Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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- Q The biologists who study them have special terms for the characteristic movements the Adelies make during the mating season. Young birds give an ecstatic display by putting their heads straight up in the air. lt looks a bit like a New England church, says Dick Allison, of the University of California. When the adults are disturbed by humans, or when they bring a stone back to the nest, they rub their beaks together in a 'lmutual display. The bow stare is given by the female when she comes to a young bird to steal rocks. She pretends to flirt with him, but has left her mate on the nest and is really there only to get rocks and get out. The young bird, in any case, is not ready to mate. He cranes his neck in a sort of arch, and looks sideways at her. lt's comical, says Allison. He's trying to see what she's doing. Breeding places along the coast are scarce, so the Ade- lies concentrate in great numbers on the few stretches of bare ground, competing gently for the pebbles they need tor their nests. At Hallett, for instance, there are any- where from 100,000 to half a million in a single rookery. Near Cape Royds, where Shackleton built a hut in 1908, the fast ice ends. An icebreaker appears below, surely too small to be Glacien although she began breaking channel yesterday and is supposed to be joined today by Burton Island Everything is dwarfed by Mount Erebus, which is abeam. The breaker seems to be standing still, but as the plane passes over she is backing down, and it can be seen that she has made another tiny cut to- wards McMurdo. It will take her almost three weeks to get there. At noon the plane is flying blind, through a milky condition that is probably caused by glare and by the absence of recogniz- able objects. Tom Dunn, the radioman, says Hallett is stillvclear. Dompe keeps unscrewing the cap on the gas tank and peering in- side with a flashlight. Somewhere off to port is Inexpressible Island, a name redolent of emotion, like many places in the An- tarctic: Cape Longing, Cape Disappointment, P0urqu0z'Pas Island, Stygian Cove, Doubtful Point, Mislaid Rock, and Shambles Camp, the latter being the 'islaughterhousen where Scott had to shoot some ponies. Near here, in 1909, Professor T. E. David is little party Qwith the Shackleton Expeditionj was spotted on the beach with the great- est difficulty and picked up by the ship at the last possible mo- ment. He had found the Magnetic Pole on the other side of the Prince Albert Mountains, although as Walter Sullivan writes, Hlt was already known, by then, that the Magnetic Pole was an ephemeral point which wandered from hour to hour as well as from century to century. By 1962 it had reached the coast of Adelie Land, near the French Dumont d,Urville station, sometimes called the windiest place in the world. At the moment the outside temperature is 28 degrees Fahren- heit. Hjust like summer, says Dompe. As the plane approaches Cape Hallett, the sun lights the land brilliantly and the shadows pick out the folds and crevasses. Rounding the headland opens a bay that is the equal of Italy and Switzerland combined, one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is a harbor in the true sense, after the open areas of the south, and the surrounding mountains seem to have been arranged aesthetically. The highest of these, about 12,000 feet, appears to be made of gesso, with bluish stretches of sheer ice, and near the bottom a patch of brown rock. Icebergs of delightful shapes are trapped in the bay from the previous season. The ice is strewn with miniature bergs and hum- mocks, which may prevent the plane from landing. Yet, after Cdr Driscoll has brought the plane in gently, in spite of a strong cross- wind, it can be seen that the area is enormous. The mountains merely alter the scale. Dompe jumps out and semaphores the plane to the Strip. , This consists of a single hut. The wind is vicious, and the passengers are picked up in a Weasel with ucurtainsw of plywood on one side by ChiefBob Partlow who is in charge of the station- As it bobs along, zigzagging to avoid bad spots, he pointS Out fl Hworkingw crack. On the crest of a little hill, the Weasel surprises a solitary penguin that runs along for a time in front of the ve- hicle, then suddenly gives up and takes to the ice, tobogganing on 76 A as -M-

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0 ., . . W W p . . S. x . , p . , Q. f Christchurch, it must land somewhere in the Antarctic. In the event of a white-out at McMurdo, a Herc on skis could land at Byrd or the Pole, but with wheels it could only circle until de- creasing fuel forced it to land. In a place where everything is upside-down, where the sun goes around counterclockwise, they call the region around Hallett, 400 miles to the north, the HBanana Belt. Compared to the rest of the Continent, it is rather like going to Miami Beach, and more than 100,000 tourists - Adelie penguins - spend the summer there. A visitor who chose to wait for the next flight, in Novem- ber, might have to stay there until january when the icebreaker Burton Island comes with supplies. From day to day, no one knows exactly when the ice will go out. Immediately after takeoff, Dompe goes to the after compart- ment where the generator is. He almost attacks the little door, thrusting himself into a space that was meant for a tiny steward- ess. He turns off the generator, then goes to the windows, port and starboard, to see if the flames from the exhausts indicate the right mixture in the carburetors. On top of each engine, inboard, is an oil-cooler which is mounted there because, in its normal position, it would interfere with the skis. just behind the cockpit, against the port bulkhead, is a two-burner electric stove and a large old-fashioned coffeepot. Mfurn the coffee on,H says someone in the cockpit. Dompe fills the pot with water, throws in half a pound of coffee, and switches on the stove. Then he lies on the cold deck and fiddles with a valve on the after end of an auxiliary 200-gallon fuel tank in the cabin. Art Weber of the Navyis Bureau of Yards and Docks, and Major jim Verlautz of the Admiral's staff are along to have an official look at the station. An aerial ice observer pulls out his charts and goes to the cockpit to have a better view of the frozen Sound. Whenever he sees a Hleadn or open patch of water, or brash, or a change in color, he enters it on a list of symbols, with the time and position. The ice below is a mosaic far more subtle and far more exciting, than an abstract painting. Ronnie Iankowski is very young but highly trained, and what he sees will affect future ship operations. 75 f

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its belly. uThese queer people,', as they were called by an early explorer, look as if they belong in a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. Today the wind is blowing directly from the rookery into the station, with a fearful stench. The chow hall is warm and snug, andthe huge bearded cook, Charlie Bowin, points to slabs of meat left over from lunch. He is steaming knockwurst in a cauldron of beer, for supper. The men who drift in to pick up their mail are not particularly excited by visitors, they are absorbed in their own routine. Fred Kinsky, once a European nobleman, is now a New Zealand ornithologist. john Cranfield, a New Zealand biologist, spent 24 hours on the side of the steep, bare mountain that rises directly behind the sta- tion, to have a better look at the penguins, although he had been warned of avalanches. Later he pitched a tent in the middle of the rookery, right in the guano, painting the penguins different colors to trace their movements. A colleague is studying juvenile delin- quency among penguins at Cape Crozier, in the grant it is called f'Parent-Chick Relationships. N Roy Mangold, a Navy surveyor, with an Adelie penguin at Cape Royds. The penguin is an ideal bird for scientific investigation because it cannot fly. What it lacks in the way of self-defense, it makes up for with charm. These clowns of the Antarctic have fascinated everyone since the early explorers. Edward A. Wilson, who perished with Scott while they were returning from the Pole, wrote in his diary in l9l0: They have lost none of their attractiveness, and are most comical and interesting, as curious as ever, they will always come up at a trot when we sing to them, and you may often see a group ofexplorers on the poop sing- ing 'For she's got bells on her fingers and rings on her toes, elephants to ride upon wherever she goes,' and so on at the top of their voices to an admiring group of Adelie penguins. Meares is the greatest attraction, he has a full voice which is musical but always very flat. He declares that 'God Save the King,' will always send them to the water, and certainly it is often successful.