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

when I went down to my bunk as the moon went down. It was a good time -
very peaceful with no other ships in sight.
Next day - Boxing Day - was free but I had plenty to occupy me. I saw a
small petrel with brown upperparts and conspicuous white rump. Most likely
it was the Madeiran fork-tailed petrel and in flight similar to Leach's storm
petrel. Later we saw a yellow-legged herring gull. After lunch there was a
lifeboat drill, which seemed rather pointless - all we did was line up in front of
the allocated boats - yet perhaps not so pointless, since it showed that at least
three people had not yet grasped the difference between port and starboard.
That afternoon Dr Slessor gave a very interesting talk on husky dogs and
Eskimo (now known as Inuit). The Eskimo were anthropologically interesting,
he said, and had been derived from a stock that crossed the Bering Strait from
Siberia. He went on to talk mainly about the dogs - driving, breeding,
behaviour etc. There were three types of husky: the very small Greenland dog
used for short journeys with a lightly loaded sledge; the larger Labrador dog;
and the very large 6'6" Newfoundland husky. These were bred with wolves to
increase their hardiness. The FIDS dogs were all from Labrador. He gave an
interesting account of the psychology of dogs, types of sledges used (3" hickory
runners for the Antarctic plateau, 1" steel for the sea ice) and the various Eskimo
commands. These and the judicious use of the whip should be sufficient to
control any team, but in case of emergency, we were told, one could always stop
by overturning the sledge!
The radio-operators started morse and semaphore classes for the
uninitiated; there was to be a brains trust; and Steve (McNeile) was writing a
comic opera. There seemed little chance of seeing Madeira that night as it was
raining heavily and visibility was limited. I had a long talk with Dr Fuchs who
put me wise to the political situation down south. He also showed me the
provisional list for base ‘H’ Signy Island. It included Jim Knox (radio operator)
and Ken Pawson (meteorologist), and a Falkland Islander. I said I would prefer
to have Derek Maling with me, but Ken was a good fellow and I was sure we
would get on very well. In fact there were very few of my companions that I
would not have been happy with. Fuchs had been at Cambridge and had
limited polar experience in Greenland. He had completed a geological PhD
from Cambridge on the East African Rift Valley. He had also been in the war
and an administrator in the occupation, so had much experience and was easy
to talk to. Steve dragged me into the chorus of his light opera and David
showed me some of his photo albums, including some Skye photos. Later I
borrowed the canvas bucket from the bridge and took water samples - but
didn't get anything macroscopic. It was stiflingly hot as I went to bed.
Next day I was on the Bosun's party during the morning; we scrubbed the
decks very thoroughly with soft soap and caustic soda in an abortive attempt to
remove the diesel oil, which was continually overflowing. The Bosun, Macleod,
was a definite menace with his hosepipe and Jim (Knox) got an eyeful trying to
defend his ‘dobeying’ (washing) which was hung out to dry. It was a very fine
morning and people blossomed out in shorts, so in the afternoon I did likewise
and lay lizard-like in the sun; it was getting very strong. While I was trying to
86