Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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Below: The Royal Society Range, seen from Hut Point. lt was named for the Royal Geographical Society in grati- tude for its assistance to early English expeditions. At the foot of these mountains are some dry valleys which are left ice-free by receding glaciers. Most of the ice in this area of McMurdo Sound breaks out by January. At right is Marble Point, where the Navy at one time ex- perimented with a permanent runway carved out of solid rock so that wheeled aircraft would not have to land on the unpredictable bay ice.

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-.--.-.- -yr -.rn-1-4-,L-t-tfahi- i-.- - ...-.-,.1..-v-4-1-:T 747.4-.Ti-1 n-Q-1 - i i , 5 i i fi , its ig l These ominous flags, in various combinations, warn of an approaching weather condition that is generally more serious than it would be in civilized surroundings. When two of the square flags are hoisted, one above the other, they signify Storm Condition One. The red triangle means Low Visibility Condition One. ..I.-,.. . 'Rope Yam Zero-zero at McMurdo. A 40-knot wind carries the snow in from the south, and the flags at Antarctic Support Activities QASAQ Command spell out Storm Condition One. As in 1902, when Shackleton first saw it, the ground is covered thickly with the dull ashes thrown out by Mount Erebus. i'The whole place had a weird and uncanny look, and reminded me of the desert in iChilde Roland to the dark tower came' ii - The teletype for Commander Task Force 43 says: EXTER- IOR CONSTR WORK SUSPENDED DUE TO WX . . . AIR OPS SUSPENDED DUE TO WX . . . MCMURDO SHIP CHANNEL ,10 MILES LONG. NOW 15.7 MILES FROM HUT POINT. 36 HOURS OF STRONG SOUTHERLY WINDS HAVE CLEARED 80 PERCENT OF THE BRASH FROM THE CHANNEL. The message is copied by the icebreakers Glacier and Burton Islanal iiThe breakers like to have a strong wind in their face, says Lt Glen Drummond in the weather room, Hbecause it blows the loose ice outf, It is copied also by Calcaterra, which is on station about halfway to New Zealand. i'Bulldog7' Drummond thinks the weath- er ships have the worst duty on the ice. 'iThey send up balloons and track them with radar. Maybe they have to send up as many as five, to get one clear, because of the seas and the wind and the rolling. They hang 'em in the antennas and everything else. Calcaterra and Thomas Gary, both DERS Q destroyer escorts with radarj, are alternating this year on picket duty, three weeks on station and three weeks off. HWe haven't always had two, says Drummond. HThe ship would take six to ten days off, then get back out as quick as it could get refueled. They are the main reporting point on the 2,200-mile flight line between Christ- church, New Zealand, and McMurdo Station. They are there, also, in case an aircraft has to ditch between these two points. It is not much worse than a blizzard in New England, except that there are no trees to stop the wind. The polar air flows down from the plateau, unhindered, for more than a thousand miles. The snowfall on the whole Continent averages only a foot or two a year, but at 15 miles per hour the wind begins to pick up drift. The next message says: ICE RUNWAYS 15f33 GRID. AND 0'7f25 GRID CLOSED UFN DUE TO SNOW COVERAGE. Down at BOQ-10 where the staff officers live, which ordinarily has a view more exciting than the Bay of Naples, they pull back' the curtains at the picture window. There is nothing but a white void. A small speaker in the overhead warns all personnel, ex- cept those on urgent business, to remain inside. HRope yarn?- says someone in the hut, and it raises a wistful laugh. This, elsewhere, means a day off. In the side of a big shabby building is a little door with HHerman,s Rest Home scrawled on it. The interior is jammed with vehicles, and is so vast and gloomy that a man working on I0

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llll-I'-'- top of one of them is almost unnoticed. He is uHerman the German,'7 the SeaBee boss of the gas or ulightn shop where they repair anything that isn't Diesel. The center of affection is a glit- tering red HFire Bossn on tracks. Since McMurdo with '70 build- ings and 850 people is partially unprotected while it is down Cout of commissionj, they are trying to get it out of there as fast as possible. The Fire Boss carries 4,000 pounds of Ansul, a dry chemical' T any liquid would freeze. Each track rests on four great tires which are there only to keep it in place and provide some cushion- ing. They are Hsandbaggingw or just going along for the ride. In front is the smallest V-8 engine made by Ford, and it is hard to see how it can move the 30-inch tracks. joe Harner, a me- chanic, says the secret is in the gearing. At the rear, a man is in- side its very vitals, with one foot hanging down and one eye visible through a small hole in the housing. HHerman descends from the truck, and turns out to be CM1 john Koehler, a mild man to be responsible for so much heavy equipment. He gets his odd name from occasionally putting on goggles, sliding his hat back on his head, and saying, This is the way we did it in Field Marshal von Rommel's Panzers! Contentment radiates through the shop, probably because the men know what they're doing. They would never admit it. uSome- times I threaten to put on a robe and carry a staff, and go around and try to heal some of these things, says Koehler. uSome people call me The Healer. Through a passageway is the machine shop, where MR1 Cordon Boyd is threading some large bolts for the SeaBees. His calendar says he still has 299 days to go. Although he is winter- ing-over at McMurdo, he seems happy to have a steady deck un- der his feetg he came off a destroyer in the Pacific. He has a help- er or two, but he is often alone during his twelve-hour day. If a spare part is lacking, it would have to be sent ten thousand miles, so- he improvises repairs that keep machines running all over McMurdo as well as at stations far out on the Continent. c'My bench has never been clear in fifty-eight days, he says cheerfully. A chain of consequences reaches out from this shop. The fate of a field party, or a whole scientific program, may rest on Boyd 's judgment. On a clipboard behind him are diagrams of the same Fire Boss that is in the gas shop. He makes the rough drawings him- self, he can't trust other people's measurements. An automatic hacksaw cuts the heads off the bolts, then Boyd threads them, turning the huge handles 'cby main strengthfi When he finishes, he flicks the switch on the lathe and begins turning a valve-insert guide rod for the pony engine of a D-4 Caterpillar bulldozer. The c'pony is a small gas engine that turns over the Diesel. Under a piece of glass on his desk, which in every other shop on the ice holds a picture ofa girl from Playboy, is a quote from Emerson, 4'Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right and a perfect contentment. N I2 f U! 4 l I I 5 ' 'Z I i 5 E I t s - 5 Q