T
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patches of sun. The ferry called at
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479
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Scotland and the Hebrides, about my
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Next day Brenda was off Rona at mid
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We spent a little time that day on
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cleft in the rocks - it was unable
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inspected the landing place to asce
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Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

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