MY TWO YEARS IN THE ANTARCTIC

For a period of two years from December 1966 to March 1969, I was employed by the British Antarctic Survey, formerly known as the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (F.I.D.S) in the capacity of Wireless Operator Mechanic. The majority of this time was spent on Stonington Island, a British base on the west coast of Grahamland.

Transport from the U.K to the Antarctic is by sea, via Montevideo and Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The British Antarctic survey possess two ships, R.R.S. John Biscoe and R.R.S. Shackleton. The ships leave the UK (Southampton) in the autumn returning the following spring.

Having bid adieu to the "Fleshpots" of Montevideo we arrived a few days later at Port Stanley where I was casually informed that I would be flown part of the way to Stonington. The reason for this being that the sea ice had not yet broken up to allow the ship to get down there. When I asked why they wanted me at Stonington in such a hurry, as no one else was due to arrive at Stonington for another two months, I was informed that the previous Radio Operator had been killed in an accident. This news cheered me up no end, but it was a bit too late to resign at this stage!

Some eight days after leaving Port Stanley, and having relieved the base on Signy Island (South Orkney's) we got as far south as the ice would permit, the date being December 16th. At this time we were near Anvers Island, a large island of the northwest coast of Grahamland. By this time I had begun to think that plans for flying me to Stonington had fallen through, however I was quickly reminded that they had not. A message had been sent from Stanley to the John Biscoe, saying I was to be flown from the U.S. base at Palmer Station on Anvers Island to the north end of Adelaide Island, where I would be met by a sledging party from Adelaide Island base which is located on the southern end of Adelaide Island. This message was delivered to me when I was sat in the warm comfortable bar having an aperitif prior to lunch!

Two hours later after a hair raising trip up a steep ice ramp, I found myself standing in front of a rather dilapidated single engined aeroplane, which the pilot informed me was a single engined Otter. At this stage I had grave doubts as to whether the Otter would be capable of flight.

Surprisingly enough the aeroplane did fly and we landed in one piece on the Ice Piedmont at the Northern end of Adelaide Island. Here I was introduced to a couple of scruffy looking characters, who informed me that they had already been there for two years. The aeroplane departed, however I was to see it again in a couple of days.

So began my first night camping in the Antarctic. In the space of six hours I had been whisked out of a nice warm bar on the Biscoe into a tent 1500 feet up on an ice piedmont, with the temperature about -20C and in the middle of nowhere.

However things were not too bad as I had taken along a couple of bottles of wine when I left the Biscoe, so an impromptu party developed. My two scruffy looking hosts were very keen to find out what was happening back in the UK, and the wine lasted well into the night!

The next morning we set off towards the Base which was situated on the southwest of Adelaide Island, some 90 miles away. We traveled with two large sledges pulled by a Muskeg tractor and arrived at the Base in the late evening. After a few beers and a meal, I slept solidly for twelve hours.

I was woken at around midday on Dec 18th, and informed that I was to be flown to Stonington. The same dilapidated Otter was again used. Why on earth they had not flown me from Palmer Station to Stonington in the first place, I will never know, all I can say is that there is song about B.A.S, and one of the lines in the chorus is "BAS KNOWS BEST".

So finally I arrived at Stonington on Dec 18th 1966. It was here that I would spend my two years below the Antarctic Circle, and three consecutive Christmas's.

The base hut at Stonington is a remarkably civilized sort of establishment. It consists of a two-storey hut. The upper storey is taken up by a bunkroom and darkroom, whilst the ground floor housed various offices, radio room, kitchen, food store, bathroom, and living/dining room/library. The living room also was host to a very fine bar (Sledgers Bar) with a piano situated in it. The hut was heated by anthracite stoves, an Aga cooker in the kitchen, and electrical power was provided by two, 2-cylinder Lister Diesel engines driving 10KW alternators. Main power was usually switched off at night and lighting was provided by a 12 volt battery system.

