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

Chapter 17
Cambridge and the Arctic: l952-53
Inuit in Kayak
W
hile I was away -it must have been early in 1952 – Maureen, in Portugal,
met Jimmy Greenfield, who had come over to Portugal to visit his
parents and sister, Rosemary, on leave from his job with Jardine
Matheson in Hong Kong. (His aunt, old Mrs Greenfield was a friend of the
Holmes). She also met the rest of his family and they became good friends and
had a great time together. He fell in love with her - but although she liked him
very much and enjoyed his company, she didn't reciprocate, and there was me
down in the Antarctic! Anyway, Jimmy had returned to the East before I turned
up again.
My return to Europe, via South America and Portugal. Later in l952, I returned to
Europe on John Biscoe from South Georgia to Stanley, then to Montevideo aboard
Fitzroy, sleeping in the day-cabin of Captain Freddie White; it was difficult to
obtain a normal berth!. (Freddie (who was also from Tyneside) and his Falkland
Island wife Nel, were by now good friends). We went via Rio Gallegos in
Patagonia, with a cargo of about 250 sheep. Our course was over the Falklands
Shelf, shallow waters which are notoriously rough, and we lost most of the sheep
in a bad storm, and steep 7-8 m. waves, whipped up by the winds. The sheep
were loose on the foredeck and as the storm grew, one by one they stumbled and
fell, were trampled on by their fellows and became very bloated with digestive
gases. Crewmen continually went on deck to kill and skin them before flinging
the carcasses overboard. The diversion to Rio Gallegos was to deliver the sheep
for slaughter at a frigorifico (a freezer plant), but there were only about 20
survivors, so the journey was not profitable for their owner! The tidal range in
Patagonia is very large and I seem to remember that ships unloaded their cargo at
low tide after they settled on the mud in the estuary. This was a brief call, before
we went on to Montevideo in Uruguay. During a few days there day Freddie and
I had an enjoyable drive to Punta del Este, a select resort up the coast, stopping
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