Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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a.:s1ag.f m:- 5551 - Se -liek: M.. To walk over this weird terrain in the Dailey Islands, near McMurdo, involves many defours. If can take five hours lo cover four miles. 'fu-K gf-. za 1

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Y. gn-we-J: E ..., 1 1 L l I I g. l E l l The eerie quality of the Antarctic, the basic loneliness, is ap- parent in spite of the exuberance of the men. History iS 11616, but it is short, meager, and generally grim. Admiral Bakutis is fond of paraphrasing an old polar motto: alt is not especially difficult, but it is mercilessly unforgiving of human error. One may dT0P through the ice at any moment. Although the Ross Ice Shelf, today, is hospitable to half a dozen glaciologists from Grand Valley State College in Michigan, recently their radio Went out and they lost contact with MclVlurdo for a Week. Another little party in the Taylor Dry Valley hopes the helicopter that set them down there will pick them up. Yet, in five minutes, a White-out may de- velop, or a blizzard that could delay the helo for days. 30

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'.:5'..:-.x-H P- 7 f-'li ' ' - Scott's hut at Cape Evans, where the second land lastl man to reach the South Pole on toot established a coastal base for his 1910-13 expedition. The hutwas restored in 1960-61 by a party of seven New Zealanders. It had saved the lives of another expedition in 1915-17, when the great Ernest Shackleton tried to get through the Weddell Sea and across the Continent to loin his second party in the McMurdo area. Shackleton himselfendured an epic struggle at sea, and not until two years later was he able to rescue the men at Cape Evans. The McMurdo area has probably served as acenter for more explorers, of various nationalities, than any other place onthe Continent. It is near enough to New Zealand, a friendly base to outfit ships, and is one of two coastal positions closest to the Pole. The other is the Filchner Ice Shelf on the Weddell Sea. Argentina and Chile, of course, are intensely interested in the Antarg- tic because only 600 miles separate Cape Horn from the Antarctic Peninsula. Fifty years ago, expeditions used to come in and winter-over, then perhaps a 'Lspring journey to set out depots of fuel and food, then a dash inland in November or December, they departed never later than March 1, to keep the ship from being frozen in, The timetable today remains the same: the first icebreaker rarely arrives before the middle of December, leading the supply ships that bring in five and a half million gallons of fuel as well as general cargo. Both ships and planes usually get out by the end of February. The Antarctic, by forces greater than technology, still decides the length of the season. Deep Freeze has only five months in which people can get in and out, and supply operations to the inland stations must be completed in this period. By the end of November, two of the Goons have received strike damage Qthey are Written offj, and v- 1- - .. . - , A , ,, ....,.,...,-,-,.,.,.,.,..-.,-,- -s-- ' - - - ..--L. Y - - - - - . . , , ,-.-....-.-.-.-....-.4. ,.7::1,