I settled down very quickly after my arrival at Stonington which I considered to be "AN IN AT DEEPEND INTRODUCTION". At this time of the year being as most of the base personnel were away on field trips, ie, sledging parties involved in Geophysical and Survey work, there were only four people on the base, five including myself. I was soon introduced to all sorts of jobs which need to be done to keep the daily routine of an Antarctic base running.

I found out very quickly that the Wireless Operators job although very important, involved at the most two hours a day.

There was no cook on base and you had to take your turn on a rota basis (heaven help you if you served up a lousy meal!!) There were over one hundred Husky dogs to feed. There was pup rearing and training, which I discovered was part of the Wireless Operators responsibility. Where did the water come from, not from a pipe installed by the local water authority, but from icebergs, glacier ice and highly compacted snow blocks, all of which had to be collected and melted in tanks inside the base hut. Where did all the waste/refuse go?? It had to be transported and dumped in the sea, or when that was frozen over, in the nearest tide crack, where the sea ice joins the land. The emptying of the Honey Buckets (I leave the contents to your imagination) could at times be a very perilous job, especially in icy/windy conditions, one had to tread VERY WARILY! as a slippery fall resulted in an extremely messy end!

There was the starting of the generators in the morning, as I the Wireless Operator was usually the first person requiring power. You did not go out and turn a key, it was a case of, turning a handle to get a large flywheel spinning, and when you hoped it was spinning fast enough, knocking out the decompressors and hoping it would start, all in a tiny shed in the freezing cold! There are literally dozens of tasks to keep one occupied, many of which would never be encountered in everyday life.

Stonington, although an island, is in fact permanently connected to the mainland (it was until the late 1990's, but not anymore!!), by an ice ramp onto the Northeast glacier, so it afforded relatively easy access to the Graham Land plateau. You may at this stage wonder for what purpose the base exists. The main function of the base was Geological, Geophysical and Survey work. This work involved sledging journey up to several hundred miles in some instances and as much as four months to complete.

The personnel complement at Stonington consisted of thirteen!!, a doctor, two geologists, two geophysicists, two surveyors, one diesel mechanic, one radio operator, and four general assistants, the latter usually experienced in rock snow and ice climbing techniques.

During the winter, the lack of daylight and severity of the weather makes it impossible to carry out any lengthy sledging journeys, so most of the time is spent preparing for the work programme and sledge journeys in the following spring and summer.

An event of great significance during the winter is Midwinter’s Day celebration which takes place on June 21st. Many varied and exotic dishes of food were prepared. All this of course, was washed down with assorted beverages. Midwinter's day used to last for anything up to 72 hours, however it was the only time in the year when the daily routine of life was interrupted, and also the only occasion on which everyone wore respectable apparel.

During the winter everyone took the opportunity to go out on short sledging trips in order to get some experience in dog sledging and camping in very cold hostile environments. With the arrival of spring the main programme of work commenced, along with the associated long sledging journey's. The longest period I was away from Base was about four weeks, and involved a sledge journey mainly over sea ice to Rothera Point on the southeast of Adelaide Island. The purpose of this was to carry out a a rough visual survey for the possibility of the site being used for a new Base in the future. I acted in the position of General Assistant on these trips, and also for Geophysical Magnetometer trips, where I was responsible for taking bearings on fixed points, in order that the data could be plotted onto a map at a later date.

Who operated the radio back at base during my absence?? Usually someone who had remained on base and was fairly familiar with operation of Radio Telephony equipment. All the Base personnel had to have some general idea of operation of radio transmitting and receiving equipment, in order that they could keep in contact with Base whilst out sledging. During my first year at Stonington, the only field equipment available were EX-WD 68 sets. My second year saw the introduction of Racal Squadcal field equipment with the luxury of Single Sideband Telephony!! Most personnel also had a reasonable understanding of Morse, and could send and receive, although at a rather slow speed.

