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

Chapter 20
Marriage and Young Family, Surrey
Idyll: 1954 to 1961
I had joined the staff of the NIO in the summer of l953 and in April 1954 I
returned to England from my whaling voyage (for which I was seconded as a
Whaling Inspector to the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food), to re-join
the staff of the NIO. Some of the biological staff had remained at the Natural
History Museum, South Kensington, where the Discovery Collections were
housed and whale material was examined. On my return from the whaling
voyage in Balaena I worked there for about two months, examining my
collections in "the hut", a large wooden hut located behind the main museum,
with rather limited facilities, and did some analysis. I spent most of my time at
a desk in the Natural History Museum's "Whale Basement". This was a large
and dark storage area, the only windows near the ceiling at ground level, and
with a silent but steady "rain' of dust from the specimens housed there on
ranks of stout shelves. These included complete skeletons of giant whales and
dolphins, individual skulls and other bones. It was filled with the pervading
smell of such places - musty, oily and slightly sweet. I can't say that I enjoyed it
as a workplace, but most of the time I was alone and there were no distractions,
except when I went over to "the hut" for a cup of coffee. So I got quite a lot
done.
Dr Helene Bargmann, who was in charge of the small group, had been
working for Discovery Investigations for years and was responsible for the
Discovery Collections, a huge number of jars and tanks full of specimens
collected in Antarctic waters. She was an intelligent, attractive woman with a
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