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

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In the event, when I became Director of BAS in 1973 I was able to implement further studies on the South Georgia elephant seals (described in a later book). These more or less confirmed my earlier studies, with small variations. The most satisfying, most exciting result was that detailed intensive counts of the whole coastline of South Georgia in 1985 and 1995, from the yacht Damien II, concluded that the pup production was 102,000 in 1985 and 110,000 in 1995! It is the only elephant seal population that appears to have been in a stable state between the 1950 s and the present day. 429
Chapter 19 A whaling voyage on Balaena: 1953-54 T owards the end of October l953 Maureen and I travelled up to Newcastle and Whitley Bay by train and a few days later Maureen and Dad saw me off at the quayside on MS Blenheim to Oslo. I was going to join the Floating Factory ship Balaena and would be away at sea for seven months. When I got back Maureen and I were to be married in Portugal. Although the months stretched ahead, we were happy. After I left she was to stay on for a few days, selling subscriptions to a magazine, ‘Canada Review’. Shortly, she would go to Lisbon to stay with her parents until our wedding in June l954. The trip across was uneventful, flat calm all the way with fog and mist. I read a little, slept a bit and talked with Commander Henry Buckle, RN ret., who was to be the senior Whaling Inspector and had several years of experience on the job on F/F Balaena. He was a retired Royal Navy officer and I thought he was a very agreeable chap. It was dark when we arrived at Oslo in the early morning of 29 October and went through the customs, to be met by the Secretary of the Balaena, Ole Ness-Jensen. After seeing to 83 members of the crew, he took us to Tonsberg and the ship, owned by Hector Whaling, a British Company. I found the ship tidier than I had expected. She was lying near Husvik in deep water close inshore - moored to rocks on the beach - and a small motor boat ran between ship and shore. Husvik was a small place where the Norwegians came in the summer for the fishing. The houses were all jumbled together on the wooded shore with roofs of all colours and mostly white walls. My cabin was aft, to one side of the slipway at the stern up which the whales were hauled. It was small and I was to share it with the young Third Chemist James Clifton, although after we left Cape Town I might get a cabin to myself. Our 430
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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
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fine sunset effect on the Coronatio
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mauve, violet, purple, deep blue, o
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full of brash ice and small growler
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came in squalls, which tended to pu
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was fitter than the others because
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immatures had been absent for some
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possible to lie full length, even d
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should provide about 4 500 calories
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as was standard practice, because o
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journey of about the same duration
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journey, asking for details. Derek
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It was a misty day when I looked ou
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to my bosom, while Derek fiddled wi
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with the Sandefjord Twins behind it
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On 1 August the temperature was -14
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sledge. He was bleeding from one or
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sledge slightly differently, with t
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two-year stock of food, clothing (t
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In mid-July we listened to the FIDS
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We heard that the "John Biscoe" had
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The ships left on 5 December. I was
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18!); also various thermometers, st
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to study a very large established e
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year. In May 1949 I pursued the pro
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specimens back myself under my pers
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Swedish-British expedition so as to
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243
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Signy. The leopard is supposed to b
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possible. The shore here was deeply
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and it was then time for lunch. The
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couldn't move and there was nothing
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unpleasant and salutary incident il
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while I watched for an hour in a sn
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the webs. As Ralph walked away all
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Cow ‘green 7’ flipped snow onto
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(medical) stretcher to weigh the el
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another bull approached to some 60
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the harem. From this it appeared th
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Weddell - probably a 3-yr old femal
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cleaned the skin; lighting a fire a
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Two other females seemed to be ‘e
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proved to be pregnant. Next day a m
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mother had a large bloodstained sca
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attle-scarred males. There appeared
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side to side on the pup’s body as
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the young Weddell pups. We put flip
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283
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The only other birds were the Antar
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In the next few days we watched Dom
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grating, chirring noise and I locat
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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
Page 380 and 381: In area 6 several cows had hauled o
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Page 384 and 385: There were two harems in area 11, o
Page 386 and 387: the cows and creates a bank in the
Page 388 and 389: Then the pup slid out in a rush at
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Page 392 and 393: depart on the first visit of Biscoe
Page 394 and 395: of it, although her motor boat made
Page 396 and 397: The South Georgia Survey team had h
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Page 400 and 401: for lunch on the way for steaks and
Page 402 and 403: An Arctic Voyage. A friend from ear
Page 404 and 405: We did three bottom temperature cas
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Page 408 and 409: As the trawlers lay all night gutti
Page 410 and 411: At that time FIDS had no future job
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Page 414 and 415: cutters of 30 to 40 tons that were
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Page 418 and 419: and 316 kg of meat and bone meal. F
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Page 424 and 425: population - the initial cohort - w
Page 426 and 427: so far. In fact the average oil yie
Page 428 and 429: In 1963 sub-let its lease to the in
Page 432 and 433: departure was delayed and we weren'
Page 434 and 435: There was not too much to do and I
Page 436 and 437: On 30 November, a few hours sailing
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Page 440 and 441: sperm whale work. Worked till eight
Page 442 and 443: time on the whaling grounds. We had
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Page 448 and 449: say, to avoid going over the side,
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Page 460 and 461: Then to Haut Bay, which was very be
Page 462 and 463: keen sense of humour and stimulatin
Page 464 and 465: Taking a picnic we drove to Carvoer
Page 466 and 467: illiantly coloured and the calcite
Page 468 and 469: Because of the Navy's great interes
Page 470 and 471: Arthur Stride, was a marine geologi
Page 472 and 473: work on Balaena. and would be bette
Page 474 and 475: In l958 I was an invited speaker at
Page 476 and 477: Molde and had lunch at the hotel. T
Page 478 and 479: 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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