Sledging with dogs is a complete story in its own, and many books have been written about it. Just briefly it can be a very enjoyable, though somewhat slow form of transport. At other times it can be very hard work. The Huskies we used had all been originally bred from the Greenland husky. They were generally very friendly with Humans, but amongst the dogs themselves there existed bitter rivalry, both within their own team and others teams. Some days there was no trouble, but on other days there was a long series of very vicious dog fights, usually sorted out with the generous use of a Thumper, this consisted of a very thick piece of rope with a large knot plaited at the end.

Many people have asked me why I went to the Antarctic in the first place, this is a very difficult question to answer. I know that when I applied for the job, I really never expected to get it! Up to the day I arrived at Stonington my knowledge of Antarctica was very limited, and all that had been gleaned from a few books I had read. I enjoyed my two-year stay and the time passed surprisingly quickly. I learnt a lot, especially with regard to Grahamland.

Stonington is (WAS) the only major dog-sledging Base left in Antarctica. Unfortunately, mechanisation and large-scale air transport, as used by the Americans, will soon make this type of life in the Antarctic, a thing of the past!

To conclude, I will try to answer some of the many questions I have been asked about living conditions etc,

FOOD. This consisted of dehydrated and tinned stuffs, although it was frequently supplemented by fresh seal steaks, and breast of penguin, not to mention penguin eggs, I frequently had a boiled penguin egg for breakfast, I can certainly recommend them!

CLOTHING. This was all supplied free by B.A.S. and was issued in Port Stanley in an extremely large kit bag.

BEER, CIGARETTES ETC. This was again provided free, cigarettes and tobacco in more or less unlimited quantities.

Gin and Whisky, four bottles per man each year. Rum, half a gallon, (un-officially it was un-limited).Beer at only two cans per week. Needless to say we used to supplement these rations. Many were the messages I sent, addressed to the Rose public house in Port Stanley, ordering beer to be sent down on the relief ship!!!!

MAIL. This facility was only available once a year, although a radio airletter system between base and Port Stanley allowed personnel to send 100 words and receive 200 words per month via the radio link.

ENTERTAINMENT. Various things were supplied, including a very good library of books and records and a Scalectrix racing car layout, along with the usual board games, chess, monopoly, cards etc.,. However most people had some hobbies of their own, photography was popular with everybody whilst others experimented with beer and wine making. The doctor spent some time experimenting with Oriental cooking and managed to produce some really excellent meals, although some of the ingredients even to this day remain somewhat of a mystery! Amateur Radio was taken up by quite a few people, as anyone could easily obtain a Licence issued by the Falkland Islands Government for the princely sum of ten shillings.

WERE YOU EVER COLD? This is a question everyone asks the answer being 'No', except on one or two occasions. As far as I am concerned I feel colder on a dull winters day in Manchester than in the middle of winter in the Antarctic. This of course is due to the wearing of the correct type of clothing to suit the prevailing weather conditions.

Most people seem to think I spent two years in a building buried in ice on a vast ice plateau. Although this is true of the bases in the interior of the Antarctic Continent, it certainly does not apply to Grahamland. During the summer all the winter snows used to melt on the island, leaving bare rock. Grahamland presents some of the finest mountain, fjord and glacier scenery to be found anywhere in the world, but there are no trees, polar bears or Eskimos.

The British Antarctic Survey Bases do not compare with the American Bases ie. McMurdo and Pole Station, which have there own bowling Alleys, Coke machines and a vast array of mechanical transport.

Our bases are run on a very much smaller budget and the way of life is considerably simpler, albeit probably not as highly efficient. However it still provides a form of adventure and allows one to use ones own initiative.(A THING SADLY LACKING IN 2007!!)

I wrote the original article in 1970 for a shipping magazine, and have re-written it again this year 2007, with a few minor changes, needless to say there have been some very large changes since I spent my two years in the Antarctic!! E.C. Madders (FEB 2007)