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

As the trawlers lay all night gutting fish, fog descended and in the morning it
was rough. We did a trawl haul and a bottom temperature and then ‘dodged’ a
bit. At 4 pm it was still blowing a gale and we came 160 miles south overnight.
In the morning it was still blowing and worsened during the day, but by 8.30 pm
it seemed to be easing off again. Several were seasick; I spent some time on the
bridge, watching the green ones come over the bows and rush with a roar at the
superstructure.
It was calmer again a few days later and we did a line of stations to Cape
Farewell, then up the East coast doing some bottom temperatures and occasional
trawling and Agassiz trawling. By 16 September we were up near Cape Bille and
I did another sketch of the coast as the ship steamed northwards, taking
soundings at 1 nautical mile intervals. In the evening we did our last trawl haul
and got a net full of ‘soldiers’ and four cod. It was dark by then and we turned
and headed for Reykjavik. I stood on the bridge and watched a most impressive
display of the Northern Lights – huge curtains of green rippling in the sky. The
beard competition was held among the crew and won by Scottie; Newfy was
runner-up with 14 votes (one behind Scottie).
In Iceland waters again and back to Cambridge. On 18 September it was just after
midnight there in Iceland, a clear starry night with the sky enhanced by the
Northern Lights and the mail had just come aboard including a letter from
Maureen. We had been in port for only about an hour, as we had to wait outside
for the pilot. That day we were to leave again, early, and there might not be a
chance to get ashore. We were to call at Aberdeen on our way back to sell our fish
catch and I hoped to be back in Cambridge by the following Wednesday. It had
been a very enjoyable trip and I was glad that I had come, but it would be nice to
get back.
I was now more or less in a position to begin to compare the Arctic and
Antarctic. Incidentally I received a cable from my friend Arthur Mansfield who
was now at Signy Island. The sea ice was starting to break up and he had fallen
through the ice with his sledge and dogs. He was getting on well with the seal
research - on Weddell seals. The rest of our trip went well and the fish catch was
sold in Aberdeen; then on to Grimsby where we signed off. I took a very large
Greenland halibut with me back to Cambridge, where I presented it to the High
Table at St Catharine's College and settled down to writing up my PhD thesis.
Maureen was still in Cambridge and life was good.
Looking to the Future
I was admitted to Degree of Master of Arts (MA), University of Cambridge.
The main reason for taking this degree was that it was awarded (5 years after
being awarded a first degree) for a small fee. More importantly it meant that, as a
Senior Member of the university, one could now be out at night without having
to wear a gown – a regulation that otherwise applied to undergraduates and
recent graduates.
In January 1953, Maureen and I took a ship to Norway to ski. We stayed at
the Youth Hostel or Ungdomsherberge, in Lillehammer (where Gwen and
Maureen had stayed in 1951 when they were hitch hiking around Scandinavia).
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